- Date Of Death: January 5, 2008
- State: Connecticut
Eugene L. Eliasoph died on Saturday, January 5 2008 of heart failure.
Born in Brooklyn in 1925 to Joseph Eliasoph and Paula Rubin Eliasoph, a prominent artist, Eugene (Gene) attended Jamaica High and Queens College. He was a decorated veteran of World War II who fought in the Battle of the Bulge where he was captured and escaped.
Gene was a gifted psychotherapist. He received his Masters in Social Work from Columbia and studied at the William Alanson White School and with JL Moreno, an early pioneer of group therapy. In private practice in New Haven for 40 years, he served on the clinical faculty at the Yale Department of Psychiatry. Gene was renowned for his work as a group therapist and psychodramatist. He founded the Psychodrama Institute of New Haven and was President of the American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama from 1984-1986. Hundreds of patients and his trainees will remember him for his skill, creativity and compassion.
Gene was an excellent tennis player and athlete; he was scouted for the New York Giants before the war. He was an excellent jazz musician, playing clarinet and saxophone at venues from the Borscht Belt to 52nd Street as a young man and continuing in many bands and informal groups until his death.
Gene is survived by his wife Mary Nicholas, who is a psychotherapist in New Haven, and by his daughters Ellen Eliasoph and Nina Eliasoph and their husbands; grandchildren Jade Kasoff, Olivia Lichterman and Leo Eliasoph; sister Janet Kaufman, niece Jeannie Skinner; and nephews– Philip, Joseph and Scott Eliasoph; and his cousin Julian Eliasoph.
