News Release

Benjamin Darsky, professor emeritus of health services management and policy, dies at age 82.

June 2, 2004 press release from the University of Michigan School of Public Health

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Benjamin Darsky, professor emeritus of health services management and policy at the School of Public Health (SPH), died May 30 in Ann Arbor. He was 82.

Born in Canton, Ohio, in 1922, Darsky enlisted in the Marine Corps, serving in the Pacific. He began his studies under the GI bill and completed his undergraduate studies at Youngstown State University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in two years. He received his master's degree from the University of Washington in 1950, then moved to Michigan to serve as assistant study director in the Survey Research Center, enrolling in the sociology doctoral program.

He received his doctorate in 1960, was appointed associate professor of public health economics that same year and was promoted to full professor in 1964. He retired in 1987.

Darsky started his professional career at the Bureau of Public Health Economics, which was founded by Dr. Nathan Sinai at SPH, the first program of its kind in the United States. The name was chosen to avoid resistance to the idea that a school of public health would be involved in the study of health care systems, moving away from a sole concern with prevention and hygiene to a new approach that studies the delivery of medical care and its effects. During the 1960s, the bureau officially was recognized by the University as a full academic department at SPH, and it was named the Department of Medical Care Organization.

Darsky was one of the original core faculty. Along with colleague Professor Charles Metzner, he designed a unique doctoral program, Medical Care Organization (MCO), which combined theoretical and research grounding in one of the basic social sciences with an in-depth understanding of the organization and delivery of health care.

Many graduates of Michigan's program became leaders in both the public and private health care sectors. Eventually other leading universities in the United States followed Michigan's model and developed doctoral programs in this area.

"Dr. Darsky was a monumental force in my professional career. By his scholarship and by his example, he instilled in his students a sense of academic responsibility, a drive to produce credible, useful research, and a strong desire to learn and to teach," says Mitch Greenlick, professor emeritus and past chair of public health and preventive medicine, School of Medicine, Oregon Health and Science University. Greenlick, an Oregon state representative, received his doctorate in 1967 from the program.

"I've tried to emulate his mentorship style and remain committed to young scholars, in part because of his commitment to my development," he says. "His fingerprints are all over my intellectual achievements."

Throughout his career, Darsky served as an adviser and consultant to health care organizations and government agencies, including the U.S. Senate Committee on Aging. From 1968 until his retirement in 1987, he advised on research policy for Kaiser-Permanente. In 1979-80, he directed the U-M Study of Attitudes of University Employees toward joining a University-sponsored health maintenance organization.

"Professor Darsky was one of the early pioneers of the then-fledgling field of health services research, which has now grown into a major specialty in both public health and in medicine," says Rashid Bashshur, professor of health management and policy in SPH. "He was a hard-nosed scientist who held exceptionally high standards for scientific investigation in health care, his own included. He had vast knowledge of the health care field, and he worked hard at teaching the notion of a unique discipline of medical care that is governed by scientific principles and laws."

Darsky is survived by his wife, Anna; his sister, Helen Netler; his late brother's wife, Martha Darsky; and several nephews, nieces, grand-nephews and nieces, and great-grand nieces.

Contact: Terri Mellow, director of communications
Phone: (734) 764-8094
E-mail: twm@umich.edu