Rick Chilgren - Online Memorial Website

I just learned of Rick's passing.  I will always hold dear the many visits to him and Mary at the U of MN office.   He was so kind to me.  He always smiled and had something kind and supportive to say.

Rest in Peace.

Your admiring student and friend from 1970,

Randy

Bev and I appreciate that Karen let us know about Rick's illness and  now
his death.   I called Rick and was able to talk briefly to him  the day
before he died.  The nurse had to hold the phone up to him.   He did know who I was and was able to say a few words although it was  very difficult
for him.

Bev and I can't say enough for how important he was to us  personally
(including our children Mary and Eric), to me  professionally and to the
whole field of sexology and sex therapy.   His creativity as well as his
medical and scientific expertise opened  the world of sexual health to
people of all ages, professions and  backgrounds.  The countless experts he brought in to teach us to go  beyond the possible provided a true
foundation upon which we need  truly to build.  I cannot remember the names of all of those giants,  but they include Mary Calderone, Wardell
Pomeroy, Ted McIlvenna, Jack  Schwartz, Alex Comfort and leaders in the
fields of meditation,  relaxation, psychic powers and art.  The staff he
brought together  including Tom Mauer. Mary Briggs, Karen Weiss, Dan Weiss
and then, of  course the theological giants of Jim Nelson, Wilson Yates
under the  spearheading of Jim Siefkes goes beyond what people today can
hardly  believe.  His use of art,  music, spirituality, worship, good food
and wine and boat trips on the Mississippi expanded our imaginations
beyond belief.  I remember the religious services led by the clown  pastor
and our singing together How Great Thou Art as well as knowing  that two
of the most important initial funders of PHS were The  American Lutheran
Church and The Playboy Foundation.  A memory of the  use of art in the
Sexorama was the art of Mihaly Zichy when Dr. Thore  Langfeldt pointed out
to me that he was likely related to me through  my Zschiesche relatives.
Another personal memory was when Rick led  me to medical services at the
University to diagnose my need for an  adrenalectomy and then visited me
in the hospital along with several  of the rest of you.  Finally, although
I could likely go on forever,  Rick, as a pediatrician, included the
sexuality of all ages,  including young children in media and our
learning.  Major results  were for us to approach ALL sexual issues and behavior as issues of  sexual health.  This led to a successful vision in
the treatment of  criminal sexual behavior in adults and adolescents and
children and  adolescents in sexual crisis along with the founding, in
Minnesota  Law, the Institute for Child and Adolescent Health.

The world, but especially the US and the current field of sexology  needs
to return to the teachings and vision of our good friend and  companion,
Rick.  So many people loved him, but he died alone.  How sad!

Bev and Bill Seabloom

 Blessed be Rick, who was a gift to all of us!  In those early years I was moved by his enthusiasm, his courage, his vision, and his delightful personna.  I first met Rick over breakfast in, I believe, 1972.  I had my agenda:  I was looking for an opening at the Med School where they would support a joint medical school- United Seminary course in medical ethics, to be team taught.  He promised help in that project (I taught the first couple with Jim Maddock).  His breakfast agenda was about a promising new program called PHS, and he asked me to come on board.  At first I wondered if he mainly wanted religious "cover" from legislative wrath over porno films.  I soon realized that his vision was much more expansive than that and incuded a genuine desire to integrate body and spirit.  I gladly joined the crew.   Wilys Claire and I together experienced one of the early SARs, then both we became small group leaders.  Then gradually the seminary component of the program developed, much to the benefit of many, many seminarians and their SO's from several Twin Cities seminaries.  As I got more deeply into the sexuality agenda, it claimed a good bit of my professional and writing focus.  Rick's seed-planting was fecund for so many of us.  I share the gratitude abundantly expressed on these pages.

Rick Chilgren always encouraged the PHS team to ask questions and give voice to our thoughts and values about sexuality. This was at a time when “looking cool” meant not asking questions and keeping sexuality hidden.  His ability to listen, teach and be teachable was something that I greatly admired.  His openness to people from all disciplines and his belief that sexuality education belonged to everyone opened the door for me and made the PHS experience incredibly rich.  He challenged all of us to be a sex positive light in the world, and I am grateful to Rick and his vision for launching me on an incredible personal and professional journey. Thank you Rick.

 I attended my first SAR in 1973, and began as a group leader soon after. PHS was the most wonderful, incredible place I could ever imagine--Rick always had fresh, vibrant ideas and was able to bring many of them into reality, and he brought so many creative people together there. One of my last and most moving memories of him  was  during a huge expedition to provide sex ed to a small town in Southern Minnesota at the request of Lutheran Social Services in 1976: it was extensive and intensive and well-planned with the townspeople, but was disrupted by a small group of fundamentalists who threatened death to us and any local participants (a horrible portent of the recent Oslo
depredations!). The night before we decided to pull out, there was a general program
with the film "Peege" about the importance of touch--someone stood up and said this was evidence of our perverted and Communist agenda! Rick was at the microphone and tried to appeal with what he as a pediatrician knew about the issue and began to cry--the townsman berated his tears as further evidence of perversion---I couldn't believe such an inhumane attitude could dominate a whole town, but it convinced us there was no hope of completing our task without great harm. But I celebrated Rick's bravery and
transparency in that moment. May his light continue to shine....Blessed Be.