Washington, D.C., May 19, 2006 – The American Public Health Association (APHA) today expresses its deepest sympathy to the family of William H. McBeath, MD, who gave 20 years of exemplary service as executive director of APHA. Dr. McBeath passed on Monday, May 15, and is survived by his wife Shirley, his children, several grandchildren and a large gathering of friends and colleagues.
“Bill was one of our nation’s great leaders in public health and a good friend,” said Georges C. Benjamin, MD, FACP, executive director of APHA. “Under his leadership, APHA helped broaden and strengthen the scientific base for national public health policy. Bill was a giant of a man both in spirit and actions and he will be sorely missed.”
In 1973, he started his remarkable tenure as APHA executive director and strengthened the Association’s national public health policy platform. To further embolden his strong leadership, he led the World Federation of Public Health Association and upon his retirement in 1993, APHA awarded him its highest honor, the Sedgwick Memorial Medal. As he accepted the medal, he was recognized as “the single most important monitor of the public health climate of the nation and the catalyst of APHA’s response to it.”
Prior to leading APHA, he was director of the division of medical care with the Kentucky State Health Department and then served as director of the Ohio Valley Regional Medical Program until 1973.
A native of Kentucky, he graduated from Georgetown College in 1953, received a medical degree from the University of Louisville in 1957 and earned a master’s degree in public health from the University of Michigan in 1964. From 1958 to 1961, he served as a flight surgeon with the U.S. Air Force and worked with the University of Kentucky Medical Center.
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A funeral service will be held at 10:30 a.m. Friday, May 19, at First Baptist Church, 1328 16 th Street NW, corner of 16 th and O Streets, Washington, D.C. |