Obituary Professor Sir Michael Rutter

Abstract

Michael Rutter, a giant in the field of autism research, child psychiatry, and child mental health, died at his home in London on October 23, 2021 at 88 years of age. Educated at the University of Birmingham and London, Mike was affiliated with the Maudsley Hospital and the Institute of Psychiatry throughout his professional career. In the middle of a career that spanned almost 60 years, Michael Rutter received one of many honors over his lifetime in 1985. This was an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Leiden, following in the footsteps of other luminaries like Albert Bandura, Carl Rogers and Nelson Mandela. However, what pleased Mike most about the award was that, when he was introduced, the master of ceremonies commented that since Mike was born in Beirut, had a Welsh middle name, was a teenager in the U.S., and loved the Lake District, he must be Dutch! One of the gifts that Michael Rutter gave child psychiatry and psychology was the beginnings of an international perspective. His time as a child in the U.S. and his yearlong stays at Albert Einstein in New York and Palo Alto at the Stanford Center made him much more comfortable around American academics than were many of his British peers. He also prided himself on having colleagues and visiting South Africa and Latin America and Asia, as well many European countries. Today, especially with so many of our interactions with colleagues being remote at the same time that we feel far away from each other, we can follow in Mike's footsteps and commitment to international collaborations to feel closer together.