NIMH during the tenure of Director Lewis L. Judd, M.D. (1987-1990): the decade of the brain and the four national research plans.

My tenure at NIMH was an exhilarating, heady time of great satisfaction and achievement for all of us at the Institute. I have great affection and loyalty for NIMH, but my fondest memories are of the individuals who led and staffed the Institute's programs while I was there. One of the most gratifying aspects of my tenure was the opportunity to recruit and appoint people to new responsibilities and to interact with and support them as they grew into and beyond their positions of leadership within NIMH. When I left NIMH, I felt that the Institute's managers and staff were unparalleled in their creativity, competence, commitment, loyalty, and sheer hard work on behalf of the Institute and our field. My thanks and deep gratitude genuinely go out to the entire staff at NIMH during my tenure. However, a special debt of gratitude is owed to a group of colleagues and friends who, at my request, carried very heavy responsibilities and excelled in meeting them: Dr. Alan Leshner (Deputy Director of NIMH, now Director of NIDA); Dr. Stephen Koslow, Dr. Stephen Paul, Dr. Jack "Jay" Burke, Dr. David Segal, Dr. Ira Glick, Dr. Ellen Stover, Dr. Irene Levine, Dr. Daryl Kirsch, Dr. Rex Cowdry, Dr. Sam Keith, Dr. Delores Paron, Leroy Goldman, Richard Pine, William Fitzsimmons, Gordon Seidenberg, Lewis Steinberg, Gemma Weiblinger, George Halter, and my invaluable assistant, Margaret Shanley.