In memoriam
Faculty
Stanley Foster passed away on March 14, 2021, after a prolonged illness. Foster’s public health career encompassed more than 60 years as an international epidemiologist and teacher. Among the many achievements of his prolific career include his role in containing the last case of variola major (the deadliest form of smallpox) in the world while leading the World Health Organization’s smallpox program in Bangladesh.
During his time employed with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (1962–1994), Foster lived all over the world investigating a number of infectious disease emergencies, including plague, rabies, measles, shigella, food poisoning, keratoconjunctivitis, rotavirus, Lassa fever, and Ebola virus.
Foster joined Rollins in 1994, where his passion for public health flourished in his role as an educator and mentor. Public health students from around the world remember his commitment to their personal development, and the most common phrase used to describe his courses was “life-changing.” Though he officially retired in 2013, Foster continued to be a regular fixture in the hallways of Rollins, where his smile and small talk were happily welcomed.
Foster received numerous awards throughout his career, including but not limited to the HHS Distinguished Service Award, CDC Watson Medal of Excellence Award, RSPH Sellars Award, APHA Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in International Health, and Emory Williams Award for Distinguished Teaching.
John L. Young Jr. passed away on March 11, 2021. Young was a professor of epidemiology at Rollins from 1998 to 2013 and spent the better part of his life devoted to advancing public health. He was considered to be the “father” of cancer surveillance in North America and was instrumental in establishing and advancing the principles of this field. While serving in the Public Health Service, he was employed at the National Cancer Institute during the establishment of the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program. He helped define the cancer surveillance rules and standard operating procedures for the SEER program, and ultimately the nation and the world.
John Boring III passed away in his sleep on January 10, 2021. Prior to retiring in the fall of 2012, Boring earned the status of professor emeritus of epidemiology after 46 years of teaching at Emory. He was the first chair of the Department of Epidemiology and served on the search committee that led to the appointment James Curran as dean of the RSPH.
Boring joined Emory in 1966 as an assistant professor in the School of Medicine. This is where he found his truest calling and lifelong professional purpose—teaching. He went on to become a full professor of epidemiology, creating the public health/epidemiology curriculum for the School of Medicine along the way.
Among his many accomplishments, Boring was recognized five times as RSPH instructor of the year, received the Thomas F. Sellers Jr. MD Award in 1993 (honoring a Rollins faculty member deemed a role model by colleagues), and received the Thomas Jefferson Award in 1995 (Emory’s highest faculty honor). In 2020, the Department of Epidemiology named its annual Infectious Disease Grand Rounds lecture in his honor.
Jonathan Liff passed away on October 10, 2020, following a prolonged illness. Liff was the former director of the Georgia Center for Cancer Statistics and a professor and in the Department of Epidemiology until his retirement in 2013. He was one of the first faculty members hired at Rollins by former Dean Ray Greenberg and was beloved by students, faculty, and staff alike.
1970s
Emmy Lou Eaton Faber 79MPH of Alpharetta, Ga., on Jan. 12, 2021, at the age of 96. Faber received an RN from Patterson State School of Nursing in 1947, a BS in nursing from Oglethorpe University in 1975, and a master’s of community health from Rollins in 1979. She served in the nurse cadet corps during World War II and as a career military spouse to her late husband, Theodore Faber, whom she married in 1949. When her husband retired from the US Air Force in 1966, they moved to Atlanta, and she returned to a career in nursing at Emory and then at Northside Hospital, where she was one of the first nurses to open the hospital. She retired from Northside Hospital as director of education in 1990. Faber lived for more than 40 years on their family farm in Alpharetta. She is survived by three sons.
1980s
Jerradine Morgan Bryant 83MPH of North Ridgeville, Ohio, on Oct. 11, 2019, at the age of 71. Bryant’s professional career was devoted to preventing health care–related infections and improving patient safety in health care settings. After receiving a BS degree in nursing from the Ohio State University and a master’s degree in public health from Rollins, Bryant served as an infection control consultant at the Ohio Department of Health and as a nurse epidemiologist at Crawford Long Hospital and the Cleveland Clinic Main Campus. She was a national leader in prevention of health care–related infections and served as director and president of the Certification Board of Infection Control, the editorial board of the American Journal of Infection Control, and the board of trustees for the Association of Practitioners in Infection Control Research Foundation. Bryant also worked on quality management in health care for two health care insurance companies before retiring in 2011. She is survived by her husband, Roger F. Dennis, three stepchildren, and three siblings.
Virginia Garrett Galvin 77M 78MR 84MR 88MPH of Avondale Estates, Ga., on Sept. 22, 2020, at the age of 68. Galvin received an undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin and completed an MD and master’s degree of public health at Emory. She was as an emergency room physician, but later followed her passion for community health to serve for a decade as the public health director for Cobb and Douglas counties. Galvin, a captain in the US Air Force Medical Corps, was active in many community groups. In 1994 she was selected as a fellow in the prestigious Kellogg National Fellowship program.
Galvin is survived by two daughters.
1990s
Elaine J. Koenig 92MPH of Atlanta on Dec. 18, 2020, at the age of 78. Koenig graduated from Queens College and Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons where she earned a BS in physical therapy. She spent much of her career as a physical therapist before completing her master’s degree of public health at Rollins. She worked as director of educational programs at Rollins, executive director of the Greater Atlanta Affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, and director of patient and family services at the Winship Cancer Institute at Emory Healthcare. Koenig is survived by her husband, Ronald H. Koenig, three daughters, and four grandchildren.
2000s
Douglas W. Lowery-North 08MPH of Bend, Ore., on Aug. 4, 2020, at age 58. Lowery-North graduated from Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He completed residency training in emergency medicine at UCLA, where he served as chief resident. He was a flight surgeon in the Air Force Reserve, served on the faculty at UCLA and at Rollins, where he received a master of public health degree in biostatistics and informatics. Lowery-North moved to Bend, where he joined the Central Oregon Emergency Physicians Group and was named chief medical informatics officer at the St. Charles Health System. He is survived by his parents, his husband, Eric, two children, and a sister.
2010s
Ira S. Adams-Chapman 87C 11MPH of Atlanta on Oct. 25, 2020, at age 55. Adams-Chapman received a BA degree from Emory prior to completing a MD degree from the Medical College of Georgia in 1991, a residency in pediatrics at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, and a fellowship in neonatology at the University of California at San Diego. She returned to Atlanta in 1998 to practice neonatology at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and at Emory University as an associate professor of pediatrics and the Jennings Watkins Scholar in Neuroscience at the school of medicine.
In 2011, Adams-Chapman earned an MPH at Rollins. She served as director of the Developmental Progress Clinic, where she will be remembered as a talented writer, researcher, and neonatologist who wrote books, spoke at conferences, and mentored many future physicians. Adams-Chapman is survived by a daughter, Jordan T. Chapman 17Ox 19C, a son, and two siblings.
