Ken Libertoff
Ken Libertoff passed away on Mach 9, 2024. Read the full obituary, which he wrote, here.
Ken Libertoff was born in Brooklyn, New York, on a snowy day on January 16, 1945. His grandparents, Jewish immigrants, settled in Crown Heights and Bensonhurst.
Ken grew up in Rockaway, Queens where he attended public schools. His academic achievements at Far Rockaway High School were modest compared to his athletic prowess on the basketball court. His resume, which included being captain of the team for two years and membership on the All-Queens first team roster, certainly did not hurt his chances of being accepted at the University of Connecticut. Ken played on championship varsity teams in the mid-1960s.
His adolescent years at home were marred by the death of his father when Ken was twelve and the realization that his mom, a woman who would live a full life until age ninety-five, was confronted with serious lifetime mental health challenges. He and his younger sister, Karen, persevered.
Upon graduation in 1966, Ken had a narrow window of interest and little sense of direction. He considered a career in college coaching. This changed when a chance meeting occurred with a dynamic, young psychology professor at Yale who recognized something special in him and convinced Ken to settle in New Haven.
For the next five years, Ken became politically engaged, working in several war-on-poverty projects in the city’s most troubled neighborhoods, including a model residential program for delinquent kids. He also served as a research assistant in Yales’s Psychology Department. Several Yale faculty members and community members encouraged Ken to pursue further educational opportunities. In an improbable and unexpected turn of events, he was accepted at the only program he applied to, the Clinical Psychology and Public Practice doctoral program at Harvard University.
Finishing all his coursework in early 1976, Ken, his wife, and newborn son Jamie moved to Montpelier, Vermont. While writing his dissertation on runaway children, he also directed the local youth bureau. Two years later, Ken celebrated the completion of his doctorate in 1978.
In 1981, he was named director of a small statewide non-profit, the Vermont Association for Mental Health, which he built up over three decades. His advocacy at the Vermont Statehouse on behalf of mental health, substance abuse treatment, and children’s services was recognized and applauded with numerous awards, such as: State Advocate of the Year, for passage of Vermont's Parity Legislation in 1997; Behavioral Healthcare Tomorrow Award for successfully fighting for comprehensive insurance coverage for people with mental illness in 2002; the Jack Barry Communications Award for Excellence in Advocating for Recovery Centers presented by Friends of Recovery in 2010; Citizen of the Year Award presented by Vermont Medical Society in 2010; and the Lifetime Legendary Leadership Award, presented by Mental Health America in 2010.
Ken retired in 2010, but not before meeting the love of his life, Sarah Hofmann, a local lawyer who, in addition to being a noted utility regulator in Vermont, was a smart, funny, kind, and adventurous person. They married in 2017. In 2019, on a whim, Ken joined a small, local writing group and began a new endeavor. Without a plan or purpose, he started his literary career believing, “we all have a story to tell.”
