In Memory of Dr. Nicholas Long

I first met and was trained by Nicholas Long way back in the early 1990's. It was the best learning experience I have had in my career.

Soon afterward, I went to my first Reclaiming Youth Conference in South Dakota and met Larry Brendtro,

Both have had a enormous impact on my life.

Will miss you Nick!

Remembering Nicholas Long by Larry K. Brendtro

A towering figure in the Reclaiming Youth movement was Nicholas J. Long who passed away February 26, 2022, at the age of 92. His life mission to help troubled children was inspired by his doctoral experience at the University of Michigan Fresh Air Camp. This program was founded in the forties by Fritz Redl of Austria who escaped Hitler’s onslaught and brought restorative approaches to the U.S. Instead of studying children’s behavior in the isolation of clinic or laboratory, therapy was moved to the front lines in a summer camp serving those described by Redl as “Children who Hate.” The camp counselors were graduate students from many professions who learned to build bonds of respect with “campers” sent from juvenile facilities, mental health agencies, and special education programs. As troubled and traumatized youth acted out their inner fury, punishment was replaced by relationships and outdoor adventures. The core intervention was a therapeutic conversation called the Life Space Interview. For three decades, hundreds of aspiring young professionals were initiated into the values and strategies of the reclaiming youth movement.

Nick worked closely with Fritz Redl’s protégé, William C. Morse, who directed the U. of M. Fresh Air Camp and made the relationally rich, restorative approach of Life Space Crisis Intervention the central focus of his life’s work. Morse encouraged Nick to apply for a position as principal of an experimental school for highly aggressive boys in Washington, DC, established by Redl as a research project of the National Institute of Mental Health. The previous principal resigned after an assault by a student, but Nick was eager to embrace this new challenge, well-prepared by his time at Fresh Air Camp. Real-world relationships with society’s castoff kids inspired an unmatched career that impacted professionals worldwide. Nick developed psycho-educational programs for children while Professor at American University and directed the Rose School in DC.

In 1965, Nick Long and his mentor Bill Morse authored the first edition of Conflict in the Classroom which brought reclaiming strategies into schools. This text would evolve through seven editions, and it remains in print over a half-century later. In the 1990s, Nick and Frank Fecser established Life Space Crisis Intervention Institute which has certified practitioners and trainers worldwide in the rare skills of talking with kids in conflict. Nick and I had similar backgrounds at Fresh Air Camp, and our doctoral advisor was William Morse. For nearly 25 years, Nick and I edited the journal Reclaiming Children and Youth which published 1,500 articles by hundreds of colleagues on the leading edge of this work. Our proudest achievement is the deep bench of talented young professionals who carry forward this work—including Mark Freado who edits this Thriving journal, highlighting the expertise of a new generation of leaders in the reclaiming movement.