Psychiatric Pioneer and Historian Lucy Ozarin, M.D., M.P.H., Dies

Psychiatrist Lucy Ozarin, M.D., M.P.H., who was among the first women psychiatrists in the U.S. Navy and a psychiatric historian, died September 17. She was 103 years old.

Ozarin spent the last decade and a half of her life as a volunteer at the National Library of Medicine (NLM). A 2012 feature profile of Ozarin (“NLM Volunteer Extraordinaire!”), published on the library’s website, stated that Ozarin was born in New York in 1914 and graduated from New York University. She earned her medical degree from New York Medical College in 1937.

“She began a lifetime interest in psychiatry and neurology during her residency at Grasslands Hospital in Valhalla, New York (1939-1940), and at Gowanda State Hospital in Helmuth, New York (1940-1943),” according to the article. “Certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in Psychiatry (1945), Ozarin later earned an M.P.H. from Harvard University School of Public Health (1961).”

Ozarin served as a Navy psychiatrist from 1943 to 1946. From 1946 to 1956, she was assistant chief and chief of the Division of Psychiatry and Neurology at the Veterans Administration. In 1957, she joined the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and some of her service was spent as a consultant and advisor to the World Health Organization regional office in Copenhagen until retiring in 1981.

Ozarin was a volunteer at the APA’s Library and Archives for over 30 years and made a significant contribution to the preservation of APA’s historical heritage. She began this work as a member of the search committee to hire the third APA librarian (Zing Jung) in 1979 and took on any project that needed attention—from filing or typing to shelving books.

Later, Ozarin joined APA’s Committee on History and Library, including serving as chair. In this capacity, she worked with the fourth librarian (William E. Baxter) on a revival of APA’s oral history program, contributed articles to the “History Notes” column in Psychiatric News, and helped with sorting papers in the Archives.

Past APA President Steven Sharfstein, M.D., a lifelong friend and colleague of Ozarin from their days together at NIMH (where Sharfstein was director of mental health services programs), recalled Ozarin fondly.

“I visited with Lucy two weeks before she died on the occasion of her 103rd birthday,” he told Psychiatric News. “She was wonderful, reminiscing with me about when we worked together 40 years ago at NIMH. I was her ‘boss,’ but she was 30 years my senior and was already a legend in community psychiatry and as a pioneer for women in psychiatry. She made site visits, conducted evaluations of community mental health centers, and set policy. She was a joy to work with. I am so lucky to have known her and to have occasion to celebrate her remarkable life.”

Psychiatrist Leah Dickstein, M.D., wrote an oral history based on discussions with Ozarin, titled, “Lucy D. Ozarin, M.D., M.P.H.: A Life of Service to Psychiatry and the Nation.”

“Lucy was a role model and a pioneer in so many ways across her lifetime,” Dickstein said. “I would always talk to her on her birthday. She was just an inspiration—a humble but remarkably brilliant and creative physician, who was a role model not just for women but for the entire profession.” ■

The NLM profile can be accessed here. “Diseases of the Mind: Highlights of American Psychiatry Through 1900” is available here.