C. Everett Koop (1916-2013)

Koop campaigned relentlessly against the use of tobacco, calling for its complete exit from American life by the year 2000 (much to the chagrin of North Carolina’s Jesse Helms, who praised Koop’s appointment). He got prominent warning labels affixed to all tobacco products, and became the tobacco industry’s most public enemy. By the time Koop’s run as Surgeon General ended in 1989, smoking in the United States among adults had dropped eleven points, from 38 percent to 27 percent.

But Koop’s most important work was on identifying the danger that AIDS posed to the public. Initially seen as a disease that only affected homosexuals and intravenous drug users, the disease was written off by many policymakers as either the problem of marginal populations, or even divine retribution against the sinful. Koop, however, saw AIDS simply as a virus that did not recognize morality. He called for compulsory sexual education in elementary school, including the widespread distribution and education in the use of condoms as a preliminary way to prevent the transmission of HIV. That Koop became so well known for his promotion of condoms annoyed him, for he would have preferred that people for a moral solution of celibacy and/or monogamy to avoid infection. But like every other policy he drove, it was all about medical necessity, the power of information, and the ability to use his position within the government as a bully pulpit to drag Americans into healthier lifestyles, no matter who it offended.

Koop stayed mostly on the sidelines since his retirement as Attorney General, and in February, after a battle with illness, he died in his New Hampshire home at 96. Those who grew up during the Koop years knew him as a stern fellow on TV with a beard like Abraham Lincoln and a manner like a distant, slightly estranged uncle. But they also learned from him that smoking kills, that AIDS does not discriminate, and that the science of health has little to do with the belief systems so often hung upon it. Koop kept his own conscience clear, upholding his strict moral convictions while carrying out his duties as Surgeon General well beyond any expectations of him, and in so doing, saved millions of lives. He did it without fanfare, and without flourish. But he changed the world, leaving it a far healthier place than it was when he entered it. If only he had lived for another 96 years.