UC's Levine Park Rededicated

CINCINNATI—A tranquil refuge in one of the busiest—and potentially most stressful—parcels of real estate in Cincinnati, the Maurice Levine Park is reopening after being closed for three years.

The original park, a lawn and garden sanctuary with a small amphitheater on the University of Cincinnati’s Academic Health Center campus, was originally opened June 9, 1979, in honor of Maurice Levine, MD, “an inspired humanitarian” who chaired UC’s psychiatry department from 1947 until his death in 1971.

For nearly 30 years, thousands of faculty, staff and students have taken a welcome time-out in the park, adjacent to the Medical Sciences Building (MSB). It has been closed for redesign during ongoing remodeling of the MSB and construction of the new Center for Academic and Research Excellence (CARE)/Crawley Building.

The new Levine Park will be rededicated at noon Monday, Sept. 24, at a ceremony attended by Mrs. Maurice Levine, UC president Nancy Zimpher, PhD, Jane Henney, MD, senior vice president and provost for health affairs, David Stern, MD, dean of the College of Medicine, and other Levine family members and UC leaders.

A native Cincinnatian, Levine earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees from UC and his medical degree from Johns Hopkins University, where he served residencies. He returned to UC’s psychiatry department before doing further training and becoming a faculty member at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis.

Levine was one of the first psychoanalytically trained psychiatrists in the country to be appointed as a department chair. As well as being deeply involved in local and national professional activities, he was also committed to the Cincinnati community.

He was the first administrator at the former Cincinnati General Hospital (now University Hospital) to desegregate his wards and the first to appoint a black resident. His determination to keep psychiatry in the mainstream of daily life made Cincinnati a model in the field of community psychiatry.