In Memoriam: Lawrence Taft, MD, MPH (1924-2008)

November 4, 2008

The faculty and staff of the Children's Evaluation and Rehabilitation Center (CERC) and the Rose F. Kennedy University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities of the Department of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine (AECOM), mourn the loss of Lawrence T. Taft, MD, the founder of CERC, one of the first multidisciplinary programs in the U.S. to evaluate and treat children with developmental disabilities.

Dr. Taft devoted his professional career to improving the lives of children with disabilities. Following a fellowship in Pediatric Neurology at Boston Children's Hospital, he moved to the Bronx, where he began a developmental evaluation clinic in 1956 and co-founded a pediatric rehabilitation program at Jacobi Hospital that moved to our current home, the Rose F. Kennedy Center, in 1970.

As a Professor of Pediatrics and Rehabilitation Medicine at AECOM and during his tenure as Director of CERC, Dr. Taft oversaw a remarkable growth in programs; he helped create an early childhood center, a special care dental clinic and speech and hearing programs. Under Dr. Taft's guidance, a number of national leaders in developmental pediatrics and other professions were trained at CERC as it grew into one of the largest service providers of its kind in the US. Dr. Taft was a past-president of the American Academy of Cerebral Palsy and chaired the Committee on Children with Disabilities for the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). He received many awards for his contributions to the care of children with special needs including the prestigious Arnold Capute Award, given to a leading developmental pediatrician by the American Academy of Pediatrics. We extend our heartfelt sympathy to Dr. Taft's family.