Robert J. Anderson (public health administrator)

Robert J. Anderson (1914 – July 24, 1999) was the chief of the Communicable Disease Center (CDC) of the United States Public Health Service, forerunner to the modern Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, from October 1, 1956 to June 30, 1960.[1][2]

Robert J. Anderson
Chief of the Communicable Disease Center
In office
October 1, 1956 – June 30, 1960
PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower
Preceded byTheodore J. Bauer
Succeeded byClarence A. Smith
Personal details
Born1914
DiedJuly 24, 1999
Arlington, Virginia

Anderson was born in Zumbrota, Minnesota, graduated from Carleton College, and attended medical school at the University of Minnesota. After medical school he joined the Public Health Service. As an intern he worked at the Staten Island Public Health Service Hospital, including a stint in the venereal disease unit during World War II alongside John Friend Mahoney.[2]

After studying public health at Columbia University under a Rockefeller fellowship, Anderson worked on tuberculosis control. In 1947 he became the chief of the Tuberculosis Control program at the Public Health Service. He left the tuberculosis program in 1956 to become head of the Communicable Disease Center. At the CDC, Anderson oversaw the building of the Atlanta campus.[2]

After the CDC, Anderson returned to Washington, DC and worked on environmental health, including as Chief of the Bureau of State Services.[3]

He retired from the Public Health Service in 1966. After retirement, he served as medical director of the American Thoracic Society and (from 1970 to 1974) managing director of a forerunner to the American Lung Association.[4][2]

Anderson died of an aortic aneurysm on July 24, 1999, at his home in Arlington, Virginia, at the age of 85.[4]

Selected works
  • Anderson, Robert J. (1953). "Current Status of Tuberculosis Control in the United States". American Journal of Public Health and the Nations Health. American Public Health Association. 43 (8): 961–964. doi:10.2105/ajph.43.8.961. ISSN 0002-9572. PMC 1620390. PMID 13065551.
  • Anderson, Robert J. (1961). "Getting on with the public health job". American Journal of Public Health and the Nations Health. American Public Health Association. 51 (10): 1590–1592. doi:10.2105/ajph.51.10.1590. ISSN 0002-9572.
  • Anderson, Robert J. (1963). "New Directions in Environmental Health". American Journal of Public Health and the Nations Health. American Public Health Association. 53 (9): 1439–1446. doi:10.2105/ajph.53.9.1439. ISSN 0002-9572. PMC 1254314.

References
  1. "Past CDC Directors/Administrators | About | CDC". www.cdc.gov. July 20, 2018. Retrieved April 15, 2020.
  2. Watson, William; Anderson, Robert J. (September 25, 1984). Robert J. Anderson, interviewed by Bill Watson (Video). Retrieved May 3, 2020. Transcript.
  3. "Annual Report, U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare 1963". Retrieved September 16, 2020 – via HathiTrust.
  4. "Robert Anderson, 85, Dies". The Washington Post. August 3, 1999. Retrieved May 3, 2020.


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