The news was shocking when it dropped into my mailbox yesterday: geriatrician Robert N. Butler had died on Sunday due to complications from leukemia. He was 83.

If you've been reading this blog for awhile, you at least know of this man because no one - certainly not I - can write intelligently about aging without knowing the work of Dr. Butler. In the 1960s, he coined the term “ageism” and he won a Pulitzer Price in 1972 for his first book about aging, Why Survive in America?. And that's just for starters. I won't repeat his other accomplishments here – they are many, immensely valuable to mankind and you can read about some in the AP story.

At about this time last year, I spent a week with Dr. Butler and his staff in New York City when I was privileged to attend his annual Age Boom Academy at the International Longevity Center he founded. It was a crash course in everything up to date about aging from 25 or 30 experts in their fields. They and we attendees were all guided in those sessions and discussions by Dr. Butler's brilliance, enthusiasm, kindness and vast knowledge.

Here is another TGB story about the conference which includes a video of one of Dr. Butler's presentations.

In 2008, on the publication of his then-new and important book on the future of aging, The Longevity Revolution – The Benefits and Challenges of Living a Long Life, Dr. Butler was kind enough to sit still for an email interview with me for this blog. You can read it here.

Just a couple of months ago, Dr. Butler published a followup to that book, The Longevity Prescription – The 8 Proven Keys to a Long, Healthy Life. I had been scheduled to interview him again about the new book and of course, I am sorry now that it was postponed due to my move from Maine to Oregon. Certainly I could have made time even during those busy days if I had tried harder.

We who are elders now and anyone who will be old one day owe this man a debt of gratitude; all our lives are meaningfully better because of his work. I cannot say he and I were friends, only brief acquaintances. But I am proud to have met, on those few occasions, a man who has left the world an unambiguously better place than what it was when he arrived.

A TGB reader who is studying for a master's degree in gerontology, spent time with Dr. Butler just a couple of weeks ago for a video biography of him. You can read her remembrance here and I urge you to do so; she is much more eloquent than I am.

At The Elder Storytelling Place today, Walt Grant: Uncle George Comes to America