David Chadwick

David L. Chadwick (September 12, 1926 – January 19, 2020) was an American clinical and research pediatrician, author, founder of the Chadwick Center for Children and Autism Discovery Institute in San Diego, and director emeritus at Rady Children's Hospital. He became an international pioneer in identifying, treating and preventing child abuse and a recognized expert in the field who started a movement.

Early life and education Chadwick grew up the youngest of three siblings the private Chadwick School founded by his parents, headmistress Margaret Lee Chadwick and Comdr. Joseph Chadwick, a career Naval officer. at the University of California-San Francisco. The following year, while at UCSF's Department of Pediatrics in the Medical School, Chadwick was awarded a five-year, $35,000 scholarship from the Sister Elizabeth Kenny Foundation for a research program seeking the causes of post-infection encephalitis.

He then joined Children's Hospital Los Angeles in 1958 as a faculty pediatrician after Helen Boardman, a social worker who once served on the founding board of Parents Anonymous recruited him to look at child abuse. Chadwick also worked as a pediatrician, as well as a researcher and lecturer, at the University of Southern California Medical School. which became one of the nation's first mandatory abuse-reporting laws. He also co-founded in 1986 the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, serving as its second president. He also served as director of the Center for Child Protection at what is now Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego.

He served as chair of the American Medical Association's National Advisory Council on Family Violence. After his retirement from San Diego Children's Hospital in 1997, and at the Primary Children's Center for Safe and Healthy Families in Salt Lake City.

After leaving his positions in Salt Lake City, Chadwick had a stroke that left him with a hemiparesis. He learned voice transcription and authored the Child Abuse Doctors. He also developed the Cooperative Scientific Knowledge Exchange (CSKE), whose mission is to develop a system for dissemination of scientific knowledge about violence and abuse at the lowest cost. and his work and co-writing continued to appear in periodicals and magazines, including the European Journal of Epilepsy in 2016.

The American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, in its online tribute, called Chadwick a "life-long rebel and innovator who made the world a better place through his thinking, sharing, and action."

Awards and scholarships In 1950, Chadwick was awarded the Sister Elizabeth Kenny Foundation scholarship for research.

In 2002, he received the C. Anderson Aldrich Award for "outstanding service to maltreated children."

In 2016, Chadwick received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children.

In 2017, he was a recipient of the Distinguished Scholar Award by the Academy on Violence and Abuse.

In October 2018, Chadwick was given the 2019 Distinguished Alumnus Award from Chadwick School, from which he graduated in 1942. With his first wife, Lois Bartholomew, Chadwick had four adult children, Joseph, Cathleen, James, and David (Bart). Chadwick died on January 19, 2020, in his La Mesa, California home with his wife Michele and his children by his side.