In the Gala Booklet celebrating 50 years of the MPS, articles by Dr. Eugene Brody and Dr. John Talbott chronicle the history of child psychiatry at the University of Maryland. In their articles, both give the unintended impression that before Dr. Brody's arrival in 1957 there was no child psychiatry service or training. Dr. Brody writes, "The child psychiatry service developed with Frank Rafferty, Mariano Vega (who died young), and later Stanford Friedman and others." Dr. Talbott states that under Dr. Brody's leadership, "Several key developments took place: First, in 1961, the Division of Child Psychiatry was established and Dr. Frank Rafferty was recruited as its first Director."

Child psychiatry was alive and well on the terrace floor of the Psychiatric Institute, long before Dr. Brody’s arrival. Dr. H. Whitman Newell, an experienced child psychiatrist and the President of the Baltimore Psychoanalytic Society in 1950-51, was the director of the Child Psychiatry Service under Dr. Finesinger until his death around 1956. The residents rotated through the very busy Child Guidance Clinic. Residents from a fledgling Child Psychiatry program at Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital came over for supervision on selected cases that they followed. The Child Guidance Clinic would treat children from various social agencies around the city and have consultation conferences with their workers. Dr. Marvin Jaffe succeeded Dr. Newell for a year, and then I became acting director from 1957-1959. By the time Dr. Brody took over as Chair, Dr. Reginal Lourie, head of Child Psychiatry at Children's Hospital in Washington D.C. and a nationally prominent child psychiatrist, would regularly give seminars for the staff. Dr. Jenny Waelder-Hall, one of the pioneers of Child Psychoanalysis, would hold clinical conferences for the staff and residents. Dr. Rafferty took over a service that had been functioning productively for at least a decade.