Lee Salk, 65; Child Psychologist and Author

Lee Salk, a child psychologist, author of eight books on family relationships and a frequent guest on television talk shows, has died of a heart attack. He was 65.

Salk, brother of polio vaccine developer Jonas Salk, died Saturday night at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital, where he was undergoing treatment for cancer, his son, Eric, said Sunday.

Salk often was seen on such shows as “Today,” “Good Morning, America,” and “Nightline.” For 20 years, he wrote a monthly column for McCall’s magazine called “You and Your Family.”

“He told parents to pick up your baby when he cries,” his son said. “That it’s hard to spoil a newborn baby, that parents should tell their children the truth. The reason he was so successful in getting messages across was because he used common sense.”

Salk also was a pioneer in the research of heartbeat sounds in infants, sudden infant death syndrome and the effects of early experience on later behavior.

His late brother, Herman, was a veterinarian who traveled the world helping to improve the care of cattle and other animals. Jonas Salk developed the polio vaccine in 1955.

At the time of his death, Lee Salk was a professor at Cornell University Medical Center and an adjunct professor at Brown University, as well as a psychologist at two New York medical centers.