Eberhard H Uhlenhuth, MD, was a leading investigator in the psychopharmacology of anxiety disorders and is well known globally as an expert in the psychopharmacology of benzodiazepines. He passed away at the age of 88 on 7 June 2016. His research was elegant in its aims and design, and his nearly 200 published papers were clear, incisive, and highly influential. His approach to understanding the scope of these agents was thoughtful and well reasoned, and this characterized his approach to science and his clinical work. Uhli, as he was called, was a terrific colleague and mentor to young faculty. One of us (AFS) got to know him when working on the potential antidepressant properties of benzodiazepines. He was ever so encouraging and helpful to this young academic. The other (SJK) knew him as a generous faculty colleague who, in his later years, always insisted that he had nothing to teach the students, yet continued to receive teacher-of-the-year recognition. He was a modest and giving person.

Uhli earned his bachelor’s degree from Yale and his MD from Johns Hopkins. He was elected into Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Omega Alpha. He did his residency at Hopkins and eventually made his way to the University of Chicago, where he became Professor of Psychiatry. In later years he moved to the University of New Mexico, where he was a Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry.

Always willing to help careers, both young and old, his work spanned decades. He served on several editorial boards, including the Archives of General Psychiatry, the Journal of Affective Disorders, and Neuropsychopharmacology. He served on the Scientific Council of the National Institute of Drug Abuse. He was a Founding Fellow of the ACNP from its beginning in 1961, and in 1986 he was President. He loved the College, but in the past few years stopped attending the Annual Meetings. When asked a few years ago about his not attending, he said he thought he would likely not know anyone. I (AFS) indicated that he would know me and that many would know him. We would know him for that wonderful warm personality, twinkle in his eye, terrific sense of humor, and his encyclopedic base of knowledge. We have lost a great man whom we will miss dearly.