Weaver Family Program in Law, Brain Sciences, and Behavior

Glenn M. Weaver, M.D., was a leading clinical and forensic psychiatrist whose medical career spanned more than six decades and explored the ways in which psychiatry can inform law and policy.

Dr. Weaver practiced clinical psychiatry in Cincinnati for 55 years and directed the Department of Psychiatry at Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio, for decades. Throughout his career, he explored the connections between psychiatry and the legal system while maintaining an active psychiatric practice, treating inpatients and outpatients.

Dr. Weaver was a pioneer in the field of forensic psychiatry starting with its development in the 1950s. He was a charter member of the Midwest Chapter of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law and often served as a consultant and special examiner for local courts and agencies. He became one of the first medical professionals in his region to be board-certified in forensic psychiatry in 1984 and then began teaching Law and Psychiatry as an adjunct professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Law in 1986. His lifelong interest in the intersection of law and psychiatry led Dr. Weaver to take many law classes on topics ranging from constitutional law to criminal law, torts and evidence while also teaching at UC Law, with the result that students in his law classes often found he was their classmate in another course.

Dr. Weaver earned his B.S. from the University of Cincinnati in 1943 and his M.D. from the UC College of Medicine in 1945. After completing an internship at St. Louis City Hospital, he was a captain in the U.S. Army Medical Corps based in Germany during the military occupation that followed World War II. After his service, he returned to Cincinnati and completed his residency in psychiatry at Cincinnati General Hospital, Longview State Hospital and Christ Hospital. His distinguished medical career included teaching for more than 20 years as an instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and serving as coordinator of Teaching and Psychiatry at Christ Hospital.

Over the course of his long and distinguished career, Dr. Weaver was an expert witness in hundreds of trial and legal proceedings through the nation. A leader in his profession, he served as president of the Cincinnati Society of Psychiatry and of the Cincinnati Society of Neurology and Psychiatry. He was a member of the American Academy of Legal Medicine, the American Society of Law and Medicine, the International Society of Law and Mental Health and the American College of Legal Medicine.

Dr. Weaver maintained an active psychiatric practice and continued to teach at Cincinnati Law shortly before his death in 2007 at age 86. He was a thoughtful and intellectually curious clinician, an enthusiastic and dedicated teacher, a committed community servant, a leader in his profession and an avid scholar. His wife, Mary Ellen Weaver, was a registered nurse who supported Dr. Weaver’s vision and initiatives throughout his life and after his death.