Malcolm Bowers Jr, MD, was born in Dallas, Texas, and died at age 74 at his home in Branford, Connecticut, following a battle with cancer on January 13, 2008. During his 46-year career at Yale, he touched many lives and contributed greatly to the advancement of science and the clinical practice of psychiatry. He graduated summa cum laude from Southern Methodist University in Dallas in 1954, obtained his MD degree from Washington University in St Louis in 1958, and completed his internship at Fitzsimons General Hospital in Denver in 1959. He served 2 years in the Army at Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland, which led to his writing a fictionalized account of the experience in his 2005 book, Men and Poisons: The Edgewood Volunteers and the Army Chemical Warfare Research Program. In 1962 he joined the Yale School of Medicine as a resident in psychiatry and soon collaborated with Daniel X Freedman, MD, investigating the neurochemical basis of psychosis. He became an assistant professor of psychiatry in 1965 and initiated a series of groundbreaking studies on hallucinogenic drug exposure and the emergence of psychotic disorders. Throughout his career, he conducted an extensive series of studies on the role of monoamines in psychosis and affective disorders, which advanced our understanding of the pathogenesis of psychiatric disorders and the neuropharmacology of psychotropic drugs.

At the Department of Psychiatry, he was the founding chief of the research unit at the Connecticut Mental Health Center, the acting director of the Connecticut Mental Health Center Research Facilities, and the Chief of Psychiatry at Yale-New Haven Hospital from 1973 to 1986. He was the principal investigator of the Clinical Research Center grant funded by National Institute of Mental Health for more than 28 years, and in that capacity mentored many young researchers. He was promoted to professor of psychiatry in 1976. From 1986 to 1990, he was the director of the Department's residency training program, and from 1988 to 1995, was associate chair for clinical care and quality assessment and improvement. Throughout the 1990s, he continued his productive research career, while providing model clinical care and outstanding teaching for the inpatient services at Yale-New Haven Hospital. His curiosity about new clinical observations was infectious and often the stimulus that started residents to think about clinical research. He was much beloved.

He was the recipient of many professional honors, some of which include the following: Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, the Stephen Fleck Award, and the Yale Psychiatric Alumni Association Distinguished Alumni Award (2002), as well as membership in the Society for Neuroscience and the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. He served on many editorial boards. He published several books on the impact of mental illness on the lives of patients, including Retreat from Sanity, A Psychiatrist Recollects, Abetting Madness, Men and Poisons, and Something Ere the End. He was a poet and avid fisherman. In 2002 he became a professor emeritus of psychiatry and continued to work full time until his death.

He is survived by his wife Natalie (Natasha) Bowers; children Stephen Malcolm Bowers, Andrea Lee Fry, Robert Sloan Bowers, Alexandra (Sasha) Anna Bowers, Nadia Lovejoy Bowers, and four grandchildren; brother William Bowers; and sisters Arden Showalter and Carol Menkiti.

Given Malcolm's deep commitment to teaching, his family has requested that any contributions be made to the Malcolm Bowers Jr Teaching Fund. This fund is being established as an appropriate memorial in honor of Malcolm. Checks should be made out to Yale University with a designation for the Bowers Fund and mailed to the following address: Jancy Houck, Yale School of Medicine, Office of Development, PO Box 7611, New Haven, CT 06519-0611, USA.