Edith Silverglied Lisansky Gomberg, PhD 1920–2005

Abstract

DITHSILVERGLIEDLISANSKYGomberg,PhD,Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry, emerita at theUniversity of Michigan, died peacefully in her sleep onSunday January 9, just 5 days short of her 85th birthday.Described by Sharon Wilsnack, an international authorityon alcohol problems in women, as ‘‘truly the ‘grandmoth-er’ of gender and alcohol research,’’ she was schooled at atime when women were neither expected, nor sometimespermitted, to achieve academic status. Born and raised inNew York City, she earned a BA in Psychology fromBrooklyn College at 18 and an MA in social psychologyfrom Columbia at 20. When she was told by her advisor,the eminent social psychologist Otto Kleinberg, thatwomen did not need a PhD, she headed north to NewHaven.HerdoctoralworkatYalewasaprecursortowhatlater became the clinical psychology degree and involvedwork in clinical, social, and experimental psychology. Shefinished at 29 and in the midst of raising a family began along association with the Yale Center of Alcohol Studies,at that time the only academic/research center on alcoholin the United States.This was a time when the alcohol field was just develop-ing as an area of scientific respectability. E. M. Jellinekwas a major presence at the Center but his writing on thedisease concept of alcoholism was still more than a decadeaway, and the then Quarterly (sic) Journal of Studies onAlcohol had been published for less than a decade. Gomb-erg’s early publications were more clinically focused, andnot all were related to alcoholism (e.g., Lisansky, 1948;1950),butbythemid-1950s,shehadmovedtotheground-breaking work she was known for thereafter, describingthe characteristics of women alcoholics, their psychosocialadaptations, their problems, and their lives as women(Gomberg, 1989a; Lisansky, 1957; 1958). This workremained a major theme throughout her career. Edithmoved from this to the more general topic of problemdrinking among women (e.g., Gomberg, 1988; 1989b) notapopularsubjectin thoseyearssince women were thoughtnot to suffer from such problems at all. She took it uponherself to ask questions, provide data, and inform the sci-entificandclinicalcommunitiesabouttheseissues,andsheremained a leader in research on women’s drinking andalcoholism in women until the end of her career (Gombergand Nerenberg, 1993). Her continuing support andencouragement of women who entered the alcoholresearch field, along with a vigorous program of lecturing,made her an icon to many who did not know her person-ally. She also was a vigorous spokeswoman and advocatefor more focused treatment that would speak to women’sspecial needs.Gomberg’s academic career spanned five institutions:Yale, then Rutgers, where she sustained collaborationswith old colleagues and friends at the Alcohol StudiesCenterafterithadmovedfromNewHaventoNewBruns-wick, the University of Puerto Rico, the Ann Arbor VAMedical Center, and for the last three decades of hercareer, the University of Michigan. There she heldappointmentsin theInstituteofGerontology, theInstituteof Social Research, the School of Social Work, and theAddiction Research Center/Department of Psychiatry. AtMichigan, Edith’s work broadened to focus on anotherneglectedarea, understandingtheproblems of alcoholandprescription drug abuse among older people (e.g., Gomb-erg, 1990, 1992). She also began a program of work tounderstand drinking behavior among African Americansand to describe the ways that treatment process needed totake account of cultural differences (Nelson et al., 1997).In the late 1980s she was part of the core faculty groupinvolved in bringing the first national NIAAA Center onAlcohol and Aging to Michigan, and that center, the Uni-versity of Michigan Alcohol Research Center, is the fore-runner of what is today’s University of MichiganAddiction Research Center. During those years she alsocoedited two of the major works on alcohol involvementand aging (Alcohol and Aging, with Beresford; Oxford,1995) and the NIAAA Research Monograph on AlcoholProblems and Aging (with Zucker and Hegedus, 1998).Gomberg remained a presence both nationally andinternationally on the effects of alcohol on women andalcohol and aging until her retirement, and she continuedto write and correspond with others about their work untilthe end of her life. Those who knew her will rememberEdith’s spark, her sense of humor, her broad span ofinterests, her ability to ‘‘tell it like it is,’’ and her specialknack to stay down-to-earth and connected with so manypeople from diverse backgrounds. She will be missed