Notes and News

Dr. Charles Buckman, assistant commissioner of the New York State Department of Mental Hygiene since October 1950, has been transferred to Kings Park State Hospital as senior director, Dr. Newton Bigelow, Commissioner, announced today. Dr. James A. Brussel, assistant director of Willard State Hospital, has been named to the vacated post of assistant commissioner. The appointments were effective June 1st.

In state hospital service since 1923, Dr. Buckman has been on the staff at Brooklyn and Creedmoor State Hospitals, and was director of Gowanda State Hospital from May 1949 until he was appointed assistant commissioner. He was in military service from 1943 to 1946, attaining the rank of major. He received his education in Canada, graduating in 1922 from McGill University with his medical degree. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry, member of the American Psychiatric Association and American Medical Association, and is affiliated with state and county medical societies. As senior director of Kings Park State Hospital he fills a vacancy caused by the retirement last month of Dr. Arthur E. Soper.

Assuming the former position of Dr. Buckman as assistant commissioner, Dr. Brussel will be in charge of the New York City office of the department. He has been in army service from July 1951 until May 15 this year, a lieutenant-colonel on the staff at William Beaumont Army Hospital, Fort Bliss, Texas, while on leave of absence from Willard State Hospital. From 1940 to 1946 he served as chief of various neuropsychiatric services in army hospitals. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania medical college, holds diplomas in both neurology and psychiatry from the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, and he is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, the American Medical Association, and the New York Academy of Medicine.

Dr. Henry Brill, director of Craig Colony, Sonyea, N. Y., and Dr. Robert C. Hunt, director of St. Lawrence State Hospital, ha