Ivan Basilevich: a gerontologist in transit.

Abstract

Chance often determines the names that are recorded in history. Among an earlier generation's gerontologists, Ivan Basilevich was distinguished by the promise of his career and recognition in the USSR by his peers. The military invasion of his nation changed the pattern of his life. From a professional level in his native land, at the age of 50, he became a resident in psychiatry in Rhode Island where he continued his work on aging. He became a citizen in 1954 and by 1962 was the senior psychiatrist of his hospital's staff. His contributions to gerontology included his participation in the Kiev Congress of Aging in 1938 and a monograph in English (unpublished) on the medical aspects of natural old age. He wrote some 70 articles. In his papers on the subject of aging he heralded the transition of gerontology to its modern stage.