M. Powell Lawton Quality of Life Award
Monday, November 8, 2010
12:30 - 2:30 p.m.
At Loews Philadelphia Hotel
1200 Market Street, Philadelphia

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The M. Powell Lawton Quality of Life Award was established in 2001 to recognize older individuals who are nationally recognized for significant professional accomplishments, who have demonstrated a commitment to public service, who continue an active lifestyle and, most importantly, have contributed to improving the quality of life for others.

The M. Powell Lawton 2010 Quality of Life Award will be given posthumously to Dr. Robert N. Butler

Dr. Butler was widely regarded as “the father of geriatrics,” for his leadership in the field of aging and longevity. Once a bench scientist at the National Institutes of Health and originally trained as a psychiatrist, he was tapped to be the first director of the National Institute on Aging and there helped shape the nation's aging policy for more than a generation. His seminal book, Why Survive? Being Old in America won won the Pulitzer Prize and was one of the first comprehensive examinations of what became the Age Wave driven by long-living Baby Boomers. A scholar and author who wrote several books ranging from popular guides on health to medical school textbooks and learned monographs, he introduced such concepts as healthy aging and ageism, among others.

He also initiated the Life Review as a therapeutic device, drawing on older persons' desire to reminisce.

He was the founding chair of the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics at Mount Sinai Medical School in New York—the nation's first in a medical school. Subsequently, he founded and led the International Longevity Center first at Mount Sinai and subsequently as an independent non-profit in its own headquarters from 1998 to 2010. He had many honors—national and international, including the coveted Heinz Foundation Prize. He encouraged and helped organize ILCs in 11 countries and was involved in three White House Conferences on Aging under three U.S. presidents.

His most recent book, The Longevity Revolution: The Benefits and Challenges of Living a Long Life was published in June by Avery/Penguin. .

Dr. Butler is most identified with a view of aging as a great human achievement, not simply a problem to be solved. Known for his openness to all knowledge and ideas he supported work on aging not just in science and medicine, but in the social sciences and humanities as well. A public intellectual, he made frequent appearances in the media to explain new findings—and encourage the public to better understand, embrace and celebrate aging.