Louis "Lou" Peter Carini, passed away surrounded by family in Hartland, Vermont on March 19, 2021, at the age of 99. Lou was a thinker, teacher, and psychologist. He was deeply introspective, but someone who would give selflessly to those around him when in need. He was passionate about his areas of research, and about teaching. He wrote copious papers, books and articles on subjects related to his field of study.

Lou was born in Framingham Massachusetts to Mary (Murphy) and Peter B. Carini on July 10, 1921. He grew up during the Great Depression and attended Framingham public schools. He volunteered for service during WWII as a navigator with the 8 th Army Air Corp in the European theater, where he completed 23 missions. He was severely wounded and captured during a raid on April 13, 1944 and spent the remainder of the war as a German POW until the camp was liberated in 1945.

Following the war, he enrolled at Clark University where he earned a BA in 1949. He went on to study psychology under Heinz Warner and earned his Ph.D. in 1955 for his work on perceptual behavior in schizophrenics . At Clark he met his future wife, Patricia Fitzsimmons Carini. Following their marriage, they worked together at the Rockland State Mental Institution in Orangeburg, New York for several years before he joined the faculty of Bennington College in Bennington, Vermont in 1958.

At Bennington Lou continued his experiments in visual perception. He was intensely committed to teaching and to his students and was a sought-after advisor. In 1965 he and Patricia, along with Joan Blake and Marion Stroud, founded the Prospect School, later the Prospect Center for Education and Research, in North Bennington Vermont.

In 1968, in an effort to better align his work at Bennington with the College's mission that faculty should be active practitioners in their field, Lou used a sabbatical year to become licensed to practice as a psychoanalyst and set up a part-time private practice in North Bennington which continued until his retirement from Bennington College. In the 1980s he developed a course on the psychology of art that became highly popular with students majoring in the visual and performing arts.

Following his retirement in 1993, he continued his intellectual explorations producing a number of books on spiritual humanism and the evolution of man. Lou was recently predeceased by his wife of 64 years, Patricia F. Carini. He leaves his son Peter Carini, daughter-in-law Jo Knowles, and grandson Eli Carini, all of Hartland, Vermont, along with numerous nieces and nephews. A celebration of Lou's life will take place at a later date. Gifts in Lou's memory can be made to the Prospect School Fellowship Program at the University of Vermont at http://go.uvm.edu/prospect or mailed to 411 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05401, or to the Hiland Hall School, 2196 Harwood Hill Rd, Bennington, VT 05201.