Louis Watson Tinnin

Louis Watson Tinnin died of congestive heart failure on February 21, 2014, in Ruby Hospital, Morgantown, West Virginia, with his wife Linda at his side. He was looking forward to the arrival of his first great-grandson who is due on Lou's birthday. Lou was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on March 7, 1932, to Dorothy Hinton Tinnin and Louie Mey Tinnin. He spent his early childhood in Rolling Fork, Mississippi. His family moved to the Panama Canal Zone when Lou was 8. After graduating from Balboa High School he enlisted in the United States Air Force, serving from 1950 to 1954. He was stationed in England during the Korean War. It was in England where he met his first wife Valerie Leyland Darby with whom he had four children. Lou went to the University of Chicago on the GI Bill for his undergraduate education and for medical school (1954-1961). He completed his postdoctoral work at the Mental Health Studies Center of the National Institute of Mental Health while serving in the Commissioned Corps of the US Public Health Service from 1962 to 1967. Early in his career Lou became active in the politics of mental health. With his colleague and good friend Exall Kimbro, Lou worked with members of the Maryland state psychiatric association and successfully pushed for a state law that mandated that any hospital being built in Maryland had to have a psychiatric unit. After he established his private psychiatric practice in Laurel, Maryland, he became the Chief of Psychiatry at Prince George's General Hospital, Cheverly, Maryland (1973-1977). He moved to West Virginia and took a position as Medical Director at Central District Medical Center in Clarksburg (later called Summit Center) (1979-1984). In 1984, Lou joined the Department of Behavioral Medicine and Psychiatry in the School of Medicine at West Virginia University, serving as associate professor and professor. He began pursuing knowledge about post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), an area that interested few people at the time. In 1992, he developed a Fellowship in Psychotraumatology in conjunction with WVU and the Louis A. Johnson Veterans Administration Medical Center. It was at the VA that Lou began doing research on how to process traumatic events without requiring a person to re-live them. In 1996, after retiring from WVU with the rank of professor emeritus he established his own clinic the Trauma Recovery Institute (TRI) where he could try out his ideas about innovative and brief trauma treatment. Linda, whom Lou married in 1980, worked with him at TRI as art therapist and later as executive director. He wrote a number of professional papers and made over 200 national and international presentations. In 2006, he retired again and closed TRI. However, he served as a psychiatric consultant for Linda as she set up Intensive Trauma Therapy, based on ideas the two of them honed at TRI. Mental health professionals in West Virginia and beyond have called Lou and Linda "Ma and Pa Trauma" for their work in treating PTSD and in training other professionals. Although Lou knew his health was failing he continued to work to within two weeks of his death on several projects including some innovative computer apps for trauma treatment. One could not describe Lou as "all work and no play." He was an avid foxhunter and Master of the Iron Bridge Hunt in Laurel, Maryland, an ardent fisherman, a passionate athlete, and a life-long harmonica player. He regularly swam in the lake at his home in Lake O' Woods until last summer. Lou is survived by his wife of thirty-three years Linda Gantt; daughter Darby Ann Tinnin; son Matthew Tinnin and wife Michele; daughter Janet Skerry and husband Patrick; grandchildren Mark and wife Emily, Daniel and fiancée Carrah White, Taylor Herring, Bradley Patrick, Jr., Vincent Burch, Lauren Copenhaver, and Max Marine and girlfriend Rachel Breeden; brother Jack Tinnin and wife Oleta; niece Joy Zeigler and husband John and children Daniel, Timothy, and Jessica; nephew Randall Tinnin and wife Rhonda and children Camille, Olivia, and Cassidy; cousin David Hinton, wife Judith, and second cousin Emily Hinton Kim and husband Isaac and children, Oliver and Ella; second cousin Micah Hinton, wife Jen and children Huck and Boone; second cousin Ben Hinton and wife Tatiana; cousin Charles Hinton; brother-in-law T. K. Gantt, Jr. (Kenneth), wife Mary, and children Jason and Craig. Lou was preceded in death by his mother Dorothy Hinton Devine, father Louie Mey Tinnin, sister Dorothy Elizabeth Tinnin, daughter Shelley Marine, and cousins Glenn Hinton and Blanchard Hinton. There will be a public celebration of Lou's life starting at 11 AM, followed by a buffet luncheon from 12:30 to 2 PM in the Governor's Ballroom at Lakeview on Saturday, March 22. Those who will be staying for the buffet are asked to let Nancy Marshall know (c/o Intensive Trauma Therapy, 304-291-2912). In lieu of flowers the family requests that donations for the "Louis W. Tinnin Memorial Trauma Training Fund" be sent to Natalie Sal, Esq., c/o Sal Sellaro Thorn Culpepper Legal Group, PLLC, 430 Spruce Street, Morgantown, WV 26505. At Lou's request his body was cremated.

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Lakeview Resort Governor's Ballroom 1 Lakeview Dr. morgantown, wv 26505