Abraham Sidney Linn passed away on 8 June 2025, in Seattle, WA at the age of 94.

Born in Brooklyn, NY to Sol Linn and Lena Taranofsky Linn, he spent some of his very early childhood accompanying his father at work, picking up and dropping off outsourced laundry from Chinese laundry services. When Abe was 7, his father succumbed to a heart attack, leaving his mother to raise 3 sons in the midst of The Great Depression. As a result, Abe was raised mainly by his grandmother.

He received his public school education in Brooklyn, his undergraduate degree, cum laude at City College of New York (CCNY) in Chemistry in 1951, and his medical degree at State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate Medical Center, 1955.

Upon graduation from medical school, he did his internship rotations at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, CA, before starting his Psychiatric Residency at the Neuropsychiatric Institute at UCLA in 1956 and his second and third years at Metropolitan State Hospital, Norwalk, CA.

When he went into military service, he requested to be stationed on either the East or West Coast, and so he spent 1959-1961 at Fort Bliss in El Paso, TX.

From there, he accepted a position as a staff psychiatrist at Napa State Hospital in Napa, CA, and worked his way up to become their Program Director, Acute Psychiatric Program.

He spent the late 1970s to the late 1980s working in a variety of different capacities and clinical settings in and around Auburn, CA, including Sierra View Mental Health Services, Placer County Mental Health, Sutter-Yuba Mental Health Services and Nevada County Behavioral Health, as well as the Veterans Administration Outpatient Clinic in Sacramento, CA, California State Prison Sacramento, Placer County Jail and Nevada County Jail. He also was a Clinical Assistant Professor at UC Davis Medical School in the early 1980s.

He then made his way across the country to Amherst, MA, where he worked at clinics in both Greenfield and Westfield, MA.

Professional honors and awards he received came from the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and Psychiatry, American Psychiatric Association, and National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Abe moved back to California, settling in Novato to start his retirement at age 83. In 2022 he moved to Seattle, WA to be near his daughter.

He was passionate about animals, movies and art, but particularly music, especially classical and jazz, but remained open minded about other genres. He loved to learn and share his knowledge, had an eidetic memory, which made him a Trivia Quiz champion, and his education in Latin and German enabled him to make up words when playing Scrabble, and when challenged, his “inventions” would almost always be found in the dictionary.

He is survived by his daughter, Judi, his 2 granddaughters, Sauvryn and Charlotte, his grandson Jeffrey Ryan, 4 great grandchildren, and extended family members.

He was predeceased by his two sons, Dave and Jeffrey Donald, his ex-wives Harriette Terri Wagner Linn and Joyce Marie Westerman Linn and his former partner, Masha Rudman.

An informal Memorial/Celebration of Life will be held on 30 August, 2025, at the Ballard NW Senior Center, 5429 32nd Ave NW, Seattle, WA 98107.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made in his name to Doctors Without Borders, the ACLU, or World Central Kitchen.