Edith S. L. Gomberg
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Edith Silverglied Lisansky Gomberg, Ph.D.
1920-2005
Described by Sharon Wilsnack, an international authority on alcohol problems in women as “truly the 'grandmother' of gender and alcohol research,” Edith came to the University of Michigan almost 35 years ago, and over that time held appointments in the Institute of Gerontology, the Institute of Social Research, the School of Social Work, and most recently at the Addiction Research Center/ Department of Psychiatry.
Edith grew up in New York City, graduating from Brooklyn College at the age of 18; she did a M.A. in social psychology at Columbia and then moved on to do her doctoral work at Yale. She entered the alcohol field at a time when it was just developing as an area of scientific respectability; she knew E. M. Jellinek and was also a staff member at the Yale Center of Alcohol Studies, at that time the only academic/research center on alcohol in the United States. Her initial ground breaking work describing the characteristics of women alcoholics was carried out in the early 50s. She moved from this to the more general topic of problem drinking among women, not a popular subject in those years since women were thought not to suffer from such problems at all.. Edith took it upon herself to ask questions, provide data, and inform the scientific and clinical communities about these issues, and she remained a leader in research on women's drinking and alcoholism in women for the next 40 years. Her continuing support and encouragement of women who entered the field, along with a vigorous program of lecturing made her an icon to many who did not know her personally.
In the latter part of her career, Edith’s work broadened to focus on another neglected area, understanding the problems of alcohol and prescription drug abuse among older people. She also began a program of work to understand drinking behavior among African Americans and to describe the ways that the treatment process needed to take account of cultural differences. In the late ‘80s, Gomberg was part of the core faculty group involved in bringing the first national NIAAA Center on Alcohol and Aging to the Michigan, and that center, the UM Alcohol Research Center (UMARC) is the forerunner of what is today’s University of Michigan Addiction Research Center. . During those years Edith also co-edited two of the major works in that field (Alcohol and Aging, with Beresford; Oxford, 1995) and the NIAAA Research Monograph on Alcohol Problems and Aging (with Zucker and Hegedus, 1998).
Edith remained a presence both nationally and internationally on the effects of alcohol on women and alcohol and aging until her retirement, and she continued to write and correspond with others about their work until the end of her life.
Robert A. Zucker, Ph.D.
University of Michigan Addiction Research Center
2/15/05
