Mary Harper; Leader in Minority Health

"She was several decades ahead of her time," said Strickland, who was the first nursing student to enter the NIH-sponsored program.

While running the fellowship program, Dr. Harper continued to do original research. Among her findings, she showed that the elderly often suffer from undiagnosed mental illness and are routinely mistreated in institutional homes. She was among the first to highlight overmedication as a problem with the elderly and to point out problems from the interaction of prescription drugs. In recent years, she focused on the burdens the medical system has imposed on families.

"Ninety percent of the long-term care is given by members of the family," she said in 2003, "and yet there is no organized system to help these families."

She served on White House advisory panels for every president from Jimmy Carter to Clinton. She was on the board of directors of the National Mental Health Association and consulted with NIH, the drug manufacturer Johnson & Johnson and the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving.

Dr. Harper wrote five books and more than 180 articles, taught at universities from coast to coast and lectured around the world. Tuskegee endowed a chair for gerontological nursing research in her honor, and in 2001 the University of Alabama dedicated the country's first state-supported geriatric psychiatric hospital in her name. She was a member of Nativity Catholic Church in the District.

Her husband of 20 years, Willie F. Harper, died in 1963. Her daughter, Billye Louise Harper, died in 1969.

While living in Washington from 1972 to 1998, Dr. Harper raised three nephews, Paul, Ronald and Michael Glover, as if they were sons. Besides her nephews, other survivors include a brother.

Even on her deathbed, she stayed in touch with many of the students and health workers who benefited from programs she had begun years ago.

"She taught people with wisdom and grace," said Enid Light, an associate director for research training and career development at the mental health institute. "I don't think she thought of it as work. This was just what she was called to do."