Henry J. Leuchter

LEUCHTER Dr. Henry J. Leuchter, age 92, of Worthington, a husband, father, physician, and community volunteer, died on August 26, 2012 in Greeley, Colorado. Dr. Leuchter was born on April 24, 1920, in Hundewick/Stadtlohn, Westfalia, Germany. He was preceded in death by his mother in 1923, his father in 1928, his step-mother in 1929, his brother in 1943 and his beloved wife of 50 years, Ruth (Roberts) in 2009. In 1939 Dr. Leuchter joined the German Air Force which sponsored him at the Universities of W?rzburg and Berlin, beginning 30 years of medical education. He graduated with an M.D. degree in 1944 from the University of Berlin and received further graduate medical education in internal medicine at University Hospital Frankfurt, Germany. He received a Masters of Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 1951 and completed residencies in Internal Medicine-Chest Diseases (1953-1956) and in Psychiatry (1965 to 1968), both at The Ohio State University. Dr. Leuchter's long and distinguished medical service began as an intern in a German Air Force hospital in Frankfurt, Germany. He became an American prisoner of war when Frankfurt was occupied in March of 1945. In 1948 he came to the United States as an exchange student to study Red Cross organization and operation. He returned to Germany in 1949 to serve as an advisor to the Health and Welfare Branch of the American Military Government in Germany. In 1950 he was awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship to study public health at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Leuchter became an American citizen in 1957. From 1956 to 1961 he served as a consultant in Preventive Medicine and Director of Medical Services in the Ohio Department of Mental Hygiene and Correction, and from 1961 to 1965 he served as the Director of Medical Services in the City Health Department (Columbus, OH) and as Medical Director in the Franklin County (Ohio) Welfare Department. From 1968 to 1995 he pursued the private practice of Psychiatry and also served as a Psychiatric Consultant to the Columbus Public School System, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, and the Ohio Youth Services Bureau. He was an Attending Psychiatrist at Harding Hospital from 1969 to 1995, serving as president of its medical staff in 1975 and 1976. From 1956 to 1990 he was a Clinical Assistant Professor in medicine, preventive medicine, and psychiatry at The Ohio State University. Dr. Leuchter became a member of the Columbus, Ohio State, and American Medical Associations in1956 and the Psychiatric Society of Central Ohio in 1968, serving as its president in 1976 and 77. He was a Life Fellow in both the Ohio State and the American Psychiatric Associations. From 1983 to 1989 he served as a member of the Citizen Advisory Board of the Central Ohio Psychiatric Hospital and was its chairman in 1985, 1986 and 1989. From 1975 to 1989 he served as a Trustee of the Mental Health Association of Franklin County and was its president in 1981-2 and 1987-8. Dr. Leuchter was a lifelong advocate of an integrated approach to human well-being. He believed that interprofessional collaboration was necessary to find solutions for the complex problems of the modern world. In 1987 he became a close friend of Dr. Van Bogard Dunn who invited him to join the Interprofessional Commission of Ohio (ICO) at The Ohio State University. He was elected to its Board of Directors in 1993 and became a Life Member of the ICO in 1998. Throughout the remainder of his life, Dr. Leuchter had a significant impact on the intellectual and programmatic life of this organization. His ideas and support stimulated interprofessional public policy analysis of a range of topics including stress, smart growth, information technology, and emerging ethical concerns in the 21st century. His contributions in these areas resulted in public symposia, study documents and policy recommendations. The Ohio Smart Growth Network, concerned with thoughtful urban planning, grew out of one of the symposia he sponsored. Public policy analysis panels he supported developed case studies and other teaching resources used in interprofessional graduate courses in ethics. In 2001 he sponsored an Interprofessional Panel to develop an ethical basis for the application of information technologies with a goal of informed citizens applying Information Age science and technology to promote the well-being of all members of the human family and their environment. In his final years, Dr. Leuchter provided partial support for a professorship in interprofessional education at The Ohio State University that had been established in honor of him and his wife. He is survived by his daughter, Dr. Johanna (Candice Corrigan) Leuchter of Union, WA; his son, Lee Winfred (Virginia) Leuchter of Greeley, CO; and two grandchildren, Keith Leuchter and Jane Leuchter. A memorial service will be held at the First Unitarian Universalist Church, 93 W. Weisheimer Rd., Columbus, Ohio, 43214 on Friday, September 7, 2012, 11 a.m., the Rev. Dr. Michael Casto officiating. In lieu of flowers, donations will be accepted to the Interprofessional Commission of Ohio, A456 PAES Building, 305 W 17th Ave., Columbus, OH 43210.