Dr. Judith Sulzberger; supported gene study
NEW YORK — Judith P. Sulzberger, a physician whose philanthropy led to creation of a center for genome studies in her name at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons and a member of the family that controls The New York Times, died on Monday at her home in Manhattan. She was 87.
Her death was confirmed by her son, Daniel Cohen. Dr. Sulzberger also had a home in East Hampton, N.Y.
Family ties inextricably linked her to the newspaper that her grandfather, Adolph S. Ochs, bought in 1896. Its affairs dominated dinner conversations when she was growing up. Her father, Arthur Hays Sulzberger, was publisher from 1935 to 1961; her brother, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, was publisher for nearly 30 years; and her nephew, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., has been publisher since 1992.
Indeed, for 26 years Dr. Sulzberger served on the board of directors.
But from an early age, she resolved to make her career outside the family newspaper enterprises. She became a doctor and for many years conducted clinical and private practices. She later focused on public health research, investigating AIDS, infectious diseases, microbiology, and genetics.
In the early 1990s, she provided financing for what became the Judith P. Sulzberger Genome Center at Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, her alma mater. The center fosters the advanced study of genetics to identify the risks of disease, improve human health, and extend life. For many years, Dr. Sulzberger was a staff member at the college and was in charge of special projects for the genome center and chairwoman of its advisory board.
One of her projects was a study, conducted jointly by the genome center and the Pasteur Institute, into the genetic code of the malaria mosquito. She also supported genetic research into autism and Asperger’s disorder and in 2008 established the Isidore S. Edelman professorship in biochemistry and molecular physics at the college. Edelman, a faculty member since 1978, founded the genome center in 1991.
Dr. Sulzberger was a director of The Times from 1972 to 2000. She remained a principal owner of the company under a trust that in 1990 had passed to her and her three siblings on the death of their mother.
In addition to her son Daniel, she leaves her third husband, Budd Levinson; another son, James Cohen; three stepchildren, Ruth Andrea Levinson, James Levinson, and Peter Levinson; her three siblings, Marian Heiskell, Ruth Holmberg, and Arthur Ochs Sulzberger; and four grandchildren.