Timothy Leary.

Timothy Leary was born on October 22, 1920, in Springfield, Massachusetts, to a mother who was a teacher and a father who was a dentist. He attended West Point, joined the Army, and earned his undergraduate psychology degree at the University of Alabama while serving. He earned a master’s from Washington State University and a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley. In 1959, he joined the Harvard faculty, where he met Richard Alpert and began controlled experiments with psychedelic drugs.

Leary’s career as a psychologist took a dramatic turn when he began LSD experiments at Harvard with Richard Alpert. In 1963, they were fired for using undergraduate students in tests. They moved to Millbrook Estate, a 63-room mansion in upstate New York, attracting writers and activists like William Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, and Allen Ginsberg. Leary became a counterculture icon, coining the phrase Turn on, tune in, drop out. In 1970, he was serving a 10-year sentence for marijuana possession but escaped with help from the Weather Underground and his third wife Rosemary. After fleeing to Algeria and Switzerland, he was arrested in Afghanistan in 1973 and returned to prison. Paroled in 1976, he embarked on lecture tours, stand-up comedy, and a controversial 1982 tour with Watergate figure G. Gordon Liddy. He also acted in films and TV shows, including a voice role on Frasier in 1993 and a role in Shocker in 1989.

Leary was married five times: to Marianne Busch 1945–1955, Mary Della Cioppa 1956–1957, Nena Thurman 1964–1965, Rosemary Woodruff Leary 1967–1976, and Barbara Chase 1978–1992. He had two sons: Marlon Gobel and Zach Leary. His third wife, Nena, was the mother of actress Uma Thurman, and Leary later lived with Joanna Harcourt-Smith, whose nephew Arpad Busson was engaged to Uma. He was the godfather of actress Winona Ryder. In 1995, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and documented his final year on his website.

Leary’s advocacy for psychedelic drugs made him a central figure in 1960s counterculture. Despite controversies, his early scientific research contributed to renewed interest in psychedelic therapy decades later. He inspired artists like the Beatles and authors like Tom Wolfe. After his death in 1996, portions of his ashes were launched into orbit aboard a rocket alongside those of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry. His final words, Yeah! Why not? Why not? and Oh! Beautiful! Beautiful! were posted on his website, which announced his passing with a black screen. Today, he is remembered as the self-appointed High Priest of LSD and a symbol of the quest for expanded consciousness.