In Memoriam: Alexander Leighton, August 31, 2007, Harvard Public Health NOW

Alexander Leighton

Alexander H. Leighton, 99, passed away on August 11 at his home in Nova Scotia. Professor Leighton was the first chair of the HSPH Department of Behavioral Sciences, later named the Department of Health and Social Behavior and now part of Society, Human Development, and Health. He was the husband of Jane Murphy, a professor in the HSPH Department of Epidemiology. In an e-mail to the HSPH community, Dean for Academic Affairs James Ware described Professor Leighton as an important contributor to the School's psychiatric epidemiology program.

Professor Leighton was born in Philadelphia. He was graduated from Princeton University with a bachelor's degree in 1932 and from Cambridge University with a master's degree in physiology in 1934. Two years later, he earned his MD from Johns Hopkins University. In 1966, Harvard University awarded him an honorary degree.

He served during World War II and then embarked on a nearly 20-year-long career at Cornell University. There, he became a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Cornell Medical College and in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. While at Cornell in 1948, Professor Leighton launched the landmark Stirling County Study in a Canadian study population. This undertaking was a longitudinal study of the epidemiology of psychiatric disorders, and comparative studies were conducted in New York City, Alaska, Nigeria, and Vietnam.

Professor Leighton joined the HSPH faculty in 1966 as a professor of social psychiatry. While chair of the Department of Behavioral Sciences, Professor Leighton gathered specialists in medicine, sociology, anthropology, and psychology to study the mental health of populations, identify social and cultural factors that influence mental illness, and explore rehabilitative and preventive measures on a population basis.

In 1975, Professor Leighton retired from the School, at which time his wife, Jane, assumed responsibility for the Stirling County Study. Professor Leighton received a National Health Scientist Award from the Government of Canada and was appointed professor of psychiatry and professor of community health and epidemiology at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Professor Leighton is survived by his wife, Jane, a daughter, Dr. Doreen Leighton Walker of California, a son, Dr. Ted Leighton of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and five grandchildren. His first wife, Dorothea Cross, had previously passed away. A memorial service was held in Nova Scotia in St. Anne's Birch Chapel. A service in Boston will be held at a later date. More information about this service will be announced when available.