Deceased May 17, 2020

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In Memory

Richard Behrman '53
Richard Behrman died peacefully at home in Santa Barbara, Calif., on May 17, 2020. At Amherst he joined Chi Psi and, at a party there, met the love of his life, Ann Nelson (Mount Holyoke ’54). As a political science major, Dick worked for JFK’s senatorial race and as junior staff for Kennedy and Jacob Javits. This helped develop his lifelong commitment to social justice and policy. It also led him to Harvard Law (J.D., 1956). Law school convinced him his path was through more direct human engagement, so he chose medicine (M.D., Rochester 1960). 

Dick’s career crisscrossed the nation. Highlights include residency at Hopkins Public Health Service in San Juan, Puerto Rico; research at the NIH and Oregon Health & Science University; vice chair at the University of Illinois; chair at Columbia University; and chair and subsequently dean of Case Western Reserve School of Medicine. He authored numerous studies of newborn physiology, earned the nation’s first board certification in neonatology and edited the Nelson Textbook of Pediatrics. Throughout, he inspired and mentored generations of medical students and physicians. His interests included perinatal medicine, pediatric intensive care, palliative care for terminally ill children, health and social services, and related public policy and ethics issues. 

Richard Behrman '53
In 1989, Dick and Ann moved to San Francisco, where he became director of the Center for the Future of Children; health affairs senior advisor at the Packard Foundation; board chairman for the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford; and clinical professor of pediatrics at Stanford and UCSF. He launched the journal The Future of Children, was a founding member of the Vermont Oxford Network and was elected to the Institute of Medicine (now National Academy of Medicine).

Dick is survived, loved and mourned by his and Ann’s four children and their partners, along with nine grandchildren, who remember him as a staunch supporter and leader of beach trips and practical jokes. 

Carolyn Behrman ’82