William Zukel

Year: November 17th, 2001
Interviewed by: Nichaman, Milton

Abstract

This interview rings with utter fact and credibility. Bill Zukel was at the center, a well-trained physician, very early in the United States Public Health Service (USPHS), “there at the beginning.” It is rich in reality of the origins of Framingham and is the only real source on the Newton Community Study, founded with Framingham and discontinued as a screening and education effort after only three years.

There is information on Albany with Hilleboe and Doyle, on the early Heart Disease Control Program and the Heart Institute, on the development of the cross-cultural comparisons with Japan, Honolulu, San Francisco, Framingham, Puerto Rico and Yugoslavia, and the bare facts on the power play of Ted Cooper to close Framingham so that the intramural NHI program would have funds for staffing, and how Zukel, a Lilienfeld Committee, and a critical letter from Paul D. White influenced the decision to maintain eight positions at Boston University, assuring its survival.

There are insights, confirmed elsewhere, about the profound influence of Jim Watt, USPHS officer and epidemiologist who became NHI director in the 1950s, on the epidemiological and prevention strengths of that institute. (HB)