“Like What You Do” by Dr. W. Walt Menninger and Todd Fertig (Flint Hills Publishing, 2024, 457 pages, $40.00)
There are a few names associated with Kansas that have become recognizable on an international basis: Earp, Earhart, Landon and Eisenhower, to name a handful. Another such name is Menninger. Four generations of Menningers created and ran a world-renowned psychiatric clinic in Topeka, effectively turning it into the “Psychiatric Capital of the United States.”
At age 92, Dr. W. Walt Menninger has written a book with Todd Fertig (author of a children’s novel and nonfiction book about the Negro Baseball Leagues) called “Like What You Do: The Memoirs of Dr. Walt Menninger.”
“I was blessed to be born into a family that had already accomplished much, earned a great deal of respect, and made a profound impact on many lives,” Menninger writes in the introduction. “My responsibility, I felt, was not to tarnish that legacy, and to add to it where I could. My blessing came with an expectation. Life isn’t a free ride.”
The book’s 48 chapters cover various phases of his life, from Eagle Scout and Peace Corps volunteer to psychoanalyst, educator and executive. There are celebratory highs and quite a few gut-wrenching lows: the loss of an infant daughter; a bad investment; the loss his beloved spouse, Connie, to aggressive dementia; and the decision to move Menninger operations from Kansas to Texas, which made headlines everywhere.
The Menninger Foundation was started by the family in 1919 and consisted of a clinic, sanatorium and school of psychiatry. Unfortunately, by the mid-1990s, what had been termed “behavioral health’s golden age” had come to a close. Changes in the rules of reimbursement for psychiatric and other mental health care required Menninger patients to assume more and more of their total bill for treatment. Admissions rapidly declined while operating costs soared.
“We concluded that in order to sustain our commitment to the full Menninger mission, the future viability of the institution necessitated an affiliation with a medical school and medical center,” Menninger writes. On Dec. 5, 2002, it was announced that the Clinic’s boards of directors and trustees had unanimously approved a partnership with the Baylor College of Medicine and the Methodist Hospital of Houston, Texas.
At times, Menninger uses writings by his uncle, Dr. Karl Menninger, and father, Dr. Will Menninger, as well as his own previous writings from articles, speeches and correspondence. In addition to sharing his personal and family history, Menninger provides advice and inspiration that some may find helpful in their own lives.
Contact Ted Ayres at Tdamsa76@yahoo.com.
