I was saddened to
read last week of the death of Dr. Robert Butler, age 83. Dr. Butler was a renowned psychiatrist,
Pulitzer-prize-winning author, and fierce advocate for seniors. In his book, Why Survive? Being Old in America, Dr. Butler coined the term
“ageism,” and argued for a national policy on aging.
We owe many of our
geriatric break-throughs to Dr. Butler’s work. He was the founding director of
the National Institute on Aging, he
helped start and led the American Association
for Geriatric Psychiatry, the Alzheimer’s Disease Association and the International Longevity Center.
To learn more about
Dr. Butler and his extraordinary life, read his obituary from the New
York Times.