Henry Walker Brosin

Dr Brosin, a Tucson resident since 1969 and Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Arizona Medical School for 24 years, died on 3 July 1999, three days short of his 95th birthday. Dr Brosin was born in Blackwood, Virginia, the son of German immigrants. He received his AB from the University of Wisconsin in Madison in 1927, and his MD from the same university in 1933. He did his residency training in Psychiatry at the University of Colorado from 1934 to 1937 with other illustrious psychiatrists including John Romano and Jack Ewalt. Dr Brosin trained as a psychoanalyst at the Chicago Institute from 1937 to 1941. He served as a colonel in the US Army during the Second World War, and was decorated with the Legion of Merit.

Dr Brosin was a member of the Faculty of the University of Chicago from 1937 until 1946 as a professor and from 1946 until 1950 as Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry. In 1950, he joined the University of Pittsburgh as Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Director of the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinics and served in these capacities until his first, official retirement in 1969.

After moving to Tucson, Dr Brosin joined the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. He taught medical students and residents until his retirement in 1994, at the age of 90.

Dr Brosin was known internationally for his contributions to psychiatry in general and to psychoanalysis in particular. He published numerous scientific articles in academic journals, focusing on a wide variety of topics ranging from eating disorders to organic cerebral diseases. His main interest was in individual psychotherapy, psychosomatics and physicians/psychiatrists education. His influence over innumerable psychiatrists who studied under him is legendary. He was a teacher and a mentor par excellence. He was a voracious reader and possessed a library of over 5000 volumes.

Dr Brosin received wide acclaim from his colleagues as attested to by his numerous awards. He was elected President of such prestigious organisations as the American Psychiatric Association, the Group for Advancement of Psychiatry and the American College of Psychiatrists.

He was elected to the honorary fellowship of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in the UK.

He will be missed by his family and students and colleagues worldwide as a great guiding influence, a clear thinker, a gifted healer and a humble but powerful student of human behaviour.