Sackler manuscripts collection

What is now a psychiatric hospital began as Creed's farm and then, in 1872, was renamed Creedmoor because it was referred to as Creed's Moor when purchased by the newly formed NRA to be used for a rifle range, where for about two decades at the end of the 19th century it was the location of several major international rifle matches. Creedmoor range remained in use until the opening years of the 20th century, with shooting ceasing circa 1910. In 1908, Creedmoor State Hospital acquired the site, and in 1912 opened the Farm Colony of Brooklyn State Hospital with thirty-two patients. Today it is the site of the Creedmoor Psychiatric Center.

Mortimer Sackler, M.D. The son of Isaac and Sophie (née Greenberg) Sackler, Polish Jewish immigrant Brooklyn grocers, Mortimer attended Erasmus Hall High School in his native Brooklyn. Failing to get a Jewish-allotted place in any New York medical school, he sailed steerage to the UK in 1937 and, with the help of Glasgow's Jewish community, enrolled at Anderson College of Medicine. After World War II began, he completed his degree at the Middlesex University School of Medicine in Waltham, Massachusetts.

During the Korean war, he was an army psychiatrist in Denver, Colorado, before joining his brothers, both newly graduated doctors, at the Creedmoor psychiatric hospital in New York City. The three became a moving force in the research and clinical outpatient department at Creedmoor, which would become the Creedmoor Institute for Psychobiologic Studies. During the 1950s the brothers undertook pioneering research into how alterations in bodily function can affect mental illness. This work contributed to a move away from treatments such as electric shock and lobotomy towards pharmaceutical solutions or psychoanalysis. The brothers acquired small pharmaceutical companies and revived their business. From 1952 they turned Purdue Pharma into a large privately owned business with products including OxyContin. Using his fortune from pharmaceuticals he became a generous donor to charitable causes across the world.[1]

In the UK, Dr. Sackler's donations included:

Sackler Library at the University of Oxford Sackler Laboratories at Reading University Sackler Musculoskeletal Research Centre, University College London Sackler Institute of Pulmonary Pharmacology at King's College London[2] Sackler Crossing – a walkway over the lake at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew The forthcoming Sackler Serpentine Gallery, announced in November 2010[3]

Jointly with his brothers he endowed the Sackler Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University and the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts University. In 1995, Sackler was made an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in recognition of his services to education.

His interest in philanthropy is continued after his death through the Dr Mortimer and Theresa Sackler Foundation[4] which he set up jointly with third wife, Dame Theresa Sackler (née Rowling), from Staffordshire, who was formerly a teacher at the Sisters of Our Lady of Sion convent in London's Notting Hill Gate. The foundation's donations include the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science at Sussex University. (Wikipedia)

Dr. John H. Besson (c.1884-1977) MD Hahnemann Medical College (1909). Graduate study Vienna (1928). Moved to Oregon and practiced in Bend prior to moving to Portland. There helped establish the local Hahnemann Hospital (later Holladay Park Hospital). He was affiliated there under both names, for many years as Secretary of the Trustees Board. He was also President of Holladay Park Hospital staff. Also was a member and President of the Oregon State Board of Medical Examiners and Multnomah Co. Medical Service Bureau (later Oregon Physician's Service). He also was prominent in other work with Oregon State Medical Society, and the Multnomah County Medical Society.