PLAUT, Thomas F(ranz) A(lfred) 1925-2004

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born December 29, 1925, in New York, NY; died of renal failure, August 20, 2004, in Princeton Junction, NJ. Psychologist, educator, and author. Plaut, a longtime psychologist with the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), was best known for his research on alcohol abuse. After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, he earned his bachelor's from Swarthmore College in 1949, followed by a doctorate in psychology in 1956 and a master's in public health in 1957, both from Harvard University. For the next five years, he was an instructor at Harvard's School of Public Health, while also teaching at Simmons College from 1959 to 1962 and directing the alcoholism program for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health from 1961 to 1962. During the mid-1960s, Plaut was a research associate at Stanford University before joining NIMH in 1967 as assistant chief for the National Center for Prevention and Control of Alcoholism. He remained at NIMH in various positions until 1995, including as deputy director from 1974 to 1979, director of prevention from 1979 to 1980, associate division director of biometry from 1987 to 1992, and public health advisor from 1993 to 1995. After retiring, he remained active as a consultant based in Bethesda, Maryland, and he also taught at Johns Hopkins University. Plaut's publications include coauthoring The Treatment of Alcoholism: A Study of Programs and Problems (1967) and writing Alcohol Problems: A Report to the Nation by the Cooperative Commission on the Study of Alcoholism (1968).

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PERIODICALS

Washington Post, August 26, 2004, p. B6.