News Release

Ewald Busse, Pioneer Researcher in Aging from North Carolina, Died

March 11, 2004

Ewald W. Busse, 86, associate provost emeritus and dean of Medical and Allied Health Education at Duke University, died Sunday, March 7 at The Forest at Duke in Durham, N.C.

Busse was one of the world's foremost authorities on human aging and a founder of the field of geriatric psychiatry. He was founding director of the Duke Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development. Duke University later honored him in 1985 by dedicating the E.W. Busse Gerontology Building, located on the Medical Center campus.

His professional involvement included serving as President of the American Psychiatric Association, the American Geriatrics Society, the Gerontological Society of America, the American Association of the Departments of Psychiatry, the Southern Psychiatric Association, the International Association of Gerontology and the N.C. Institute of Medicine. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Institute of Medicine and a member of the jury for the International Sandoz Prize for research in gerontology. Dr. Busse served on President Ford's Biomedical Research Panel, numerous committees and, at one time, ventured into the ocean's depths as a consultant to the U.S. Navy assessing the effect of submarine life on human behavior.

The Ewald W. Busse Award, created in his honor, is given annually by the N.C. Division of Aging at the North Carolina Conference on Aging. Another award, the Busse Research Award, is an internationally recognized award administered by the Duke Center for Aging for gerontological research.