haven emerson, a.b., m.d., d.sc

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HAVEN EMERSON, A.B., M.D., D.Sc. Source: Canadian Journal of Public Health / Revue Canadienne de Sante'e Publique, Vol. 48, No. 9 (SEPTEMBER 1957), p. 391 Published by: Canadian Public Health Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41981802 . Accessed: 18/06/2014 12:09 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Canadian Public Health Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Canadian Journal of Public Health / Revue Canadienne de Sante'e Publique. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 195.34.79.211 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 12:09:59 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

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HAVEN EMERSON, A.B., M.D., D.Sc.Source: Canadian Journal of Public Health / Revue Canadienne de Sante'e Publique, Vol. 48, No.9 (SEPTEMBER 1957), p. 391Published by: Canadian Public Health AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41981802 .

Accessed: 18/06/2014 12:09

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Canadian Public Health Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toCanadian Journal of Public Health / Revue Canadienne de Sante'e Publique.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.211 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 12:09:59 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Sept . 1957 EDITORIAL SECTION 391

HAVEN EMERSON, A.B., M.D., D.Sc.

TT AVEN EMERSON, one of the great leaders of public health on this •" continent, died on May 21 at his home in Southold, Long Island. He was 82 years of age. He will be remembered by the older group of public health members in Canada who had the privilege of hearing him and his name will continue to be known to all students of public health through his published addresses and his books Administrative Medicine (1942) and Local Health Units for the Nation (1946). His book Alcohol and Man published in 1934 early drew attention to alcoholism as a public health problem. From 1922 to 1940 when he reached the University's retiring age, he was Director of the Delamar Institute of Public Health in Columbia University in which the School of Public Health functioned. Keenly interested in the health of the city of New York, he served as Commissioner of Health from 1915-1917 and was a member of the Board of Health for many years. Between 1921 and 1931 he carried on relief work in Germany and Greece.

His approach to public health was that of a practising physician and he was impatient with those in public health who attempted to have public health assume responsibilities which were those of the medical profession. He was a puritan in his outlook on life, unhesitating in his challenge of social ills, yet always kindly to those who differed with him.

On the occasion of his seventy-fifth birthday in 1949, he received a unique expression of appreciation of his life work in the publication by his friends of a volume containing thirty-five of his addresses, commencing with a laboratory paper presented in 1903. His greatest practical contributions were made through committees of the American Public Health Association including the preparation and editing of seven editions of the Manual on the Control of Communicable Diseases . He gave leadership to the movement for full-time local health units and was concerned with the training of health services personnel. He was President of the American Public Health Association in 1933-34. He was awarded the Sedgwick Memorial Medal by the Association for distinguished service in public health in 1935 and received a Special Lasker Award in 1949 for extraordinary achievement in developing a program for a complete local health service in every area of the United States of America.

Dr. Emerson was deeply interested in the public health movement in Canada and generously participated in meetings of the Canadian Public Health Association on several occasions. As a senior member of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, he warmly endorsed the request of the Association for financial support in undertaking a two-year study of public health practices in Canada and gave most helpful advice during the survey.

He was, truly, an international pioneer in public health administration.

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.211 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 12:09:59 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions