Obituary

Martin M. Grossack

Martin M. Grossack of Hull, formerly of Dorchester MA, died of cancer on September 28,2000 a day before Rosh Hashanah, at his home.

Born in 1928 to Russian immigrant parents Albert and Rose Grossack, he grew up in the tough Jewish neighborhoods of Roxbury and this toughness stood him well throughout his life. He attended local public schools, graduating from Roxbury Memorial High School at age sixteen, and entered Northeastern University. There he earned a bachelor's degree in psychology and went on to Boston University where he obtained a PhD in social psychology at a precocious age in his mid 20's. His dissertation was an analysis of determinants on small group interaction and would set the stage for his later scholarship.

Affection with wife Judith in early days. After marrying Judith Trachtenberg and a hitch in the Air Force during the Korean War, on a car trip from Texas back east, Grossack stopped at a small traditionally black college in Little Rock, AR, Philander Smith, and during the years 1952 and 1953 he was a psychology professor there.

Dr. Grossack with students in Philander Smith College, Little Rock. He was in Little Rock at the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement and his experiences there forged his future life. It was during his time in Arkansas that Grossack became aware of the perniciousness of discrimination as practiced in Southern public transit bus systems. In an interview with him on August 20-26, 1999 in the Boston Jewish Advocate, Grossack was quoted as follows: "It was the one area of segregated life my students could not avoid. They could avoid restaurants and shops that demeaned them, but there was no alternative to the buses. They had to ride them to school and work. It was the one complaint I heard universally from all my students"

In 1953, two years before Rosa Parks stood up and refused to go to the back of the bus as ordered, Grossack delivered a paper to the Arkansas Academy of Science, "Psychological Effects of Segregation on Busses". The essay predicted that segregated busing would become a flash point at which Southern blacks would rebel against the whole system that had discriminated against them since reconstruction. His first book, "Mental Health and Segregation" (Springer, 1963), arose from those experiences.

After his stint in Arkansas, Grossack went on to a number of clinical assignments in hospitals in the Midwest and New England. he taught at the University of Hawaii, Curry College, and Suffolk University. But the first phase of his career was ending only to begin another. Grossack was one of the pioneers in the field of applying psychology to business management and marketing, and his services were asked for by the U.S. Department of Labor, Boston Edison, Pillsbury, Gillette, and many other corporations, resulting in such books as Humanizing Bank Marketing and Understanding Consumer Behavior.

In 1974 he turned to a new application of his talents. He founded the Massachusetts Institute for Rational Living, located in Brookline, MA. Based on the teachings of reknowned therapist Albert Ellis of New York City, the institute provided mental health and self-help services throughout the region. His tough but tender "rational" approach was also quite innovative. His workshops included self-hypnosis, relaxation techniques, and even one of the first singles contacts in the Boston area. His books in this area included "You Are Not Alone", " and Love, Sex, and Self-Fulfillment", both published by new American Library in 1978.

Recent photo with wife Judith. And if that were not enough, Grossack converted his ocean-side home in Hull into a major distributor of baseball cards. An astute investor in the stock market, he early on saw the potential of the lucrative baseball, basketball, hockey and football card market (though like all markets, it too fell in the 1990s).

With wife, sons and David's galpal, Joan. In all, he lived a full and active life. He leaves his wife Judy; two sons, David C. of Hull and Richard G. of Newton, MA; a sister Dorothy Richmond of Hyde Park, MA; a brother Alexander Grossack of Cape Cod; three grandsons, and numerous friends and patients.

From December 2000 "Footnotes", by Jack Nusan Porter, University of Massachusetts-Lowell.


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HOMEPAGE LARGE GROUP AWARENESS TRAINING IN RADICAL THERAPY FOR VICTIMS OF LEGAL AND GOVERNMENT ABUSE RADICAL SELF THERAPY Dr. Martin Grossack BOOKSTORE Dr. Grossack on Wikipedia Biographical Sketch Photographs Obituaries Family Genealogy A prediction that came true Other Useful Links History of Psychology ABRAHAM MASLOW Nataniel Branden Timothy Leary Evolutionary Psychology Amarican Psychology Association Self Hypnosis The Radical Psychology Network Atheism	Obituary Martin M. Grossack Martin M. Grossack of Hull, formerly of Dorchester MA, died of cancer on September 28,2000 a day before Rosh Hashanah, at his home. Born in 1928 to Russian immigrant parents Albert and Rose Grossack, he grew up in the tough Jewish neighborhoods of Roxbury and this toughness stood him well throughout his life. He attended local public schools, graduating from Roxbury Memorial High School at age sixteen, and entered Northeastern University. There he earned a bachelor's degree in psychology and went on to Boston University where he obtained a PhD in social psychology at a precocious age in his mid 20's. His dissertation was an analysis of determinants on small group interaction and would set the stage for his later scholarship. After marrying Judith Trachtenberg and a hitch in the Air Force during the Korean War, on a car trip from Texas back east, Grossack stopped at a small traditionally black college in Little Rock, AR, Philander Smith, and during the years 1952 and 1953 he was a psychology professor there. He was in Little Rock at the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement and his experiences there forged his future life. It was during his time in Arkansas that Grossack became aware of the perniciousness of discrimination as practiced in Southern public transit bus systems. In an interview with him on August 20-26, 1999 in the Boston Jewish Advocate, Grossack was quoted as follows: "It was the one area of segregated life my students could not avoid. They could avoid restaurants and shops that demeaned them, but there was no alternative to the buses. They had to ride them to school and work. It was the one complaint I heard universally from all my students" In 1953, two years before Rosa Parks stood up and refused to go to the back of the bus as ordered, Grossack delivered a paper to the Arkansas Academy of Science, "Psychological Effects of Segregation on Busses". The essay predicted that segregated busing would become a flash point at which Southern blacks would rebel against the whole system that had discriminated against them since reconstruction. His first book, "Mental Health and Segregation" (Springer, 1963), arose from those experiences. After his stint in Arkansas, Grossack went on to a number of clinical assignments in hospitals in the Midwest and New England. he taught at the University of Hawaii, Curry College, and Suffolk University. But the first phase of his career was ending only to begin another. Grossack was one of the pioneers in the field of applying psychology to business management and marketing, and his services were asked for by the U.S. Department of Labor, Boston Edison, Pillsbury, Gillette, and many other corporations, resulting in such books as Humanizing Bank Marketing and Understanding Consumer Behavior. In 1974 he turned to a new application of his talents. He founded the Massachusetts Institute for Rational Living, located in Brookline, MA. Based on the teachings of reknowned therapist Albert Ellis of New York City, the institute provided mental health and self-help services throughout the region. His tough but tender "rational" approach was also quite innovative. His workshops included self-hypnosis, relaxation techniques, and even one of the first singles contacts in the Boston area. His books in this area included "You Are Not Alone", " and Love, Sex, and Self-Fulfillment", both published by new American Library in 1978. And if that were not enough, Grossack converted his ocean-side home in Hull into a major distributor of baseball cards. An astute investor in the stock market, he early on saw the potential of the lucrative baseball, basketball, hockey and football card market (though like all markets, it too fell in the 1990s). In all, he lived a full and active life. He leaves his wife Judy; two sons, David C. of Hull and Richard G. of Newton, MA; a sister Dorothy Richmond of Hyde Park, MA; a brother Alexander Grossack of Cape Cod; three grandsons, and numerous friends and patients. From December 2000 "Footnotes", by Jack Nusan Porter, University of Massachusetts-Lowell.
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