Statement by Michael J. Burgess, Director New York State Office for the Aging

ALBANY, NY (07/06/2010)(readMedia)-- New York State and the nation have lost a giant in the field of gerontology with the passing of Dr. Robert Butler on Sunday. Not only was he the leading voice on issues related to longevity and the study of aging, but he was a moral voice who insisted that society value our elders in its public policies and programs.

I was pleased to be able to honor him in May along with nine others with a special award from the New York State Office for the Aging. Dr. Butler also came to Albany in 2008 to make a presentation to our agency staff on an agency training day.

Dr. Butler achieved much deserved acclaim and recognition for his academic and policy work in the field of aging throughout his career here and abroad.

Robert N. Butler, M.D., was President and Chief Executive Officer and Co-Chair of the Alliance for Health and the Future of the International Longevity Center and professor of geriatrics at the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Adult Development at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. From 1975 to 1982 he was the founding director of the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health. In 1982 he founded the first department of geriatrics in a U.S. medical school. He was a founding Fellow of the American Geriatrics Society and vice-chairman of the Alliance for Aging Research. He served as Chair, Advisory Committee, 1995 White House Conference on Aging. He served as member (1986-) and then Chair (1994-) of the Advisory Committee of the Metropolitan Life Foundation Awards for Medical Research. He is a member of the Advisory Committee, Project on Death In America of the Open Society Institute (George Soros, Founder).

Dr. Butler was a consultant to the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, the Commonwealth Fund, the Brookdale Foundation, the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation and numerous other organizations. He served on the National Advisory Committees of the Physicians for Human Rights, the National Women's Health Resource Center and the Mildred and Claude Pepper Foundation, among other organizations. Dr. Butler had been a frequent advisor to the World Health Organization. He was elected a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 1979. He was also a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance. He was a member of the Physician Payment Review Commission, an agency of the U.S. Congress, 1986-89. In 1976 Dr. Butler won the Pulitzer Prize for his book "Why Survive? Being Old in America." He is co-author (with Dr. Myrna I. Lewis) of the books "Aging and Mental Health" and "Love and Sex After 60."

Dr. Butler is owed our gratitude for his work and the humanity he showed in his career.