Butler, Allan Macy

Allan Macy Butler (1894-1986), LittB, 1916, Princeton University; MD, 1926, Harvard Medical School, was Chief of the Children’s Medical Service at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston and Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School from 1942 to 1960. An early believer in reform of the American ‘fee-for-service’ health care system, Butler advocated for government-paid medical care for the elderly and for low-income people, making him a pioneer in health maintenance services .

Allan Macy Butler was born in Yonkers, New York on April 3, 1894. Upon graduating from Princeton University, Butler served in Europe in World War I in both the British and American armies. He returned to the United States to work as a bond salesman and labor negotiator prior to entering Harvard Medical School in 1922. Butler was appointed Chief of the Children’s Medical Service at Massachusetts General Hospital and Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, positions he held from 1942 to 1960. From 1960 to1962, following his retirement from Massachusetts General and Harvard, Butler helped establish the Community Health Association in Detroit, Michigan’s first official prepaid health care program based on preventive medicine. He also served as Director of Clinical Services and Chief of Pediatrics of the Metropolitan Hospital, Detroit. From 1962 to 1968, Butler held several teaching and consulting positions, among which were: Special Consultant to the Bureau of Maternal and Child Health of the California State Department of Public Health ; Consultant for the Head Start program in Washington, D.C.; Lecturer in the Department of Pediatrics at Stanford University; and Director of Medical Education at St. Luke’s Hospital, San Francisco. Butler was also part of a small resident staff at the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions in Santa Barbara, California, a policy institute that sought to broaden the public debate on a number of issues, including war, democracy, dissent, and community action.

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