Robert Sbordone, an authority in clinical neuropsychology, traumatic brain damage and post-traumatic stress disorder and a former researcher at UCLA’s NeuroPsychiatric Institute, passed away on Aug. 3 in Mission Viejo, California. He was 74.
Born on May 6, 1940 in Boston, Sbordone attended Boston English High School, where he threw the javelin as a member of the track team. He received a track scholarship to attend the University of Southern California, where he earned a B.A. in psychology. He was an alternate on the 1964 U.S. Olympic track and field team, and, in 2009, he was named to the Massachusetts State Track Association Athlete Hall of Fame.
Sbordone obtained his doctorate in psychology from UCLA, where he went on to complete a two-year postdoctoral fellowship to study neuropsychology. He joined the UCLA NeuroPsychiatric Institute (since renamed the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior) and the Brain Research Institute, where he evaluated and conducted research on patients suspected of having Alzheimer's disease and brain disorders, and investigated pathological aggression. He also received an appointment at the UCLA Reed Neurological Institute, where he treated patients with advanced multiple sclerosis. He taught in the UCLA psychology department and Neuropsychiatric Institute, Long Beach VA Hospital, California State University at Los Angeles, the Fielding Institute's Postgraduate Neuropsychology program and UC Irvine’s College of Medicine.
A diplomate of and clinical examiner for the American Board of Clinical Neuropsychology, the American Board of Professional Neuropsychology and the American Board of Assessment Psychology, Sbordone was also a fellow of the National Academy of Neuropsychology and the College of Professional Neuropsychology, and he served on the executive board of directors for the American Board of Professional Neuropsychology . He served on the editorial board of several journals and authored more than 120 publications, including six widely read textbooks, 30 book chapters and over 100 publications in peer-reviewed medical and scientific journals. In 2013, he published a science fiction novel, “Client from the Future.”
Sbordone is survived by his brother, Richard Sbordone of Winthrop, Massachusetts. His ashes will be scattered at sea.
See this obituary in the Boston Globe.