Melinda Y. Small died on October 15, 2025, in Brunswick, Maine.

(The following was provided by Bowdoin College on October 27, 2025:)

From: President Zaki <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2025
Subject: Melinda Yowell Small (1938–2025)

To the Bowdoin community,

I am writing to share the sad news that Melinda Yowell Small, Professor of Psychology Emerita, died from complications following surgery in Brunswick on October 15. She was 87.

Born on February 6, 1938, in Baltimore, Maryland, Melinda earned bachelor of science and master of arts degrees from St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, in 1960 and 1964, respectively. During her education at St. Lawrence, she also studied at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Munich. She received a PhD in Psychology at the University of Iowa in 1968.

Melinda joined the Bowdoin faculty in 1972 from Douglass College at Rutgers University, where she was an assistant professor of psychology. She was one of the first women at Bowdoin to progress through the ranks from assistant professor to full professor. In 1979, she was appointed to a commission charged with examining the status of women on the Bowdoin campus. She served several terms as department chair. Her research interests focused on cognitive development in children, embracing the study of learning, perception, memory, thinking, and problem solving.

In addition to authoring or co-authoring numerous articles and reviews in journals such as Developmental Psychology, Journal of General Psychology, and the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, Melinda wrote the book Cognitive Development (1990), which became a highly regarded and widely used text in the field. She retired from Bowdoin in 2000, was voted an emerita member of the faculty, and became an honorary member of the Bowdoin Alumni Association.

Melinda was deeply committed to her role as a teacher and to giving students the opportunities to engage with principles of psychology through practical work on child development in local preschools and public schools. As one former student said, “She was demanding, in a good way; she expected students to learn.” She was a mentor to many students, supervising honors projects and independent studies, co-authoring publications in professional journals and conference papers with students, and encouraging those who chose to do so to pursue graduate study or employment in the disciplines of psychology or child development. Her mentees included her sister, Marcia Yowell Bingham, who also pursued and attained a PhD in psychology.

Melinda was also committed to public service in the communities in which she lived. She was elected as a member of the Commission on Institutions of Higher Education. She served on the board of directors for both the Bath-Brunswick Area Mental Health Association and Tedford Housing, as a member of the Board of Overseers of the Bar, the Mitchell Field Steering Committee in Harpswell, and the Natural Resources Council of Maine. Her volunteer work as guardian ad litem, a Court Appointed Special Advocate who works with children and families in need throughout Maine, was very important to her.

Melinda was predeceased by her husband, Director of Theater Emeritus A. Raymond Rutan ’51, whom she married in 1977. She is survived by her daughter, Whitney Foard Small, her son, Sebastian Somers Small, and his wife, Naomi Trundy Small, her granddaughter, Siena Somers Small, and her sister, Marcia Yowell Bingham, and her husband, Tayler Harrison Bingham.

We extend our sympathies to Melinda’s family, friends, and colleagues, and express our gratitude for her many contributions to the College, to her profession, to her former students, and to the lives and communities that she touched through her scholarship and her public service.

Sincerely,

Safa