Leonard Bloksberg. Photo courtesy of the Boston Globe.

Leonard Bloksberg was probably inspired to get into social work when he was child during the Depression. His family could afford the nickel for him to go to the movies but his friend could not.

“Lenny said that it was as if his whole sense of social justice started at that moment, because he could not imagine why he could have a nickel and the other boy could not,” his wife Nancy R. Stone said.

Bloksberg went on to become a social work professor at Boston University and a social work advocate. He was appointed to the Massachusetts Commission on Mental Health by Governor Michael S. Dukakis in 1988 and awarded the Beverly Ross Fliegel Award for Social Policy and Change by the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers in 1995.

Bloksberg died from prostate cancer on Feb. 13. He was 81 years old. To read his full obituary in the Boston Globe click here.