Dr. Adin R. Merrow ’45 died on September 8, 2011, in New York, New York.
He was born on November 16, 1923, in Montpelier, Vt., and prepared for college at Nyack (N.Y.) Junior-Senior High School, where he was an Eagle Scout and captain of the swim team. He left Bowdoin in 1942 and served to technician fifth class with the Army 84th Division, where he won a Bronze Star with one Oak Leaf Cluster, Combat Medic’s Badge, and European Theater Ribbon with two Battle Participation Stars. After the war, he studied English for a year at the University of Birmingham in England, then returned to Bowdoin, where he was intercollegiate backstroke champion and a member of Zeta Psi fraternity. He was undefeated in swimming in 1947 and was considered a contender for the Olympic Swim Team in 1948. He graduated from Bowdoin in 1948 but remained a member of the Class of 1945. He went on to graduate from McGill University medical school in 1953. He interned at Queens General Hospital and completed his residency at Rockland State Hospital, where he was appointed senior psychiatrist in 1958, working with adolescents, and in school guidance clinic and evenings at a private clinic. He also taught student nurses. After several positions in the mental health field, he spent 34 years at the Riverdale Mental Health Center, retiring in 1997 as a part-time senior psychiatrist. In the 1980s, he shifted his focus to the field of geriatric psychiatry. He also served for nearly 30 years as medical director for the Association for Help of the Retarded in New York City, retiring from that position in 2001. He continued to swim into his 80s, and in 2003 he won a gold medal in the 80-year-old class in four events at the Australian Masters Meet, National Senior Olympics. He was the husband of Jean Jacobson Merrow, whom he married in July 1982, and the father of Adin James Merrow.