Robert Gaines Menninger died at Stormont-Vail Medical Center on June 18, 2015.
He was born on June16, 1922 in Topeka, Kansas, the son of Karl and Grace Gaines Menninger. He received his bachelors degree from the University of Kansas in 1948 and his medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine in Rochester, New York in 1952. He also received his residency training in psychiatry from the Menninger School of Psychiatry and graduated from the Topeka Institute of Psychoanalysis.
Menninger served in the U.S. Army from 1942 to 1946, ending his service as a second lieutenant.
Menninger held a variety of positions with the Menninger Foundation, both clinical and administrative, including as director of the Museum and Archives program, for Alumni Relations in the Menninger School of Psychiatry, and of the Community Service Office. He also consulted with the Hillhaven Convalescent Center and Indian Health Service at the Haskell Institute in Lawrence.
Menninger had a lifelong interest in nature and the environment. He went on safari to Africa several times and was very active in the Topeka Friends of the Zoo and the Audubon Society.
Menninger was married to Mavis Williams Menninger for 58 years until her death in 2002. He was preceded in death by his sister Martha Nichols, Cheyenne, Wyoming. He is survived by two sisters, Julia Gottesman, Sierra Madre, California, Rosemary Menninger, Topeka, three children, Karl Menninger II, Mission, Kansas, Ann Johnson, Forest Park, Illinois and Sarah Callahan, Winona, Minnesota, ten grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
Menninger will be buried at Mount Hope Cemetery. There will be a private service.
The family suggests that in lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Topeka Friends of the Zoo, the Audubon Society, or the Wounded Warrior Project.
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