Al and Barbara Cain Family

Al and Barbara Cain Living Memorial Award

For Steve and Ken Cain, the University of Michigan has always been more than just the institution where their parents, Dr. Al and Barbara (Bobbi) Cain, met and spent their careers; it’s been a guiding force, a “true north” that shaped their values and worldview growing up in Ann Arbor. As the family considered how best to honor the couple’s service to the university, it became clear that Al and Bobbi’s remarkable contributions to psychology and mentorship deserved recognition now—while they were able to participate in the celebration—and in perpetuity.

Al Cain’s (A.B. 1954, Ph.D. ’62) career at the University of Michigan began in 1962 and over the decades, he became one of the most influential figures in both the Department of Psychology and Department of Psychiatry. Cain’s research on childhood bereavement helped shape the field. He served as chief psychologist at the university’s Children’s Psychiatric Hospital, then as chair of LSA’s Department of Psychology for more than a decade from 1980 to 1991. With Cain at the helm, Psychology’s global reputation strengthened as it grew to become the largest department within LSA, as well as the largest graduate department within Rackham Graduate School, and was consistently ranked among the top three university psychology programs in the nation. Cain transformed the department into what it is today, championing diversity in faculty hiring; expanding research areas to include neuroscience, culture and cognition, and clinical psychology; and playing a pivotal role in uniting the department under one roof in East Hall.

. . .

Contributing to the university’s excellence in her own right, Barbara Cain (A.B. 1956, M.S.W. ’58) was clinical supervisor of graduate students at the University of Michigan’s Psychological Clinic for 40 years and a psychotherapist in private practice. She authored several highly regarded books for children and young adults on divorce, ambivalence, shyness, and diverse family structures. Her book Autism, The Invisible Cord: A Sibling's Diary was published in 2012 (Magination Press), and was a Silver Medal Winner in the Mom`s Choice Awards.

. . .

In 2023, the Cain family honored Al & Bobbi by establishing the Al and Barbara Cain Living Memorial Award to recognize undergraduate students who are writing an honors thesis in bereavement; attachment and loss; and/or trauma. The intent was twofold: to recognize and encourage outstanding undergraduates doing research in areas close to Al’s heart—bereavement, attachment, and trauma, with an emphasis on Bobbi’s passion, excellence in psychological writing—and to ensure that the entire Cain family could celebrate their professional achievements with them.

Read the complete article by Kristen Loszewski at LSA