Psychiatrist at Emerson Hospital, Vietnam veteran
James Longcope. (Courtesy photo)
Dr. James C. Longcope, 70, a former resident of Harvard, died September 3 of a heart attack. Born February 5, 1937 in Philadelphia, Dr. Longcope graduated cum laude from Dartmouth College and received his medical training from Dartmouth and Johns Hopkins Medical Schools. He served in Vietnam in the Navy. In 1969 he moved to Acton as a family physician, completing training in psychiatry in 1980 at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center. Dr. Longcope had a private psychiatric practice first in Concord, and then Acton. He served the Emerson Hospital community in Concord for 37 years, first as a family practitioner, then as a psychiatrist. He was much beloved for the insightful and decisive care he provided his patients, and his generosity in giving his attention wherever it was needed.
Dr. Longcope will be greatly missed by his wife of 17 years, Joan; his sons, Daniel Coulter of Marlborough, Nathaniel Charles of Brooklyn, New York, and Timothy James of Oakland, California; his daughter-in-law Molly; granddaughter Catherine Celeste; and his sister and brother-in-law, Jeanne and Dave Anderson of Pinehurst, North Carolina, and their children. A memorial service will be held Saturday, September 15 at 11 a.m. at the First Parish Unitarian Church in Concord. In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent in his name to the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill of Central Middlesex, 55 Littleton Road, Number 24, Ayer, Massachusetts 01432.
