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Roselise Wilkinson, medical director

Roselise "Rosie" Holmes Wilkinson, 81, of Swarthmore, retired medical director of the Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential, died of pneumonia May 27 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

Roselise "Rosie" Holmes Wilkinson, 81, of Swarthmore, retired medical director of the Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential, died of pneumonia May 27 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

A native of Bloomsburg, Pa., Dr. Wilkinson earned a bachelor's degree from Sweet Briar College in Virginia. She attended Temple University's School of Medicine, where she met Harold A. Wilkinson; they married in 1952. After graduating from Temple in 1953, they completed internships and residencies in family practice at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence.

In 1956, the couple moved to Swarthmore, where he established a family practice. While caring for their three children, Dr. Wilkinson volunteered at the United Cerebral Palsy Clinic in Chester and later was a physician at Pennsylvania's Well Baby Clinics in Chester and Sharon Hill.

In 1964, she joined the staff of the Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential in Wyndmoor. The institutes were founded in 1955 by Glenn Doman to treat brain-damaged children. Doman created a regimen to stimulate the brain, which included patterning - the moving of a child's arms, legs, and head simultaneously to simulate crawling. He also developed oxygen-enrichment and nutritional programs.

Dr. Wilkinson traveled all over the world diagnosing ailments in children and assessing their treatment in the institutes' temporary satellite clinics in Japan, Italy, Australia, England, Ireland, Mexico, and South America. In Brazil, she spent several weeks living among the Xingu tribe and studied how they cared for their young children, her husband said.

Dr. Wilkinson was affiliated with Taylor Hospital in Ridley Park for more than 40 years. She and her husband retired in 1998.

The couple subscribed to the Philadelphia Orchestra for 50 years and had season tickets to the Opera Company of Philadelphia. Dr. Wilkinson enjoyed gardening and always knew the Latin names for plants, her husband said. "She was a devoted wife, mother, and grandmother as well as a compassionate and dedicated physician," he said.

In addition to her husband, Dr. Wilkinson is survived by sons Paul and Russell; a daughter, Lynn Nichols; a sister; and five grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held on a yet-to-be-scheduled date in September at Trinity Episcopal Church, 301 N. Chester Rd., Swarthmore, Pa. 19081, where she sang in the choir, served on the vestry, and was a rector's warden.

Memorial donations may be made to the church or to the Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential, 8801 Stenton Ave., Wyndmoor, Pa. 19038.