Shelley Dunham-McBride, retired psychotherapist and reading specialist, has died at 74

Shelley Dunham-McBride, 74, of Philadelphia, retired psychotherapist at Pennsylvania Hospital and longtime reading specialist for the School District of Philadelphia, died Friday, Sept. 20, of complications from COVID-19 and lymphoma at Pennsylvania Hospital.

Inspired when she was young by the example of a psychotherapist friend, Mrs. Dunham-McBride earned a master’s degree in social work at the University of Pennsylvania in 1974. She completed a two-year internship at the Hall Mercer Community Mental Health Center at Pennsylvania Hospital and spent four years as a staff therapist.

She was driven, her family said, by a natural kindness and empathy for those in need, and she championed education, opportunity, and equality. She was a doer and a hugger, said her husband, Bernard McBride, and she especially sought ways to uplift the lives of Black people.

“She was loving, always smiling, always positive,” her husband said. “She was a bright light.”

She left the workplace in the 1980s to rear their son, Matthew, and daughter, Claire, and returned in 1988 as a reading specialist at First Philadelphia Preparatory Charter School and other schools in Philadelphia. She was certified through a graduate program at La Salle University and specialized in reading, her husband said, because she saw it as a “compelling need.”

She especially focused on underserved young students in the city, her husband said, because she felt that “if you can’t read, you can’t make it in life.” She retired from the schools after 25 years in 2013.

Mrs. Dunham-McBride wrote impassioned letters to the editor of The Inquirer in 2023 about racial insensitivity and financial inequity. In May 2023, she said: “In these times of consciously hateful ‘otherism’ of Black and brown people, of Asian, Jewish, and Muslim people, of LGBTQ people and immigrants, it is incumbent upon all of us to be vigilant about our deep-seated prejudices.”

In September 2023, she criticized Penn officials for giving former school president Amy Gutmann a lucrative exit payout. She said: “In a country that has denied loans, and therefore homeownership, disproportionately to Black and brown applicants; that tolerates homelessness and evictions at gunpoint; and which fuels rampant gentrification and displacement — this is not a good look.”

Chellise Carlotta Dunham was born April 3, 1950, in Rochester, N.Y. She was an honor student in high school and reared with three older siblings by a single mother and grandmother. Her family and friends called her Shelley.

She earned an academic scholarship and bachelor’s degree in liberal arts in 1968 at Tufts University in Massachusetts. She moved to Philadelphia to attend Penn, met Bernard McBride at Pennsylvania Hospital, and asked him out for a date. “I told her I had to think about it,” he said. “I called her back in five minutes.”

They married in 1976, had son Matthew and daughter Claire, and lived in Germantown, Mount Airy, and Chestnut Hill. Mrs. Dunham-McBride and her husband traveled often to Europe and enjoyed watching movies and British detective shows on TV. She was an expert in entertainment trivia.

She liked to dance and listen to Motown, jazz, and the blues. She read all kinds of books and sipped an occasional bourbon and ginger ale.

She attended St. Vincent de Paul Church and served as president of the home and school association when her children went to C.W. Henry School in Mount Airy. Her family said in a tribute: “Shell was kind to all, gave more than she took, and left the world a better place for having lived in it.”

In addition to her husband and children, Mrs. Dunham-McBride is survived by a sister, a brother, and other relatives. Two brothers and a sister died earlier.

A private celebration of her life is to be held later.

Donations in her name may be made to the United Negro College Fund, Attn: Denise Scott, Direct Response Programs, 1805 Seventh St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001; and Habitat for Humanity, 322 W. Lamar St., Americus, Ga. 31709.