Thomas S. Langner PhD, beloved husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather and friend, died on March 16 at his home in Sandy Hook at the age of 102. He was surrounded by family and his favorite feline, Little Red.

Dr Langner was born in Manhattan on New Year’s Day 1924. He grew up on the Upper West Side and in Silvermine, CT, and attended The Horace Mann School. He went on to become a renowned psychiatric epidemiologist, conducting ground-breaking longitudinal studies in the area of mental health.

In 1943, during his sophomore year at Harvard College, Tom was drafted into the military to serve in World War II. He was first sent to Fort Devens, MA, then to Fort Bliss, TX, where at age 19 as a fledgling pre-med student he was assigned to perform spinal taps on fellow soldiers. “Luckily there were no injuries,” he wryly said years later. Soon thereafter he applied to Officer’s Candidate School, achieving the rank of First Lieutenant and ultimately serving in the Philippines.

After the war Langner returned to Harvard to complete his undergraduate degree and went on to receive his PhD in Sociology from Columbia University. While in grad school he also worked for the Anti-Defamation League and the State Department’s Voice of America. His doctoral dissertation, “Normative Behavior and Emotional Adjustment,” emerged from his work in a rural farming community with an anthropological research team in Ignacio, Colorado, where he studied racial prejudice in young children across three racially distinct groups. Already he was exhibiting his lifelong inquiry into human nature vs nurture and how social structures mold individual belief systems.

Langner’s flagship work was The Midtown Manhattan Study, a ground-breaking interdisciplinary project conducted through NYU’s Payne Whitney Clinic that investigated the relationship between socio-cultural factors and mental health, following 1600 subjects for over ten years. He also conducted other significant long-term studies through Cornell University’s School of Medicine and Columbia’s School of Public Health, where he held research professorships throughout his career.

Langner published numerous books and research articles including his signature works, Mental Health in the Metropolis: The Midtown Manhattan Study Vol. I and Vol II, and his more recent Choices for Living: Coping with Fear of Dying and Selfish or Caring? America’s Choice, along with hundreds of scholarly articles. Unpublished works include “Close Calls,” documenting just that throughout his long life, and a 372-page amusingly candid memoir written in his early 70s.

Dr Langner was also known for devising The Langner Scale, a 22-item screening tool designed during The Midtown Study to measure psychiatric impairment and still used to this day.

Tom was a world traveler, adventuring off the beaten path with his first wife, Nola, and five children on often harrowing yet exciting expeditions to Southeast Asia, East Africa, Latin America, and Southeastern Europe, among other places. In later years he and his second wife, Susan, traveled to remote areas of Peru, Ecuador, and Costa Rica and numerous Caribbean islands with their daughter, Laura.

Upon his retirement, Tom began studying music composition at The Mannes School in Manhattan. A fine melodist, he wrote a musical based on the life of his eccentric Aunt Phyllis, the wedding march for his second marriage, and many other pieces. A true Jack of All Trades, he was fascinated by butterflies and insects from an early age and nearly became an entomologist. He could often be seen with a camera around his neck (developing and enlarging photos in a darkroom in his Manhattan apartment), and delighted in jewelry making, ceramics, woodworking, and fixing any and all things. He even built his mid-century-modern house by hand in Sandy Hook, in 1955 (though he said it took 10 years to complete), which served as a summer and weekend home until 2012, when he and his wife moved out of Manhattan and settled into “country life.”

Tom was perhaps most truly in his realm when he would get on his tractor every spring and tend to his large and prolific vegetable garden. Anyone who knew him can attest to his remarkable intelligence, quick wit, sharp memory, way with words, and love for telling (and retelling!) fascinating stories of his many life experiences.

Tom is survived by his wife of 36 years, Susan Kassirer; his children Lisa, Josh, Eli, and Laura Langner; daughters-in-law Kris Whyte and Margery Langner; granddaughters Marina, Aviva, Emma, and Kate; great grandsons Owen and Levi; and his beloved cats, Little Red and Little Gray. He was predeceased by his sister Clare, his parents Ruth Livingston and Herbert Langner, his first wife Nola Malone, and his twin daughters, Gretchen and Belinda Langner.

Donations in Tom’s memory may be made to the ACLU at aclu.org, an organization he supported throughout his long life.