The Sun omitted the courtesy title Dr. with the name of a psychologist quoted in a recent obituary. (The obituary page is the only place in which The Sun continues to use courtesy titles — Mr., Mrs., Miss, Ms., Dr., etc. — routinely.) And we have heard from a reader who is disappointed at the substitution of Mr. for Dr.

It is, as the Brits say, a fair cop. Whoever told the reporter that we use Dr. only for people who hold medical degrees was misinformed. Our in-house stylebook says that the title, when relevant, may be used for anyone who holds an earned doctorate. (People with honorary degrees are out of luck.)

On this point, The Associated Press Stylebook has finally caught up with what has been Sun practice for some time. The AP, which used to limit Dr. to people with medical degrees, now advises:

"If appropriate in the context, Dr. also may be used on first reference before the names of individuals who hold other types of doctoral degrees. However, because the public frequently identifies Dr. only with physicians, care should be taken to assure that the individual’s specialty is stated in first or second reference. The only exception would be a story in which the context left no doubt that the person was a dentist, psychologist, chemist, historian, etc.

"In some instances it also is necessary to specify that an individual identified as Dr. is a physician. One frequent case is a story reporting on joint research by physicians, biologists, etc."

We can take note of the touching vanity of the academic who insists on appending Ph.D. to his name on business cards, stationery, credit cards and, for all I know, towels. But we limit use of such titles to relevant contexts. 

Issues concerning courtesy titles do not go away:

http://blogs.baltimoresun.com/about_language/2006/04/we_called_him_m.html

The reason is that though courtesy titles are used less frequently, people do still use them. And we have to know how to use them appropriately.