Obituary: Ralph S Paffenbarger Jr

Abstract

Ralph Paffenbarger- or Paff, as everyone called him- got his start in epidemiology as a member of the first class of the Epidemic Intelligence Service of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 1951· He had been at the CDC since 1947 after finishing medical school and a rotating internship at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. From 1977 to 1993, he was a professor of epidemiology at Stanford University, retiring in 1993He also served on the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley, and the Harvard School of Public Health, and as an advisor to various research institutions and government agencies.