After 12 Years

Dr. Thomas Parran, able Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service for the past twelve years, once called his job "the most important public health position in the world, present or prospective." More than any other one man, Dr. Parran was responsible for breaking the taboo against using the words syphilis and gonorrhea in public (TIME, Oct. 26, 1936). By research and by blunt publicity campaigns, he led an anti-VD fight that has brought both syphilis and gonorrhea under more effective control.

Last week, President Truman fired Dr. Parran from his top job (he remains in the PHS) without even the usual polite little note of farewell. Washington speculated on the reason. Federal Security Boss Oscar R. Ewing, whose agency controls PHS, explained that Dr. Parran's re-appointment for another four-year term (his fourth) would have made his tenure too long.* Politicians suspected that Parran, who had been New York health commissioner under Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt, was just one more New Dealer dealt out. Medical experts thought that Parran's leaving, among other things, represented a shift in emphasis: perhaps there will be less work on infectious diseases like syphilis, more on the degenerative diseases and cancer.

Parran's successor is tall, soft-spoken Dr. Leonard A. Scheele, 41, head of the National Cancer Institute, career man in the PHS and an Assistant Surgeon General (one of eight). Dr. Scheele takes over his "most important position" on April 1.

* One of Dr. Parran's five predecessors served 19 years, another 16.

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