Robert H. Gervais oral history collection

Collection

Identifier: HHC 138

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This interview surveys the early life and career of Dr. Robert H. Gervais (1929-2021), a psychiatrist practicing in Roswell, New Mexico. Among the subjects discussed in this interview are Dr. Gervais's personal and professional backgrounds; his service in and views on UNM-SOM's early efforts in the field of psychiatry in the late 1960s, including testimony regarding the early years of the Mental Health Center; Dr. Gervais's reflections on the efforts to establish modern psychiatric services in New Mexico, including his survey on pioneering development of delivery systems; "early" psychiatrists in southern New Mexico; major changes within his specialty over the first quarter-century of his practice; and other topics.

Dates

1991 August 9

Creator

Spidle, Jake W., 1941- (Person)

Biographical / Historical

Dr. Robert H. Gervais (1929-2021) was a psychiatrist practicing in Roswell, New Mexico. Born in New York, he received his MD from SUNY Brooklyn in 1954. A pioneer of psychiatry in the southern part of the state, Gervais originally came to New Mexico to teach at the new Department of Psychiatry at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine in 1967. He was board certified in psychiatry in 1971. After a short time in Florida, he returned to New Mexico and established a private practice in psychiatry in Roswell in 1976. Gervais served as president of the Chaves County Medical Society from 1981-1982.