Class of: 1970

John H. Petito

John H. Petito (CGS’68, CAS’70) of Lumberville, Pa., wrote a short memoir, Among the Wards, in which he describes his experience participating in the BU Psychology Club’s 1966 Metropolitan State Hospital project. While working with patients at the hospital, he established a clinical focus on Joe R., who had been diagnosed with severe schizophrenia and had been in and out of institutions since the 1930s. In his memoir, John writes, “[Joe] talked to voices. He believed he had died in a bus accident. He remembered names and places that might or might not have existed. He spoke in fragments, in loops, in echoes. But when he laughed—when I could make him laugh—it felt like reaching through the fog to something real."

From the Summer 2026 issue.