John Albert Koltes, 88, psychiatrist and professor

Dr. John Albert Koltes, 88, of Roxborough, a psychiatrist, died of heart failure on Thursday, Sept. 29, at home.

Dr. Koltes graduated from Northeast High School and attended the University of Pennsylvania. While serving in the Army Reserve during World War II, he earned a medical degree from Jefferson Medical College. He interned at Abington Memorial Hospital; completed residencies in psychiatry at Jefferson, Friend's Hospital, and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania; and trained in psychoanalysis at the Philadelphia Association of Psychoanalysis.

Dr. Koltes had a sardonic sense of humor, and whenever he was asked why he had become a psychiatrist, he replied that he wanted to be a doctor but hated blood, a son, Steven, said.

During the Korean War, Dr. Koltes served in the Army Medical Corps at Valley Forge Army Hospital.

In 1955, he spent six months in England, Switzerland, and Sweden, studying mental health systems on a trip sponsored by the Pennsylvania Department of Welfare.

The next year, he was named clinical director of the Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute in Philadelphia, established to treat adults and children with mental disorders and to train psychiatrists.

"With more than 50,000 mental patients in institutions throughout the state," he told The Inquirer, "there is a desperate need for psychiatrists to treat these unfortunate people."

In 1957, Dr. Koltes became clinical director of a new psychiatric unit at Jefferson, where he was also an associate professor. After stepping down as director in 1965, he remained on Jefferson's staff and faculty until becoming a professor emeritus in the late 1990s.

Dr. Koltes headed the neuropsychiatric service at Chestnut Hill Hospital for many years and was a past president of the hospital's medical staff. He was also on the staff of Roxborough Hospital and was past president of the Medical Club of Philadelphia.

He maintained a psychiatric practice in his home office until seven years ago, his son said.

Although psychiatrists at the time were often viewed as nonconformists, he was a traditionalist, his son said. In a 1998 letter to the editor, Dr. Koltes commented on Inquirer photographs of Haverford College students who were in class, dressed casually and wearing baseball caps.

"The costume, in my college days, would have been more characteristic of what one would see at a truck stop," he said. "Without a doubt there has been no significant intellectual decline among students, but surely there has been a major decline in the image which they project of themselves and their disregard for any kind of appearance that would imply social consciousness with respect to dress and attire."

Since 1946, Dr. Koltes had been married to Nancy Hare Koltes. They met in first grade at Comly School in Somerton.

In 1960, he and his wife moved to an 11-acre farm in Roxborough. He maintained an office in their home on the property, where they raised sheep, horses, and other farm animals.

He and his wife traveled extensively and circled the globe together in 1972.

In addition to his wife and son, Dr. Koltes is survived by daughters Nancy and Karen; another son, John III; a sister; and seven grandchildren.

A memorial service was held Monday, Oct. 3, at the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill.