Jesse Leonard Steinfeld | |
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| 11th Surgeon General of the United States | |
| In office December 18, 1969 – January 30, 1973 | |
| President | Richard M. Nixon |
| Preceded by | William H. Stewart |
| Succeeded by | Julius B. Richmond |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1927-01-06)January 6, 1927 |
| Died | August 5, 2014(2014-08-05) (aged 87) |
| Political party | Republican |
| Children | Susan Steinfeld, Mary Beth Steinfeld, Jody Stefansson |
| Alma mater | University of Pittsburgh, Case Western Reserve University |
Jesse Leonard Steinfeld (January 6, 1927 – August 5, 2014) was an Americanphysician andpublic health official. He was appointed the eleventhsurgeon general of the United States from 1969 to 1973.
Steinfeld was born in thePittsburgh, Pennsylvania, suburb ofWest Aliquippa. He was the son ofJewish immigrants fromHungary.[1] His father was asmoker and died when Steinfeld was 5 years of age.[1] His mother ran a dry goods and hardware store.[1] He received his B.S. from theUniversity of Pittsburgh in 1945 and his M.D. degree fromWestern Reserve University (now calledCase Western Reserve University) in 1949. Steinfeld then completed an internship atCedars of Lebanon Hospital inLos Angeles and residencies at theVeterans Administration Hospital inLong Beach, California, and at theUniversity of California, San Francisco in the Laboratory of ExperimentalOncology.
Steinfeld becameinstructor inmedicine at the University of California,San Francisco in 1952. From 1954 to 1958, he served as director of theradioisotope laboratory of theNational Cancer Institute,National Institutes of Health, and simultaneously held an appointment as instructor in medicine at theGeorge Washington University School of Medicine. In 1959, he joined the faculty of theUniversity of Southern California School of Medicine as assistantprofessor of medicine, rising through the ranks toassociate professor in 1963 and professor in 1967. Hisresearch interests focused oncancer.
In 1968, Steinfeld returned to the National Cancer Institute as associate director for programs. The following year, he was made deputy director of the institute.
He was appointed deputy assistant secretary for health and scientific affairs, and surgeon general beginning December 18, 1969.
Areorganization of the Public Health Service in 1968 had transferred its leadership to the Assistant Secretary for Health and Scientific Affairs, so Steinfeld no longer had theline management authority of surgeons general in the pre-1968 period. During histenure, there was an effort to do away with thePublic Health Service Commissioned Corps, and a 1971 report made such a recommendation. The report also called the position of surgeon general "an organizational anomaly," thus calling into question the need for such a position. Steinfeld spoke on behalf of the internal opposition to the report, and thanks to strong support for the corps and the surgeon general on the part of certain members of theUnited States Congress, the recommendations of the report were not implemented.
During Steinfeld's tenure as surgeon general, two important new Public Health Service programs were established, theNational Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and theNational Health Service Corps. As a specialist in the field of cancer, Steinfeld also no doubt welcomed the passage of theNational Cancer Act of 1971, which enhanced the ability of the Public Health Service to combat this deadly disease.
At the beginning of the secondRichard Nixon administration, Steinfeld resigned as surgeon general effective 30 January 1973. He then served as director of theMayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center and as professor of medicine at theMayo Medical School (1973–1974). Following that, Steinfeld was professor of medicine at theUniversity of California, Irvine and chief of medicine at the Veterans Administration Hospital inLong Beach, California, from 1974 to 1976. He then served asdean and professor of medicine at the School of Medicine of theMedical College of Virginia from 1976 to 1983. Steinfeld becamepresident of theMedical College of Georgia in 1983, a position that he held until hisretirement in 1987.
Steinfeld died on August 5, 2014, from complications from astroke inPomona, California, aged 87.[2]
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