Taken from a letter to Mrs. Lois Heck, August 25, 1972



I arrive on time. The auditorium was over flowing with many young people standing and the town fathers occupying the seats. The atmosphere was tense and brittle. The meeting started with the town fathers, who one after another ina series of rotaion rose and spoke weaving together in sequence, ideas, arguements, and statements against the planning and building of a hospital in Newtown. The bank President said that it would hurt business and that bank deposits would diminish. A leading realtor rose and stated that property values would at least drop fifty percent; that houses on Main Street would depreciate to less that $4,000 in value. A prominent woman stated that Newtown would become a "Ghost Town" and across the valley would come the moans and screams of patients in padded cells! Another leader said that Newtown which then numbered 2,870 people, would drop to perhaps a population on 1,200 or less. Another said that he was proud of colonial Newtown and if the hospital came, the town would have a bad name, not only in the State but throughout New York State and all of New England. As the pleas for a 'No' vote continued someone in the audience said, 'I'd like to hear what Miss Hawley thinks.' Miss Mary Elizabeth Hawley had given the Hawley School to Newtown and was then considering building a town hall.

Miss Hawley said, 'I don't know how to express my feelings, but I do know I don't like it.' I, Dr. Desmond, was in the back of the room and several young men pushed me forward whispering 'Someone should say something favorable, help us, will you.' As I walked up the aisle I felt the emotional overtones in the room and kept thinking and wishing I had prepared at least a little speech, but I may be able to answer the critics of the whole hospital idea and perhaps help to fill what seemed to be a need.

(In an aside Dr. Desmond stated that a young woman, a college freshman, also present at the meeting recalled that he, the doctor, was recognized as invited to speak. He waited until you could hear a pin drop and then he began to talk with tact and courtesy, gradually developing am exposition in favor of the coming of a hospital in Newtown.)

I started my speech by saying that the state would not build an insane asylum in Newtown, but it would be a mental hospital, then I said that I had just come from the bedside of a man who had passed the crisis in lobar pneumonia and would get well, but for three days this patient had seen cows in the trees. These were hallucinations and that, if one considered the delirum which often comes with high fevers, then the majority of people in this room have been at these times as mentally ill as the patients in a mental hospital. I then proceeded to reply to the critics of the proposed hospital, stating in answer to the bank President, that business would not be hurt, it would improve, deposits would increase, that I felt sure that in ten to fifteen years the hospital would cause such a growth that another bank would be built, a commericial bank, and thus we will have a two bank town. To the realtor, that statistics have proven that real estate prices would rise to more than double after the hospital was established and that $40.00 a month rent for a house on Main Street would be a thing of the past. I also stated that the town would grow from its present population to at least 10,000. I then asked a mother whose daughter was attending Vassar. "What was Poughkeepsie noted for?" Her reply was 'Vassar College'. I then stated that was right, but it was also the home of one of the largest mental hospitals in New York State. I then noted that Northhampton was also famous as the seat of Smith College but there was also a large mental hospital there. That neither Poughkeepsie nor Northhampton had suffered any loss of reputation or values because of those hospitals.

I then concluded my speech by saying that new methods of treatments promised more than just custodial treatments, that padded cells were abolished, that new research was so promising that we in Newtown might indeed be privileged and thrilled to be a part of the advancing knowledge of the prevention and cure of the mentally ill. I then closed with a call for a 'Yes' vote, and as I walked back to the rear of the auditorium I recieved a prolonged ovation from those assembled.

The vote by ballot was taken and was strongly in favor of having the hospital located in Newtown. As I left the auditorium, I recall that the disappointed realtor said to me, 'I'll never call you again and you are through in Newtown.' Still another old-timer tapped me on the shoulder and said 'carpetbagger'. Others congratulated me on my speech and admired my courage saying that I alone persuaded Newtowners to vote 'Yes'!

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