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Edward Foulks, Psychiatry and Anthropology

Edward Foulks, a former professor of psychiatry and anthropology at Penn, died September 1 in New Orleans from the flu and a blood disorder. He was 81.

Dr. Foulks was born in Utica, Michigan, and earned his BA in 1958 from University of Michigan and his PhD in medicine from McGill University in 1962. He then went on to earn his PhD in anthropology in 1972 after studying at University of Alaska’s Institute of Arctic Biology. During this time (1970-1971), he was a lecturer in anthropology at Penn.

In 1975, Dr. Foulks joined the Penn faculty as an associate professor of psychiatry in the School of Medicine. In 1976, he took on a secondary appointment as an associate professor of anthropology. He received tenure in 1978, but he left Penn in 1986 for an endowed chair position in psychiatry and neurology at Tulane University.

Dr. Foulks was named a Distinguished Life Fellow by the American Psychiatric Association and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill gave him the Exemplary Psychiatrists Award. He co-founded the National Society for the Study of Psychiatry and Culture.

Dr. Foulks is survived by his wife, Janice; his daughter, Cami Flannery (Matt); siblings Robert (Denine), Janet Henson (Ralph) and Marie Libby, as well as Leonard Thomas (Cathy), Donald Thomas (Tricia) and Mary Gail Thomas Kolodney (Harry); grandchildren Eva Rose and William Zelevansky; and numerous nieces and nephews.

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