Dr. Marie S. Metoyer was not only New Hampshire’s first female psychiatrist, but also the first African-American psychiatrist in the state. This is her (brief) story:
Marie was born in 1925 in Jersey City, New Jersey. After graduating from Fordham University, summa cum laude, she continued her education at Cornell Medical School at the age of twenty. Marie was one of a handful of women there and went on to become the first African-American female to graduate from Cornell.
During her time at the medical school, she met her future husband, Victor Metoyer Jr., an architectural draftsman/artist. Victor was from Nebraska and was stationed in New York City as this was during the second World War. They married, had five children and relocated to Jersey City.
While back in NJ, from 1952-1968 Dr. Metoyer took over her mother’s gynecology and obstetrics practice. From 1968-1972, she attended the University of Vermont in pursuit of a residency in psychiatry, eventually getting a Fellowship in Community and Child Psychiatry. She practiced in Vermont from 1972-1981, the only psychiatrist in the Northeast Kingdom.
In 1981, Victor and Marie moved to Manchester, NH where Marie first worked from 1981-85 as a psychiatrist at Manchester Mental Health. She then went on to become “Clinical Director of the Day Program” from 1985-96 at the same facility. Along with specializing in community mental health, her many other achievements were as follows:
- Chairperson of the Women’s Committee of NH Psychiatric Society 1990-92
- Member of Ethics Committee of the NH Psychiatric Society 1990-95, and 1999
- Held memberships in several national psychiatric organizations.
After retiring in 1996, Marie busied herself by promoting African-American heritage, black scholarship, cultural diversity, racial equality, women’s rights and the fine arts. She received the “Susan B. Anthony” Award in 2002 from the Manchester YWCA. In 2007, New Hampshire Magazine named her a member of the “It” list along with Nabil Migali for their multi-cultural work in reviving People Fest. The following year, Marie received the Martin Luther King award from the MLK Coalition. She was honored by Senator Jeanne Shaheen in 2012 for her years of dedication and service to the people of NH. Marie also found time to be an active member of the New England chapter of the African American Historical and Genealogical Society (AAHGS).
As an interesting aside, Gabriel Coakley, Marie’s great-grandfather and a freed slave, played a vital part in the founding of St. Augustine Church in Washington, D.C. during the Civil War. The church is thought to be the "Mother Church of Black Catholics”, the first Black parish in the district and administrator of DC's oldest surviving Black school.
Dr. Marie S. Metoyer passed away at the Community Hospice House in Merrimack on March 17, 2020 at the age of 94. We salute this intelligent, trail-blazing, and dedicated woman of medicine.