HARVEY PICKER

CAMDEN – Harvey Picker, 92, physicist, inventor, educator, business-man and philanthropist, died March 22, 2008. Mr. Picker was born in New York City in 1915. He graduated from Colgate University in 1936 and from Harvard Business School with a Master of Business Administration in 1938. During that time, he also studied at Oxford University. In 1938, Mr. Picker joined Picker X-ray Co., which his father had founded two decades earlier. When war broke out in Europe, Picker X-ray, in collaboration with the Army, developed field X-ray equipment small enough to fit into three-foot lockers and sturdy enough to be parachuted to wherever it was needed. At the end of the war, Mr. Picker and his father sent a check for $3 million, representing the company’s profits from those field X-ray machines, to the U.S. Treasury, explaining that the family did not wish to profit from the war effort. While in the Navy, Mr. Picker was selected to work on the secret development of radar with a team of physicists at the radiation laboratory at MIT, Cambridge, Mass. After returning to civilian life, he headed Picker X-ray Co. for 25 years, leading the company into such groundbreaking developments as cobalt therapy for cancer, nuclear imaging diagnostics and the use of ultrasound for oceanography, which was then adapted for medical imaging. In 1971, Mr. Picker returned to his alma mater, Colgate University, as an adjunct faculty member. He challenged his students to examine the unintended consequences of the forces that were shaping the world they would one-day control in a number of thought-provoking courses, including “The Social Content of Science and Technology” and “The Politics of Assassination.” In 1972, Mr. Picker was asked by the faculty of the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia to serve as dean, despite the fact that he had neither an advanced degree nor any professional experience in the field of international relations. The school tripled in size during his tenure. More recently, he helped found Picker Engineering Program at Smith College, his wife’s alma mater. Mr. Picker served on many boards, among them the New York Philharmonic, Hudson Institute, Colgate University, Lenox Hill Hospital, New Rochelle Hospital, Radiological Society Research and Education Foundation. He was a member of National Science Board and of International Atomic Energy Agency. Moving to Camden in 1982, Mr. Picker, an avid sailor, bought Wayfarer Marine, one of the largest boatyards on the East Coast. In keeping with his commitment to public service, he served on many local boards, including Camden Per-sonnel Board, Camden Public Library, Camden-Rockport De-velopment Committee, Bay Chamber Concerts, Penobscot Marine Museum, Owls Head Transportation Museum, Maine Maritime Museum, Is-land Institute, Midcoast Mental Health Foundation, Midcoast Mental Health Association, Maine Medical Assessment Foundation and Mid-Coast Fo-rum in international affairs. At the request of then Gov. John McKernan, he served on the Maine Health Care Finance Commission in 1989 and then on the Blue-Ribbon Commis-sion to overhaul the workers? compensation insurance sys-tem. In 1987, Mr. Picker was among the founders of Cam-den Conference. In 1996, he was the prime mover in the funding and construction of the centennial wing of Camden Public Library. He was named ?Townsperson of the Year? by Camden-Rockport-Lincolnville Chamber of Commerce in 1995, and he was elected a Harris Fellow by Camden Ro-tary Club. In 1994, Mr. Picker took over the operations of Picker Institute, which he had founded at the suggestion of and in partnership with his wife, Jean, in 1986. A global independent nonprofit organi-zation, Picker Institute is dedi-cated to advancing the princi-ples of patient-centered care as seen ?through the patient’s eyes.? The institute, which is credited with having coined the phrase “patient-centered care,? also pioneered patient-satisfaction surveys compris-ing the systematic collection of data from hospital patients to help improve the delivery of medical services. Since then, the Picker Surveys have be-come a standard measure of patient care worldwide. Jean Picker, who served as an am-bassador to the United Nations during the 1960s, was an ac-tive collaborator in Mr. Picker?s many interests. She died in 1990. Throughout his life, Mr. Picker believed in the chal-lenge of, and took great pleas-ure in, finding ways to em-power people through education. He believed in per-sonal responsibility, and in being answerable for the con-sequences to others of deci-sions made by people with power over others. He believed that identifying problems and solving them was the most fun a person could have other than sailing along the Maine coast on a sunny September after-noon. Finally, he believed that he had been graced with an enormous amount of luck and good fortune in his life, and he never ceased to express his gratitude for it. Mr. Picker is survived by two daughters, Bobbi Hamill of Boston and Gale Jean Picker of Seattle, Wash.; and three grandchildren, Jean Picker Larsen, Evelyn Picker Larsen and Matthew James Mrachek. Services will be announced at a later date.