American Journal of Epidemiology Vol. 155, No. 10 : 976
Copyright © 2002 by The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health
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From the Editor
On March 21–22, 2002, the American Epidemiological Society celebrated its 75th anniversary at its annual meeting, held at the New York Academy of Medicine. Coincidentally, the first meeting of the Society had been held at the same site in 1927! Your Editor was privileged to present a paper at the 2002 meeting. I chose to speak about one of the founders of the Society, Edward S. Godfrey, Jr. In his little classic monograph describing the first 50 years of the Society, John Paul had provided vignettes of the lives and works of seven charter members, but not Godfrey (1
). This seemed to me to be an unfortunate omission because, other than Wade Hampton Frost, Godfrey had contributed more to the incorporation of epidemiology into public health practice than any of the other six recognized by Paul. I decided to remedy this omission by my presentation.
At the time of the founding of the Society, Godfrey was Director of Communicable Disease Control for New York State. He had begun his public health career as Health Officer of the Arizona Territory and had then served as state epidemiologist for Illinois and New York. He subsequently became Commissioner of Health for New York State. He received the Sedgwick Award of the American Public Health Association in 1951. As Commissioner of Health from 1936 to 1947, he placed great emphasis on basing public health programming on epidemiologic evidence. Two examples stand out. First, in a classic ecologic study of "herd immunity" and diphtheria incidence, Godfrey showed that immunization of more than 50 percent of the school-aged children (New York State Health Department policy) did not interrupt endemic diphtheria incidence until more than 30 percent of the preschool children were immunized (2)! Second, in an analysis of tuberculosis case finding among contacts of cases, he showed that the then current policy emphasizing screening of childhood contacts was far less efficient than screening adult contacts (3). Both of these studies initiated policy changes resulting in substantial prevention results. It was Godfrey who dubbed health officer trainees "apprentice epidemiologists." I was proud to carry that moniker during my 2-year training fellowship at the New York State Health Department.
At the conclusion of the presentation of my paper, Edward S. Godfrey, III, emeritus Dean and Professor at the University of Maine School of Law, spoke to the Society by telephone from his home in Portland, Maine. Incidentally, due to my temporary incapacity, my paper was read by my daughter, archeologist Dr. Rebecca Yamin.
References
- Paul JR. An account of the American Epidemiological Society: a retrospect of some 50 years. Yale J Biol Med 1973;46:1–148.[Medline]
- Godfrey ES Jr. Study in the epidemiology of diphtheria in relation to the active immunization of certain age groups. Am J Public Health Nation's Health 1932;22:237–56.[Medline]
- Godfrey ES Jr. Epidemiology of tuberculosis: principles of programs of tuberculosis associations. Am Rev Tuberculosis 1941;43:1–10.
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