Dr. Justin H. Adler , a Memphis arts patron and one of the city's first psychiatrists, died Tuesday. He was 87. "He was an elder stateman in the field. He was a very fine gentleman," said Dr. Allen Battle, a University of Tennessee, Memphis, psychiatry professor. He died at his Memphis home of heart failure. Dr. Adler was born in Gruenstadt, Germany. He graduated from the University of Heidelberg medical school in 1933, the year Adolf Hitler was named Germany's chancellor. Dr. Adler opened a medical practice in Berlin, but left Germany for Memphis later that same year after the Nazis barred Jewish physicians from practicing. Memphis was already home to Dr. Adler's uncle, Herman Adler, who in the 1920s built the Adler Hotel, at the intersection of Main Street and Linden Avenue, and the Tennessee Hotel, now site of the Radisson Hotel. Dr. Adler completed his psychiatric training at Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Western State Hospital in Bolivar, Tenn. In 1938, when he opened his first office at 20 S. Dunlap, he was the city's fourth psychiatrist.d author William Faulkner. Dr. Adler was a former Baptist Memorial Hospital chief of psychiatry. He also taught anatomy and psychiatry to University of Tennessee, Memphis, medical students. He also owned the former Adler Nursing Home and Carrol Turner Sanitorium. He never retired from medical practice. He was also a longtime supporter of the Memphis art community and served on the board of Dixon Gallery and Gardens. In 1991, he and his wife, Herta, donated their collection of 300 pieces of English and American pewter to Dixon. This year, the couple lent Tiffany objects to an exhibition at the Dixon. They also donated 132 pieces of Judaica that form the basis of the Temple Israel Museum, which opened in June. The Adlers also donated objects to the National Ornamental Metal Museum and other Memphis museums and galleries. He was a member of Temple Israel, B'nai B'rith and a founding member of Beth Sholom Synagogue. He was also a member of the Memphis and Shelby County Medical Society, the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association. He is survived by his wife, Herta; two daughters, Hedda A. Schwartz and Susan A. Thorp, a political columnist for The Commercial Appeal, both of Memphis; a son, Michael H. Adler of Parkland,, Fla., and three grandchildren. The family requests any memorials be sent to the Temple Israel Art Fund or Dixon Gallery and Gardens.
Funeral services will be at 2 p.m. today in the chapel of Canale Funeral Directors with burial to follow at Temple Israel. (Published in The Commercial Appeal 9/21/1994)