About Dr. Julius B. Richmond
When Dr. Julius B. Richmond received the Heinz Award for Public Policy in 2003, he was described as having pioneered a revolution that helped transform Americans’ attitudes toward their own health and improve the quality of life across generations. Dr. Richmond personifies what many of us aspire to: a concern for individual growth and development, professional excellence, and a commitment to social action in behalf of children.
Born and raised in the Chicago area, Dr. Richmond earned his B.S. at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and an M.S. in physiology and his M.D. in 1939 from the university’s College of Medicine in Chicago. Following his internship at Cook County Hospital, he completed two pediatric residencies, one at Chicago’s Municipal Contagious Disease Hospital and the second at Cook County Hospital. When the U.S. entered WWII, Dr. Richmond volunteered and was inducted into the Army Air Corps, 1942-46, where he was Chief Flight Surgeon at Randolph Field. He returned to the University of Illinois as Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and rose to the ranks of Associate Professor and Professor. In 1953, he moved on to the SUNY College of Medicine (now Upstate Medical Center), where he chaired the Department of Pediatrics and in 1965, became Dean of the Medical Faculty.
His early research centered attention on the biological, social, and psychological aspects of the relationship of mother to child for learning and development. Dr. Richmond initiated systematic studies of the developing autonomic nervous system, demonstrating the presence of individual differences in autonomic responsivity that persist through the first half-year of life. Later, his detailed investigations of the effects of infant rearing practices on heart rate led to a monograph on historical, cultural and behavioral aspects of swaddling. His early studies of ties between mother goats and their offspring demonstrated the impact of brief separation. The same work also demonstrated that renewal of kid-mother ties occurred in only half the mothers, showing individual variation in maternal capacity. This opened a field of studies, a new avenue of interest in psychiatry at this time, concerning the influence of the infant on the mother. Such studies also formed the backdrop for major investigations of the developmental patterns of children in disadvantaged families.
This work presaged Dr. Richmond’s work studying the influence of certain mothering patterns in poor families, often the rearing by multiple mother substitutes. These together with the developmental studies of others, led Dr. Richmond and Dr. Bettye Caldwell to establish a pioneering day care center in Syracuse, which accepted infants as young as six months of age. An extensive program of cognitive and emotional stimulation was designed, personnel trained, and parents were involved. This undertaking challenged a traditional notion that insisted that an infant must remain within his family of origin. Careful evaluation was incorporated into the new program; interim reports contrasting findings between experimental and control groups demonstrated significant developmental gains for those in the experimental group.
This work caught the eye of Sargent Shriver, head of the Kennedy Foundation. After Shriver was made head of the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) in 1964, Shriver persuaded Dr. Richmond to take a leave of absence and serve as the first national director of Project Head Start at the agency, where he worked to integrate insights from laboratory and clinical investigation into social policy. With just a few months lead-time, Dr. Richmond and his colleagues mounted a national effort in preschool education for a half million American youngsters. A very successful first summer of the program was launched in 1965, followed by a year-round effort. In addition to educational enrichment, pediatric health surveys revealed national needs for this age group. Dr. Richmond launched the first major organized effort to involve parents with their children in preschool programs. Soon after this, Dr. Richmond was also asked to take on the position of Director of Health Affairs within OEO.
From this national vantage point, Dr. Richmond created two important new models of public health programs that were responsive to the OEO mandate to aid local groups directly, rather than channeling resources through state health, education and welfare departments, the traditional partners of DHEW at that time. Thus, in addition to Head Start, Dr. Richmond sponsored a series of neighborhood health centers that integrated economic develop and local involvement and participation in health services delivery. In recognition of his outstanding contributions, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson awarded Dr. Richmond a Distinguished Service Award in 1966.
Dr. Richmond returned to Syracuse in 1967. In 1971 he was persuaded to join the Harvard University faculty as Professor of Child Psychiatry and Human Development at the Harvard Medical School and as Psychiatrist-in-Chief at the Children’s Hospital Medical Center. He simultaneously served as director of the Judge Baker Guidance Center. Within a year, he took on an additional role: chair of the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Richmond returned to Washington in 1977 at the request of President Carter to accept two presidential appointments: Assistant Secretary for Health and Surgeon General, thereby streamlining authority and management within the Public Health Service. As Surgeon General he re-invigorated tobacco control efforts through the release of the 1979 Surgeon General’s Report that presented the “overwhelming” scientific evidence of the multiple harms of smoking. And his pathbreaking report on health promotion and disease prevention, Healthy People moved the Public Health Service into new realms by devising and implementing quantitative, evidence-based goals for public health: to reduce disparities in health services provision and to stimulate change by providing health information to journalists, health departments, and the general public. Perhaps most importantly, he focused the spotlight on prenatal and pediatric health care, bringing together experts from many fields to develop a national strategy for combating infant mortality and eliminating disparities in health status. With a strong commitment to access and equity, Dr. Richmond championed neighborhood health centers and supported public health service programs, which improved access to care.
In 1981 Dr. Richmond returned to Harvard and was named the John D. MacArthur Professor of Health Policy, and director of Harvard’s Division of Health Policy Research and Education. At this time, he also chaired the steering committee of the National Academy of Science’s Forum on the Future of Children and Families.
Dr. Richmond’s honors make an impressive listing: Markle Scholar, Aldrich Award for Research in Child Development (1966); Alumnus of the Year Award, University of Illinois (1966); the Gustav O. Lienhard Award (1986) and the Walsh McDermott Medal (2001) of the Institute of Medicine/The National Academy of Science ;Excellence in Public Service Award, American Academy of Pediatrics (1990); the Sedgwick Medal, American Public Health Association (1992); the Ittleson Award, American Orthopsychiatric Association (1994), and the David E. Rogers Award, Association of American Medical Colleges (1997). He has served on many boards and advisory committees and is the recipient of honorary degrees from Harvard, Yale, and a number of other universities.
Over the last two decades, Dr. Richmond has maintained a vigorous pace, mentoring students and colleagues, teaching and writing. Of particular note, he served as an expert witness in several historic class-action litigations brought against the tobacco industry, Broin v. Philip Morris and Engle v. Liggett. In 2005, he co-authored with Rashi Fein, The Health Care Mess: How We Got Into It And What It Will Take to Get Out (Harvard University Press). The book presents a history of medical care and education in the United States and presents recommendations for national health policy
As his colleague, Leon Eisenberg has said, he is a physician to his soul; he exemplifies the best in pediatric tradition of concern for human welfare. He fulfills the call from Abraham Jacobi, the first president of the American Pediatric Society, who said in 1889, “Thus every physician is by destiny . . . a citizen of the Commonwealth, with many rights and great responsibilities . . . “ Jacobi described these as the responsibility to strike at the roots of disease by advising aid and remedies; to give impetus to the profession in areas of special research; to provide instruction to its students; to persuade the public to understand and contribute to the increase health and well-being of infants and children; and to provide lasting lessons that can be used by all branches of medicine. Jacobi described this as the special blessing of his profession. By the estimation of all his colleagues, Julius Richmond truly personifies this blessing.
*With thanks to Leon Eisenberg and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, this narrative is adapted from several sources including the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.