LINCOLN, MASSACHUSETTS — Robert Coles, a psychiatrist and Harvard University professor who earned a Pulitzer Prize for his five-part series "Children of Crisis," died on June 4, 2026, at the age of 97. A family member said Coles died at a hospice facility in Lincoln, Massachusetts.

Coles authored more than 50 books and hundreds of articles and essays during his career. The second and third volumes of the series received a Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction in 1973. The series was published between 1967 and 1978.

His research for "Children of Crisis" involved visiting families multiple times for interviews, during which he provided crayons for children to draw their experiences. The initial volume examined the psychological effects of school desegregation on children. The second volume documented the living conditions of migrant workers, sharecroppers, and residents of mountain regions. The third volume, subtitled "The South Goes North," focused on Black and white Southerners who migrated to Northern urban centers. Later volumes explored children of Native American, Alaska Native, and Hispanic descent, and children from affluent backgrounds.

Coles said, "I was constantly surprised at the endurance shown by children we would all call poor or, in the current fashion, 'culturally disadvantaged.'" His wife, Jane Coles, assisted him with his research interviews with families. She died in 1993. Coles had three sons.

During the early 1960s, while serving as a U.S. Air Force physician in the American South, Coles developed an interest in children's psychological responses to social crises. He published a children's book in 1995 titled "The Story of Ruby Bridges," about Ruby Bridges, who became the first Black student to attend a previously all-white school in New Orleans in 1960 at age six. Coles said of Bridges, "She demonstrated moral stamina; she possessed honor, courage."

In 1998, Coles received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He was also an early recipient of a MacArthur Foundation fellowship. A 1995 PBS documentary, "Listening to Children: A Moral Journey with Robert Coles," featured him interviewing children and analyzing their drawings.

Some of Coles' academic peers characterized his methodology as closer to journalism and advocacy than clinical psychiatry. Harvard professor Lawrence Kohlberg said, "He's a very good journalist who talks to kids sensitively and tells stories well, but no psychiatrist would take what he says seriously."

Coles was appointed a research psychiatrist at Harvard University Health Services. He became a professor of psychiatry and medical humanities in 1977 and a professor of social ethics in the School of Education in 1995. He taught a Harvard course titled "Literature of Social Reflection."