Bertram S. Brown

Bertram S. Brown (January 28, 1931 – May 14, 2020) was an American psychiatrist who was the head of the National Institute of Mental Health from 1970 to 1977, Assistant Surgeon General from 1978 to 1980, rear admiral in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, and president and chief executive of Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia from 1983 until his retirement in 1987. He pioneered research in psychiatry, especially in mental disabilities. Brown was also an early advocate of the decriminalization of marijuana, saying that the penalties were "much too severe and much out of keeping with knowledge about its harmfulness." After a political reshuffle, in which HEW Secretary Joseph A. Califano Jr. stated the need for "fresh blood", he moved to become President of Hahnemann Hospital, and then Senior Psychiatrist at the RAND CORP.