In Memory

William Danford Strathman - Class Of 1956 VIEW PROFILE

Jun 18, 1938 - Feb 11, 2018



William "Wil" Danford Strathmann, M.D., 79, died from cancer at 10 a.m. on Sunday, Feb.11, 2018, while overlooking Pleasant Lake at his home in Casco, Maine with loved ones by his side. 

He leaves behind his wife of 12 years, Randi Finger Strathmann, his brother Richard Strathmann; his two sons from his first wife, Bill Strathmann, Joe Strathmann; his five grandchildren, Cali, Kate, Riley, Rowan, and John Strathmann; and many extended family members and dear friends. He is predeceased by Leslie Micali Strathmann and his parents Ernest and Cynthia Strathmann.

Born in Pomona, raised in Claremont, Calif., he attended The Webb School and Claremont High School before graduating from Pomona College in 1960. He went on to Harvard Medical School in Boston, Mass. where he met Leslie. They married in 1963. After graduating medical school in 1964 and completing his training in the Northeast, Wil served in the United States Air Force stationed in El Paso, Texas. With two young boys, the family moved to the Washington, D.C area in 1970 where Wil started his private practice as a psychiatrist. He completed his psychoanalytic training in 1980 and joined the Baltimore Washington Institute for Psychoanalysis in 1983. Appointed Associate Teaching Analyst in 1995 and Teaching Analyst in 1999, he served as Co-Director of the BW Institute's Adult Psychotherapy Program for several years and was added to the BW Institute's Emeritus faculty in 2011. An exceptionally devoted father and husband, he lived in Chevy Chase, Md. and raised his boys with Leslie until her passing from her own battle with cancer in 1996.

Wil and his second wife, Randi, met in 1977 through their common career as psychoanalysts and shared commitment to mental health, dated, and lived together as partners until they married in 2005. Wil had long dreamed of living in Maine with it's natural beauty and, at Randi's urging, they bought a house on Pleasant Lake in Casco in 2002. Wil retired in 2008 and Randi followed in 2011, ending (happily) their weekly travel back and forth between the two cities.

Wil's love of nature and the outdoors began in childhood and continued throughout his life. He enjoyed few things more than "being outdoors, in motion under his own power." Known for this love of nature, his youthful spirit, bright-eyed smile, commitment to family, intellect, and encyclopedic memory (of anatomy, stories, limericks, literature, and lyrics), he will be dearly missed.

Two memorial services will be planned for Spring, one in Washington, DC, another in Casco, followed by private internment of his ashes. Donations in Wil's name will be accepted in the Spring. 

 





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