Ewald William Busse (August 18, 1917 – March 7, 2004) was an American

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry, the branch of medicine devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, study, and treatment of mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and evaluate patients to determine whether their sy ...

gerontologist Gerontology ( ) is the study of the social, cultural, psychological, cognitive, and biological aspects of aging. The word was coined by Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov in 1903, from the Greek , ''geron'', "old man" and , ''-logia'', "study of". Th ...

, author and academic administrator best known for being the dean of the

Duke University School of Medicine The Duke University School of Medicine, commonly known as Duke Med, is the medical school of Duke University. It is located in the Collegiate Gothic-style West Campus of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. The School of Medicine, along wit ...

Biography

The son of German immigrants, Busse was born and raised in

Saint Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which ...

and educated at Westminster College and the

Washington University School of Medicine Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM) is the medical school of Washington University in St. Louis in St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1891, the School of Medicine has 1,260 students, 604 of which are pursuing a medical degree with or ...

. After serving in both the army and the navy, Busse was trained in psychiatry at

University of Colorado The University of Colorado (CU) is a system of public universities in Colorado. It consists of four institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, University of Colorado Denver, and the University of Co ...

from 1946 to 1948. In 1953, he moved to Duke University, where he became the Chair of the Department of Psychiatry, before eventually becoming Associate Provost and Dean of Medical Education in 1974. He served in that position until 1982. From 1971 to 1972, Busse served as the President of the

American Psychiatric Association The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the largest psychiatric organization in the world. It has more than 37,000 members are involve ...

. From 1987 to 1994, Busse served as President and Chief Executive Officer of the North Carolina Institute of Medicine. He received many awards, including the Malford W. Thewlis award for gerontology and the William C. Menninger Award. Much of his work was focused on

biological aging Senescence () or biological aging is the gradual deterioration of functional characteristics in living organisms. The word ''senescence'' can refer to either cellular senescence or to senescence of the whole organism. Organismal senescence inv ...

as a driver of diseases of aging; he was president of the International Association of Gerontology and founding director of the Duke University Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, and each year Duke awards the Busse Research Awards in his honor, which recognize significant contributions to aging research in both social/behavioral and biomedical sciences. The awards supported from an endowment made by Gerontology International. He died March 7, 2004, in

Durham, North Carolina Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...

. He was survived by his wife, Ortrude, and three daughters, a son having died earlier.

Works

Busse, Ewald W., et al. “Studies of the Processes of Aging: Factors that Influence the Psyche of Elderly Persons,” ''American Journal of Psychiatry'' 110(12) (June 1954): 897-903. Busse, Ewald W., et al. “Studies of the Processes of Aging. X: The Strengths and Weaknesses of Psychic Functioning in the Aged,” ''American Journal of Psychiatry'' 111(12) (June 1955): 896-901. Busse, Ewald W. “Geriatrics Today – An Overview,” ''American Journal of Psychiatry'' 123(10) (April 1967): 1226-1233. Busse, Ewald W. ''Therapeutic Implications of Basic Research with the Aged: The Fourth Annual Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital Award Lecture in Memory of Edward A. Strecker, M.D.'' utley, NJ: Roche Laboratories, 1967 Busse, Ewald W. “APA’s Role in Influencing the Evolution of a Health Care Delivery System,” ''American Journal of Psychiatry'' 126(5) (Nov. 1969): 739-744. Busse, Ewald W., and Eric Pfeiffer, eds. ''Behavior and Adaptation in Late Life, by 17 Authors''. Boston: Little, Brown, 1969. Busse, Ewald W. “The Council on Mental Health Services,” ''American Journal of Psychiatry'' 126(10) (April 1970): 1531-1533. Busse, Ewald W. “Geriatrics: Some Complex Problems,” ''American Journal of Psychiatry'' 127(8) (Feb. 1971): 1078-1080. Busse, Ewald W. “The Presidential Address: There are Decisions to Be Made,” ''American Journal of Psychiatry'' 129(1) (July 1972): 1-9. Barton, Walter E. “Ewald William Busse, M.D. One Hundredth President, 1921-1972,” ''American Journal of Psychiatry'' 129(1) (July 1972): 12-16. Busse, Ewald W., and Eric Pfeiffer, eds. ''Mental Illness in Later Life''. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Assn., 1973. Busse, Ewald W. ''The Present and Future Importance of Patterns of Private Psychiatric Practice in the Delivery of Mental Health Services: Report of the Task Force''. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Assn., 1973. Busse, Ewald W. ''Theory and Therapeutics of Aging''. New York: Medcom Press, 1973. Rosenfeld, Anne H., and Ewald W. Busse, eds. ''Psychiatric Education: Prologue to the 1980s: Report of the Conference on Education of Psychiatrists, Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, June 9-15, 1975''. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Assn., 1975. Busse, Ewald W., ed. ''Cerebral Manifestations of Episodic Cardiac Dysrhythmias: Proceeding of a Symposium, June 19-20, 1978, Miami, Florida''. Amsterdam: Excerpta Medica; New York: Distributed in the U.S. by Elsevier North-Holland, 1979. Blazer, Dan G., II, and Ewald W. Busse, eds. ''Handbook of Geriatric Psychiatry''. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1980. Busse, Ewald W., George L. Maddox, and Edward C. Buckley, eds. ''The Duke Longitudinal Studies of Normal Aging, 1955-1980: Overview of History, Design, and Findings''. New York: Springer, 1985. Maddox, George L., and Ewald W. Busse. ''Aging, the Universal Human Experience: Selected Papers from the Symposia of the XIIIth Congress of the International Association of Gerontology''. New York: Springer, 1987. Busse, Ewald W., and Dan G. Blazer, II, eds. ''Geriatric Psychiatry''. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press, 1989. Busse, Ewald W., and Dan G. Blazer, II, eds. ''The American Psychiatric Press Textbook of Geriatric Psychiatry''. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press, 1996. Blazer, Dan G., II, David C. Steffens, and Ewald W. Busse, eds. ''Essentials of Geriatric Psychiatry''. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Pub., 2007.

References

External links

Ewald W. Busse Papers at Duke University Medical Center Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Busse, Ewald W. Washington University School of Medicine alumni 1917 births 2004 deaths Duke University faculty Westminster College (Missouri) alumni University of Colorado Boulder alumni American psychiatrists Presidents of the American Psychiatric Association Members of the National Academy of Medicine Washington University in St. Louis alumni University of Colorado Denver people