P. Browning Hoffman (1937-1979), one of the founders of the Institute, died in 1979 after eight years at the University of Virginia. In the Bulletin of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Dr. Hoffman was remembered as "a faithful physician, a psychiatrist who in a too brief career achieved in forensic psychiatry a remarkable eminence reached by few of his elders... Soft-spoken, friendly, gentlemanly, considerate, he was deeply respected by his colleagues in law and psychiatry" (vol. 7[1] p.vii).
Dr. Hoffman held joint appointments as Professor of Law and Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia. He received his B.A., magna cum laude, from Stanford University in 1959 and his M.D. from Yale University in 1963. Dr. Hoffman began his academic career in 1969 as Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Yale. In 1971, he moved to the University of VIrginia, where he became an influential scholar in the field of law and psychiatry. At the time of his death in 1979, Dr. Hoffman was serving on the Commission on Judicial Action of the American Psychiatric Association, on the Executive Committee of the American Academy of Psychiatry and Law, as Chairman of the Committee on Psychiatry and the Law of the Group for Advancement of Psychiatry, and as North American Editor of the International Journal of Law and Psychiatry.
The P. Browning Hoffman Memorial Lecture in Law and Psychiatry was established by the University of Virginia School of Law as a tribute to his life and work. The Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy also maintains the P. Browning Hoffman Memorial Fund. Contributions can be sent to the P. Browning Hoffman Memorial Fund c/o the Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy, P.O. Box 800660, UVa Health Systems, Charlottesville, VA, 22908-0660.