Henry Wechsler

Henry Wechsler age 89, devoted husband and beloved father, formerly of Quincy, Massachusetts, died on November 2, 2021. He is survived by two children, Pamela of Los Angeles, and Peter of Washington, D.C.

Henry will be remembered for his kindness, keen intellect, and dry wit. The only child of William and Lucy (Fryd) Wechsler, Henry was born in Warsaw, Poland. At age 5, he and his parents fled Poland, eventually arriving at Ellis Island in 1941. Henry graduated from Stuyvesant High School and from Washington and Jefferson College, and he received a PhD in Psychology from Harvard University in 1957. Starting in 1966 and for four decades thereafter, he was a lecturer at the Harvard School of Public Health. He was the director of the nationwide College Alcohol Study, and became a leading expert on the effects of alcohol policies on drinking by college students.

In addition, he was the director of research at the Medical Foundation in Boston for three decades, where he studied the social aspects of health and medicine. He also published extensively on binge drinking and other public health matters. While a graduate student at Harvard, Henry met and married Joan Goldstein in 1955. They lived in Quincy, Massachusetts, where they raised their three children: Stephen (deceased), Pamela, and Peter.

Henry enjoyed playing tennis at the Quincy Tennis Club, squash at the Harvard Club of Boston, and an occasional game of poker with his neighbors. Joan died in 2011. For the past 6 years, Henry lived at NewBridge on The Charles in Dedham, Massachusetts, where he could be found composing satirical verse on topics of the day; he was viewed as the resident poet laureate of NewBridge. He also enjoyed being with his dearest friend, Raya Dreben.

Services were private.