Dr. Anne deGersdorff

Dr Anne Frederick deGersdorff passed away on July 4, 2022 at Sweetwood in Williamstown, MA after a life well-lived.

Born December 10, 1929 in Moline Illinois to Paul and Frances Marion Swift Frederick, Anne (and her younger sister Nancy) spent their childhood and youth in Chicago, IL, the Cincinnati, OH area and Nashville, TN.

Anne moved to the northeast to attend Wellesley College, graduating in 1951. The same year she married Dr. Lawrence Hill Warbasse, Jr. During the Korean War they spent 1953-1954 near Osaka, Japan. Anne taught illiterate GIs to read and write at the Army Education Center, was a volunteer English teacher at a local Japanese high school, and traveled around Japan. They returned to northeast USA, and on July 5, 1955 she gave birth to her beloved son Lawrence Hill Warbasse III.

When the marriage ended in divorce in 1959, Anne entered graduate school, earning her PhD in Clinical Psychology from New York University in 1962. She then won a fellowship at the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, MA from 1962-1964. In 1963 she married Robert Lawrence deGersdorff. On October 29, 1965 she gave birth to her beloved daughter Susan Amy (deGersdorff) Handley.

In 1967 the marriage ended in divorce, and Anne returned to graduate school in New York and gained her certificate in psychoanalysis. In 1969 she returned to the Austen Riggs Center, where she was promoted to Chief Psychologist in 1979. She was the first woman to hold the role, and remained until her retirement in 1994. Her healing work improved many lives.

She then moved to Williamstown, MA and continued her private practice until 2010. She also did volunteer work for the First Congregational Church (where she was a deacon), the League of Women Voters, Reading for the Blind and Dyslexic and the Williamstown Public Library. In 2003 she moved to Sweetwood, where she chaired a book club, a library committee and served on the residents' council. She made an impact on many hearts and minds and will be deeply missed.

Anne is predeceased by her parents and sister. She is survived by her younger brother, Paul, Jr., her daughter Susan and husband Justin, her son Larry and wife Jamie, and her grandchildren Alexandra, Larry K and Elizabeth Warbasse. She is also survived by her sister's children, John, Allison and Franny, her brother's children, Paul and Christopher, their children and grandchildren.