Robert Spitzer (psychiatrist)

Robert Leopold Spitzer (May 22, 1932 – December 25, 2015) was an American psychiatrist. He was a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University in New York City. He was a major figure in the development of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). He helped remove homosexuality as a mental disorder.
Spitzer was born in White Plains, New York. He studied at Cornell University and at New York University School of Medicine. He worked at Columbia University until his retirement in 2010. Spitzer died of heart disease at his home in Seattle, Washington at the age of 83.