Marilyn Heins

1930 - 2025

Dr. Marilyn Heins, pediatrician, parenting educator, and author died on March 10, 2025. Born in Boston in 1930 to Esther Heins, a botanical artist, and Harold Heins, an electrical engineer, she graduated from Radcliffe College and received her MD from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University. She interned in pediatrics at The New York Hospital, completed a residency in pediatrics at Babies Hospital in New York, and was a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Dr. Heins served as Director of Pediatrics at Detroit Receiving Hospital and Director of Project PRESCAD, a federally funded program to provide comprehensive health services for medically indigent children. She was the first woman to serve as Associate, then Vice Dean at the University of Arizona College of Medicine where she was also a Professor of Pediatrics. She was also the first woman to serve as a department head at Detroit Receiving Hospital and the first woman Associate Dean at Wayne State University School of Medicine. Dr. Heins served as a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of the American Medical Association, as the first woman Chair of the Group on Student Affairs of the Association of American Medical Colleges, and on the National Board of Medical Examiners.

Dr. Heins served on many university and community boards, belonged to many professional organizations, and was active in community organizations focusing on children's health, education, parenting, and women's issues. She was a member of the Veteran Feminists of America and a recipient of the YMCA of Tucson Women on the Move Award, the Radcliffe College Alumnae Recognition Award, and the Arizona Medical Association President's Award, among others.

Her special interests in pediatrics included helping parents to parent and teaching health professionals how to help parents parent. She published many papers as well as two parenting books, and her website, ParentKidsright.com, was a popular resource for busy parents. She started to write a weekly parenting column for the Arizona Daily Star in 1989 and personally answered countless parenting questions for column and website readers. In her eighties she began to shift the focus of these columns to ageing, stressing that we must learn to parent ourselves in this stage of life. She was also a popular lecturer who spoke to many groups of parents, grandparents, teachers, and others who worked with children.

Dr. Heins was an avid supporter of the arts, especially opera and chamber music, and a voracious reader who once belonged to three book groups simultaneously. She traveled widely to more than 100 countries and visited all 50 states. She was married to Milton Lipson, a veterinarian, for 47 years until his death in 2007. She is survived by her companion of 12 years, Milton Francis and her children, Dr. Rachel Glick (Gary) of Ann Arbor, MI and Jonathan Lipson (Veronica) of Los Angeles, CA and two stepchildren, Ashley Lipson (Anna) of Los Angeles, CA and Robert Lipson (Shirley) of Shreveport, LA as well as six grandchildren and three step great-grandchildren.

A Memorial Service will take place on Wednesday, March 19 at 11 AM at the Westin La Paloma in Tucson.