Commemoration
The
eldest of four children, Jacques Arnold Clermont was born to Andre and Germaine
Clermont in Jacmel, Haiti on November 2, 1938.
He attended primary school in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, where his mother, then a single parent, studied nursing. Knowing the importance of education, his mother encouraged all of her children to pursue higher studies and in 1958, Jacques Arnold Clermont entered medical school at the State University of Haiti. After graduating in 1964, he began a residency in psychiatry on the same campus.
In 1965, he married Renee Sarazzin and a year later their first child, Regine, was born. Shortly thereafter, he received an internship in psychiatry in Edmonton, Canada and then moved to Michigan for further education, during which time a second child, Herve, was born in 1968. A year later, the family moved to New York City where Dr. Clermont opened a free medical clinic in Harlem Hospital where he was a resident through Columbia University. In 1971, he completed his residency and, in the same year, his third child, Rose-Anne, was born. He passed his examinations and became board certified in 1976.
The family settled in Maryland in 1977 where Dr. Clermont pursued an impressive career in forensic psychiatry, earning many prestigious positions in his field over the course of the next eighteen years: Chief of Psychiatry at Provident Hospital, Clinical Director of Perkins State Hospital, Psychiatric Consultant for the Hagerstown State Penitentiary and received The Exemplary Psychiatry Award by the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill in 1994. At the time of his death, in 1995, he held the position of Psychiatrist for Adolescents at Crownsville State Hospital in Annapolis.
Throughout his career, Dr. Clermont also maintained a private practice in order to serve and assist those sharing his rich cultural and national roots. He was a dedicated advocate for the rights of Haitian refugees and offered free medical services to Haitian families in need. He also taught free educational workshops for Haitian parents new to the United States and frequently, at his own expense, sent medical supplies to Haiti. In addition, Dr. Clermont also held various positions in Haitian organizations. He was a long-time member of the New York Chapter of AMHE (Association des Medecins Haitiens et Etrengers) and served as president from 1972 to 1973, then as president of the AMHE Baltimore-Washington D.C. Chapter from 1984 to 1986. He was a consulting member of WATTCH (Washington Association To Tend to the Concerns of Haitians), a founding member of the Association of the Arrondissement of Jacmel and a frequent lecturer for the Haitian Institute. Through his participation in these organizations, Dr. Clermont actively contributed toward the betterment of Haiti. His life-long dream was to build a modern hospital in his hometown of Jacmel.