ROBERT JEROME WEISS, M.D.

ORONO – Robert Jerome Weiss, M.D., 90, psychiatrist, educator and administrator, died peacefully this past evening, Sept. 30, 2008, at his home, with his wife and children beside him. Dr. Weiss was the founding chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at Dartmouth Medical School and the first full-time dean of the Columbia University School of Public Health. His career spanned the age where American medicine blossomed as a scientific discipline as he received his doctorate in medicine from Columbia University in 1951 and retired as the dean of the Columbia University School of Public Health in 1986. Dr. Weiss entered Johns Hopkins University in 1934, however, after three years, due to the depression, he was forced to drop out. In 1941 after spending a brief period in marketing and public relations, he was drafted into the U.S. Army. His Army experiences were transformational. He entered the Army as a private and left as a major. He graduated first in his class in Officer’s Candidate School and was subsequently promoted to first lieutenant and then to captain. He finished his Army career producing a national radio show for the Office of Army Chief of Staff, over the ABC network called “Weapons for Victory.” Arthur Lawrence and Arnold Pearl wrote the show with music by Frank Lesser. His Army experience convinced him that he had the intellectual ability to perform at the highest level and that he “could be a leader.” After returning from military service in 1945, he married Minnie Thompson Moore and quickly took advantage of the benefits of the GI Bill, facilitating reentry of soldiers into civilian life to obtain funding to continue his education. He completed his Bachelor of Arts from George Washington University in 1947 and, subsequently, applied to medical school. Because of the large number of returning GIs, admission to medical school was extremely difficult. Dr. Weiss applied to 23 medical schools and was accepted by only one, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He received his doctorate in medicine in 1951. Although his intention was to have a career in academic internal medicine, he contracted tuberculosis from one of his patients as a fourth-year medical student and spent his internship year in the doctor’s ward at Bellevue Hospital, New York City. This illness would also shape his career. Due to subsequent chest surgery and antibiotic treatments coupled with his age, he decided to focus his career on the emergent field of psychiatry. He completed his residency at the New York Psychiatric Institute at Presbyterian Hospital and Columbia University. He was one of the first psychiatrists to be awarded a National Institute of Mental Health Career Teacher Trainee Award. This award was the initial support he needed to launch his academic career. In 1958 Dr. Weiss was selected to become the first academic chief of psychiatry at Mary Hitchcock Hospital and professor of psychiatry at Dartmouth Medical School, the third oldest medical school in the United States. His mandate was to build an effective academic and clinical program in modern psychiatry. His career teacher trainee award supported his interest in teaching and as he built the Department of Psychiatry at Dartmouth Medical School, he began to train a generation of medical students in modern psychodynamic and molecular psychiatry. Several of his students went on to distinguished careers including at least three academic department chairs. He was the first psychiatrist to use interactive telemedicine to link rural practices throughout New Hampshire and northern New England to Dartmouth Medical Center for consultation in the diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric illness. In an effort to improve mental health services throughout the state, he committed his faculty and residents to staffing the State Mental Hospital in Concord, N.H., and he received the first grant in New England from the National Institute of Mental Health to build a community mental health center. During this time, he began his research career in social psychiatry demonstrating the importance of social supports in reducing disability due to mental illness. At the time of Dr. Weiss’ departure from Dartmouth Medical School, the Department of Psychiatry had grown from one faculty member to 20 and a $10 million clinical and research facility was in place due to his recruiting and fundraising efforts. In 1970 Dr. Weiss’ friendship with Robert Ebert, then Dean of Harvard Medical School, and his interest in community medicine led him to assume the position of associate dean for Health Care Planning and associate director of the Center for Community Health and Medical Care at Harvard Medical School. This served as a period of redirection of his career where he refocused his research interests on community medicine, medical manpower needs and health policy. He published several papers in the New England Journal of Medicine on medical manpower and served on numerous committees for the National Institute of Mental Health and National Academy of Sciences relating to health manpower, particularly, in the field of psychiatry. He also trained several research fellows during this period of his career, some of which became leaders in the emerging discipline of health services research. In 1975 Dr. Weiss’ alma mater recruited him back to the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons to assume the directorship for the Center for Community Health at Columbia, and to serve as professor of psychiatry and social medicine. This enabled him to continue his research endeavors in health policy, but he was rapidly recruited to take on more administrative roles. In 1980 Columbia University decided to turn the School of Public Health, which was initially a department, into a full-fledged graduate school. Because of his extensive administrative experience, Dr. Weiss was chosen to become the founding dean of the Columbia University School of Public Health and the DeLamar professor of public health practice. During this period he edited two books, the Columbia University Home Health Guide and Health After 50, both of which were popular with the lay public. He continued to serve in this role until his retirement in 1986. Dr. Weiss’ contributions to the school included, fund raising, recruiting all of the initial department and division chairs, development of a long range academic and space plan with both an evening and summer curriculum. He remained active into his retirement, first as a consultant to AT&T to help develop a company to provide medical information to consumers through a computer based information system. This resulted in the establishment of the medical informatics company, Carewise. He also founded a consulting firm, Weiss, Baldacci & Fletcher, Bangor. He served on the development council for the governor of Maine, he was on the board of several companies, including Indian Meadows Herbals, as well as serving as a member of the Maine State Legislatures Commission on trade policy. He received excellent care from New Hope Hospice and his Family Nurse Practitioner Miki MacDonald of Bangor. Dr. Weiss is survived by his wife of 63 years, Minnie Thompson Moore, a former psychiatric social worker; and by three children, all physicians, Scott T. Weiss, a researcher at the Channing Laboratory, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston; J. Woodrow Weiss, a pulmonary specialist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston; and Elizabeth Thompson Weiss, a general internist and medical administrator in Bangor. He has six grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to New Hope Hospice, Bangor, the American Friends Service Committee, Nature Conservancy or the Democratic Party.