Robert N. Butler, MD, a gerontologist and psychiatrist, and founding president of the International Longevity Center-USA in New York City, died July 4 of leukemia at Mount Sinai Medical Center. The aging and mental health communities lost a true advocate and visionary with the passing of Dr. Butler.

Dr. Butler was the founding director of the National Institute on Aging, the founding chairman of the nation's first department of geriatrics, at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and one of a small group of professionals who founded AAGP in 1978.

“He was a consummate humanist and the preeminent geriatric specialist of his generation,” said Gary Kennedy, MD, of the Montefiore Medical Center, an AAGP past president (2002-2003). “Everyone appreciated and grew from his insight but it is his laughter I will remember most.”

Through his research, Dr. Butler brought to light the idea of ageism, as well as the notion of successful aging. He was a principal investigator of one of the first interdisciplinary, comprehensive, longitudinal studies of healthy community-residing older adults, conducted at the National Institute of Mental Health. At the NIA, Dr. Butler made Alzheimer’s disease a national research priority. In 1976, Dr. Butler wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning book “Why Survive? Being Old in America”.