Archive
Herbert K. Abrams, Tucson Public Health Pioneer
08.01.2006
Dr. Herb Abrams, who was a primary founder of El Rio Santa Cruz Neighborhood Health Center and of two University of Arizona divisions that develop public health professionals, died in July, two days before his 93rd birthday. At the urging of Supervisor Elías, Pima County last year named its under-construction public health building on East Ajo Way for Dr. Abrams.
The UA hired Herb as a professor in 1968 to help set up, and oversee, a new Department of Family and Community Medicine. He was department head until 1978, when he helped set up the UA department's Arizona Center for Occupational Safety and Health, which he then headed until retiring in 1983. In addition to his administrative duties, Herb taught classes. But the indefatigable professor also was busy from 1969 on helping create and get off the ground the El Rio Health Center. He served on the El Rio Board of Directors from its founding in 1969 until 1986.
Most people would consider that a pretty full plate, but not Herb. He served on the Arizona State Board of Pesticide Control from 1979 to 1986; the Environmental Health Committee of the Arizona Medical Association from 1980 to 1985; the Governor's Commission on the Arizona Environment from 1978 to 1983; the Pima County Air Quality Advisory Council from 1982 to 1984. He served on many other health-care related boards and commissions at the same time and beyond.
Even in retirement, Herb continued to serve this community and the state of Arizona in unpaid positions. He was on the Board of Directors of the Pima County Medical Society Foundation from 1995 to 1998; was president of the UA Retirees Association from 1996 to 1998; and was on the Board of Directors of El Pueblo Health Clinic from 1996 until his death. For decades, Herb served on Pima County's various permutations of the Kino Community Hospital Advisory Board - a post he also held until his death.
In all these positions, Herb's always was a voice for justice and reason with the interests of the good public health services in mind.
Herb was a native of Chicago, born in the Windy City on July 11, 1913. He earned his bachelor's degree from Northwestern University in 1936 and earned a medical degree from the University of Illinois, College of Medicine, in 1940. After an internship at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Herb became a commissioned officer in the U.S. Public Health Service during the World War II years. After leaving the service, he earned a master's degree in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University and then took a position with the California State Health Department as chief of its Bureau of Occupational Health. In 1952, he returned to Chicago where he founded and then directed Union Health Services Inc., a health plan for industrial workers. In 1966 he joined the faculty of the Chicago Medical School and at the same time founded and directed the Martin Luther King Neighborhood Health Center.
Herb's rich life was dedicated to the promotion of public health services, especially those programs directed at working people and the disadvantaged. He lived his life vigorously and very well, and already we miss him. May he rest in peace.