Dr. William Henry Sebrell Jr. (born 1901)

Sebrell was born in Portsmouth, Virginia. He received a B.A. degree from the University of Virginia and then enrolled in the medical school, receiving his M.D. in 1925.

Career[edit]

Sebrell joined the Public Health Service (PHS) in 1926. After completing an internship at the PHS Marine Hospital in New Orleans, Sebrell was assigned to the Hygienic Laboratory (as the National Institutes of Health was then known) in Washington, D.C.[2]

A leading international authority on nutrition, Sebrell first recognized and described the dietary deficiency disease, ariboflavinosis, and made significant contributions to knowledge of dietary needs and deficiencies. He began his research career under Dr. Joseph Goldberger, who demonstrated that pellagra is a deficiency disease. During the 1930s, Sebrell made many contributions to knowledge of the anemias and the role of diet in cirrhosis.

During World War II, Sebrell was co-director of the National Nutrition Program, which coordinated activities of all state agencies working in nutrition. This program aided food production and the maintenance of civilian health during the war years. In 1948 he became director of the Experimental Biology and Medicine Institute, and on October 1, 1950, he was appointed director of NIH. He held this post until his resignation on July 31, 1955, amidst the Cutter Incident, a scandal relating to improper preparation of polio vaccines which resulted in children being injected with live polio virus. [3]

Sebrell helped to formulate the first international standards of nutrition for the League of Nations and pioneered the growing acceptance of scientific nutrition as a regular function of modern state and local health departments.[4]

Sebrell also organized Columbia University's Institute of Human Nutrition.[5] In April 1971, he joined the staff of Weight Watchers.[6]

Death[edit]

On September 29, 1992, Sebrell died from cancer at his home town in Pompano Beach, Florida.[7]

References[edit]

^ "General History of Medicine Oral Histories: William H. Sebrell : An oral history / Interviewed by Albert Siepert, 1970 Dec. 8-9".
^ "Sebrell, William H." Onih.pastperfectonline.com. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
^ Edward Shorter, The Health Century, Doubleday, New York, 1987, pp 68–70 ISBN 0-385-24236-0
^ "William Henry Sebrell Jr., M.D." National Institutes of Health (NIH). 6 August 2015. Retrieved 1 April 2019. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
^ Dunn, Marietta Fogel (June 14, 1973). "Doctor Works Toward Thinner World". The Kansas City Times. Missouri, Kansas City. p. 37 B. Retrieved 10 April 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "Weight Watchers, Something New". The Tribune. Ohio, Coshocton. April 12, 1971. p. 5. Retrieved 10 April 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
^ Lambert, Bruce (30 September 1992). "Dr. W. Henry Sebrell, 91, Expert On Nutrition and Use of Vitamins". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 April 2019.

https://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/30/us/dr-w-henry-sebrell-91-expert-on-nutrition-and-use-of-vitamins.html

1992-09-30-nytimes-dr-w-henry-sebrell-91-expert-on-nutrition-and-use-of-vitamins.pdf

Dr. W. Henry Sebrell, 91, Expert On Nutrition and Use of Vitamins

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By Bruce Lambert

Sept. 30, 1992

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The New York Times Archives

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September 30, 1992, Section D, Page 25Buy Reprints

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W. Henry Sebrell Jr., a pioneer in vitamin research and an international authority on nutrition, died yesterday at his home in Pompano Beach, Fla. He was 91 years old.

He died of cancer, his family said.

Dr. Sebrell was director of the National Institutes of Health and Assistant Surgeon General from 1950 to 1955. He led the institutes through a period in which it grew to be the world's largest medical research agency.

In his 30's, Dr. Sebrell became an expert on vitamin B complex. He helped to discover the prevention and cure of pellagra, an ailment caused by niacin deficiency that had killed thousands of Americans each year. And as a public health official, he promoted the enrichment of flour and bread with niacin, thiamine and riboflavin, which wiped out pellagra, beriberi and other ailments.

He spent more than 30 years with the United States Public Health Service and the Institutes of Health. Under his leadership, the institutes opened its $64 million Clinical Center, with 500 beds and 1,100 laboratories, in Bethesda, Md., in 1953. The center was a breakthrough for the Government in combining clinical and laboratory research.

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When modern medicine began controlling infectious diseases, Dr. Sebrell helped refocus the agency's attention on cancer, heart disease and other chronic illness, which he said "damage and kill the most Americans."

Dr. Sebrell was born in Portsmouth, Va. After undergraduate work at the University of Virginia, he earned a medical degree there in 1925.

His mentor was Dr. Joseph Goldberger, a pellagra researcher who died in 1929 and whose work Dr. Sebrell continued. Among other areas, Dr. Sebrell studied pantothenic acid deficiency and the adrenal glands, blood abnormality from folic acid deficiency, liver necrosis and cirrhosis.

As a nutrition expert, he advised the League of Nations and United Nations. In World War II he made strategic recommendations for the diet of civilian workers and rationing for civilian survivors in western Europe.

In the postwar prosperity, he shifted from the receding problem of malnutrition to the dangers of eating too much. In 1952 he proclaimed that obesity had replaced dietary deficiencies "as the No. 1 nutrition problem" in the nation, with a fourth of the population overweight.

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After leaving the institutes, Dr. Sebrell was a consultant to the American Cancer Society and president of the Vitamin Foundation. In 1957 he joined Columbia University as a professor and developed its Institute of Human Nutrition.

In 1971 he left Columbia to become Weight Watchers International's first medical director. In 1979 he retired from that post to become director of the Weight Watchers Foundation.

His honors included the United States Legion of Merit and awards from the American Medical Association and the American Institute of Nutrition. He served as president of that institute and of the Society for Clinical Nutrition.

Dr. Sebrell also published some 300 papers and was co-editor of a five-volume reference work on vitamins.

His first wife, the former Margaret Bruffey, and his second wife, the former Eloise Glover, are deceased.

He is survived by his wife of 14 years, the former Helena Braddock; a son, William H. 3d, of Simsbury, Conn.; a daughter, Betty Liddle Sherman of Toledo, Ohio; three stepsons, Page Glover of Baltimore, John Lemp Jr. of Boulder, Colo., and James Lemp of Reading, Pa.; a stepdaughter, Helena Duggan of San Francisco; five grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren;

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