Benjamin Spock

Diagnoses

Personal

Vocation

Notable

Family

American pediatric physician and author of a best selling child care book. "Baby and Child Care" sold over 28 million copies and his works were held in the highest esteem by millions of parents. The seventh edition of "Baby and Child Care" was released on 5/02/1998. Spock married in 1924, with two sons born 1934 and 1945. He divorced in 1973 and remarried a much-younger woman, 32-year-old Mary Councille when he was 70. In the turbulent '60s, he was an active protestor against the VietNam War and was arrested several times while he participated in demonstrations of draft-card burning. He joined Dr. Martin Luther King's civil rights movement as well. Spock's finances, and health, turned south in 1998. It was at that time that his wife appealed to family and friends for help in defraying the $10,000 a month costs of caring for her husband, despite $500,000 in income the previous year. Not able to move from bed, Spock suffered from congestive heart failure and kidney failure. Full-time nursing care was required to keep Spock going, as well as special foods and equipment. Most of the expenses were not covered by Medicare, which caused his wife to make her desperate plea for money. Died of respiratory failure on 3/15/1998 at his home in La Jolla, CA. He had suffered from a heart attack, stroke and several bouts of pneumonia in recent years. Link to Wikipedia biography