Remembering Dr. Robert Butler, a Pioneer in Healthy Aging
If there’s one person who has done more to influence the way we view aging and longevity in America, it would probably be renowned gerontologist and authority on healthy aging, Dr. Robert Butler, who passed away earlier this month at the age of 83. I first became aware of his impressive lifetime of achievements when I read a recent New York Times article titled A Last Conversation With Dr. Robert Butler.
With his pioneering research, articles and books on aging and longevity, Dr. Butler helped bring to light the idea that old age shouldn’t be a time characterized by illness or despair, but an opportunity for enlightened growth.
Dr. Butler began his career in 1955 at the National Institute of Mental Health. There, he helped conduct groundbreaking research which proved that senility is not an inevitable consequence of aging, and that older people are happier and tend to live longer when their lives are filled with goals, structure and a sense of purpose.
He went on to become the first director of the National Institute on Aging and to co-found what is now the Alzheimer’s Association. For more than half a century, Dr. Butler led the fight against “ageism,” a word he coined to describe discrimination against the elderly. His ideas about healthy aging have greatly influenced public policy and the missions of such organizations as AARP.
In his book, Why Survive? Being Old in America, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1976, he wrote:
The tragedy of old age is not the fact that each of us must grow old and die but that the process of doing so has been made unnecessarily and at times excruciatingly painful, humiliating, debilitating, and isolating through insensitivity, ignorance, and poverty.
Dr. Robert Butler believed that by living a healthy lifestyle and staying connected, we could extend our lifespans, and more importanly, could increase our chances of enjoying a high quality of life well into our “golden years.” In that respect, he was an exemplary role model, as he reportedly continued to be energetic and productive until almost the very end of his life.
Sources:
http://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/07/a-last-conversation-with-dr-robert-butler/
http://www.ilcusa.org/pages/about-us/president-ceo/robert-n-butler-md.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Neil_Butler
http://pagingdrgupta.blogs.cnn.com/2010/07/07/remembering-the-father-of-geriatrics/
