Dr. Joel Osler Brende

I grew up in Hutchinson, Minnesota. After high school graduation I attended Luther College, Decorah, Iowa class of 1958, the University of Minnesota Medical School, class of 1962, and practiced general medicine and surgery in Wisconsin and Minnesota for six years. I spent several months working as a short term missionary doctor in 1965. When I chose psychiatry as a medical specialty I moved to Topeka, Kansas with my family and received training at the Karl Menninger School of Psychiatry from July 1969 to 1972.

After completing my training I worked as a psychiatrist for 14 years at the Veterans Administration Medical Center (VAMC) in Topeka. During that time I provided psychiatric treatment for James, a man who spent ten years in the Air Force but suffered trauma and personality fragmentation. I personally paid for the videotapes to record all of his therapy sessions over a duration of eight years. Several of those distinctive videotapes appeared on ABC’s 20/20 in 1984.

My professional time with the VA also included a focus on the treatment of Vietnam veterans with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. I published several articles about the subject and also co-authored a book, VIETNAM VETERANS THE ROAD TO RECOVERY in 1985. I transferred to the VAMC in Montrose, NY with my wife, Jackie, in September 1983 but five months later I left New York for St. Petersburg, FL and directed the Vietnam Veterans Stress Recovery Unit at Bay Pines, FL VAMC until I retired from the VA system in October, 1987.

Jackie and I moved to Columbus, GA and I became Director of Outpatient Services at the Bradley Center Hospital in November and after four years I left that position to become a psychiatrist at Fort Benning, GA where I provided treatment for Military Dependents & Retirees. Two years later I joined the staff at Central State Hospital in Milledgeville, GA where I was appointed Director of the Regional Psychiatric Division. In 1995 I entered the academic world and took a position on the medical school faculty at Mercer University School of Medicine in Macon, Georgia. I retired in 2005 after serving as a tenured, full professor of psychiatry and chairman of the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, a position I had held for four years.

Jackie and I moved to San Miguel de Allende, a beautiful city in the mountains of central Mexico, after my retirement. After several very enjoyable years we purchased a condo in Kansas City to be closer to our children and better medical care. We alternated living in KC with living in our San Miguel home until we sold it in 2011.

I soon discovered that I didn’t want to give up psychiatric practice completely so I began to do periodic “locum tenens” hospital psychiatry. Although I did some part-time work in Arizona and Las Vegas, I spent more time providing intermittent hospital treatment for psychiatric patients at Doctors Behavioral Health Center in Modesto, CA. I spent the final nine years of my professional career as a “locum tenens” psychiatrist at Mosaic Medical Center in St. Joseph, MO. until I finally retired in December, 2018.

My primary hobby has been music. My father taught high school band and orchestra and started me on the Baritone horn (also called Euphonium). I attended Luther College as a music major in 1954 but switched to pre-med in 1957. I played Baritone in the Concert Band and was the featured tour soloist in 1957. I also started playing trombone and piano in college and became interested in jazz. After graduation I continued to play and joined two different jazz combos and a big swing band in Topeka. I neglected to play trombone for 25 years until 2007 when a Luther college classmate and musician called and asked me to begin exercising my trombone embouchure to play in an alumni jazz combo for the 2008 Class Reunion. That worked out well and I haven’t stopped playing since then. I am currently performing on trombone for the K.C. Dixieland Band, The Little Big “swing” Band, New Horizon Band, and Midwest Bones.

Jackie passed in 2022 and I miss her deeply. But I continue to live in Kansas City where I can be relatively close to a number of our children, grandchildren, and great grand children. Fortunately I have finally published the first sequel to THE JAMES TAPES and both books are available for your reading pleasure.