Image via CrunchBase“I think a lot of older people are sitting on their asses, playing golf, and not making a contribution to society.”
Bounding about his Upper East Side office less than two weeks ago, Dr. Robert Butler seemed determined not to make that mistake. At 83, one of the world’s leading authorities on aging had just published his latest book, “The Longevity Prescription,” piles of which were scattered everywhere.
Dr. Butler died on Sunday at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, where in 1982 he had founded the first gerontology department at a United States medical school. My interview with him that day was one of his last.
Dr. Butler dedicated his life to ensuring that ours were longer and healthier. The author of innumerable scientific papers on longevity and aging, he founded and served as the first director of the National Institute on Aging. His first book, “Why Survive? Being Old in America,” won a Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction in 1976.
Until just days before his death, he was still putting in 60-hour work weeks as the founder and C.E.O. of the International Longevity Center in New York.
He couldn’t sit still for the course of our interview, jumping up to grab me a soda (he was sipping from a can of Coke) or a New York Times clipping on elder abuse.
Josh Tapper is a fellow of News21, a national initiative to promote innovation in journalism, at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Columbia will launch a Web site, called “Brave Old World: Aging in America,” later this summer.
Read Article
No comments:
Post a Comment