Kenneth Z. Altshuler

Career

In 1973, Altshuler joined the Columbia University faculty where he focused on the research of mental illnesses among deaf patients and in geriatric psychiatry. From 1973–1977, he managed undergraduate education in psychiatry at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. In 1977, he left Columbia University and moved to Texas. He became the chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

There, he expanded the faculty from five to over one hundred full-time physicians and raising fifty-two million dollars in departmental endowments, including funds for ten chairs and two research centers. He retired in 2019, and was appointed a Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry.

He served as a director of the National Board of Medical Examiners, as a president of the American Association of Chairs of Departments of Psychiatry in 1990–1991, as a board member and later, in 1996, a president of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. In 1999, he was appointed to the board of the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation, by then-Governor George W. Bush, and served for five years. He also served on the boards and advisory boards of the local psychiatric and charity organizations.

Personal life

He had three children from his first marriage, Steven L. Altshuler, Lori L. Altshuler and Dara Altshuler, and six grandchildren. In 1987, he married Ruth Collins Sharp, an American philanthropist. He and his wife were known for their civic engagement in Dallas and philanthropic activities in North Texas, including to UT Southwestern.

After his wife died in 2017, he established a fund at UT Southwestern, the Ruth & Ken Altshuler Fund for Clinical Psychiatry and the Kenneth Z. Altshuler Fund for Psychiatric Education, to support clinical research and education programs related to mental illness.

Altshuler died from complications of COVID-19 on January 6, 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Texas.