William Henry Grier (February 7, 1926 – September 3, 2015) was an American psychiatrist. He was born on February 7, 1926, in Birmingham, Alabama, the son of Henry Grier, a postal worker who lost his job when Grier was 12; the family subsequently moved to Detroit, Michigan, to live for a time with family. He attended Howard University but left after a year to the University of Michigan where he received his bachelor of science degree (1945) and then his M.D.. He became a psychiatrist, and shortly thereafter, he was sent overseas as part of the Korean War and contracted polio which left him with a permanent limp. He first worked as a psychiatrist in Detroit before moving to San Francisco, where he met Price M. Cobbs. Together, they published the book '' Black Rage'' in 1968. ''Black Rage'' was a groundbreaking work on race and became required reading in college classes. In 1971, they co-wrote another book about black churches called ''The Jesus Bag''. He was the chairman of the department of psychiatry at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, in the 1970s. He then had a psychiatric practice in San Diego until he retired in the 1990s.

Family

He is the father of

David Alan Grier David Alan Grier (born June 30, 1956) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his work as Bernard on '' Damon'' (1998), as David Bellows on ''Life with Bonnie'' (2002–2004), as Joe Carmichael on ''The Carmichael Show'' (2015� ...

Death

He died on September 3, 2015, in

Carlsbad, California Carlsbad is a coastal city in the North County region of San Diego County, California, United States. The city is south of downtown Los Angeles and north of downtown San Diego. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 114,746. ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grier, William H. 1926 births 2015 deaths University of Michigan Medical School alumni