Dr. Allen Crocker, Pioneer in Developmental Pediatrics

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Dr. Allen Crocker, pioneer in developmental pediatrics

Rick Rader, MD
AADMD VP of Public Policy and Advocacy

Dr. Allen Carrol Crocker of Natick and Gloucester, a retired pediatrician at Children’s Hospital Boston, died Oct. 23 at Newton-Wellesley Hospital from respiratory failure several months after surgery to treat a non-malignant brain tumor. He was 85.

Born in Boston, Dr. Crocker was a longtime resident of Gloucester and Natick.

He was an Eagle Scout and a graduate of Belmont High School.

He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1944 and Harvard Medical School in 1948.

Dr. Crocker served as an officer in the Army Medical Corps from 1951 to 1953. He was stationed in Nuremberg, Germany, where he met his wife, Margarete.

Dr. Crocker began his clinical training in pediatrics at Children’s Hospital in 1948 and continued in his medical practice at the hospital until his retirement in June 2009.

He was director of the Developmental Evaluation Clinic from 1967 to 1993, and program director of the Institute for Community Inclusion from 1993 to 2009.

Dr. Crocker was a pioneer in the field of developmental pediatrics. Dr. Crocker wrote scores of articles and book chapters on genetic diseases and developmental disabilities, and co-authored and edited several seminal books in the field.

Dr. Crocker was a senior associate in medicine at Children’s Hospital. Dr. Crocker was also an associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and associate professor of society, human development and health at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Dr. Crocker served on several editorial boards for various publications, and sat on numerous boards of nonprofit agencies and consumer groups.
A recipient of several lifetime achievement awards, Dr. Crocker also had several awards named in his honor — the Allen C. Crocker Award is given at each annual meeting of the New England Regional Genetics Group.

A similar award is presented through the Massachusetts Down Syndrome Congress each year.

Dr. Crocker enjoyed his role as a teacher, and loved poetry, art, music, literature, oysters, wine and nature.

Dr. Crocker is survived by his wife of 58 years, Margarete of Natick and Gloucester; two daughters, Elli Crocker Morse of Newton and Monica Doyon of Oxford; a son, Philip of Irving, Texas; nine grandchildren; and several extended family members in Germany, England and the United States.