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At 09:45 PM 11/6/98 -0500, you wrote:
>I came across this today in the Pittsburgh (USA) Post-Gazette and had
>not seen it on any mailing lists, so I thought you all might be
>interested. Apologies for any cross-posting.
>
>Christopher Byrne, Director
>International Development Network
>http://www.idn.org/
>
>____________________________________________________________________
>
>Obituary: Szeming Sze: U.N. medical director, founder of World Health
>Organization
>
> Thursday, November 05, 1998
>
>By Sharon Voas, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
>
>Dr. Szeming Sze, who came up with the idea for the World Health
>Organization at lunch one day during a 1945 conference and helped nurse
>the organization into existence, died in Oakmont Oct. 27 after a 10-year
>battle with Parkinson's disease.
>
>Dr. Sze, who flew dangerous relief efforts to China during World War II
>and was the former medical director of the United Nations, had lived in
>Oakmont for 17 years during his retirement. He died at Presbyterian
>Medical Center in Oakmont. He was 90.
>
>Of all his achievements in international affairs, he was most proud of
>his role in founding WHO and he dreamed of working there, but never was
>able to, said his daughter, Diane Wei of Fox Chapel.
>
>WHO, a specialized agency of the United Nations, carries out programs to
>eradicate and control diseases around the world. The health organization
>develops medical technology and establishes world health standards for
>laboratories and pharmaceutical preparations. During its 50 years, it
>has helped eradicate smallpox and saved millions of children a year from
>death and disability through its immunization programs.
>
>Dr. Sze was born in China and raised in Britain. His father was the
>Chinese minister to Britain and later ambassador to the United States,
>so Dr. Sze developed an early interest in international affairs.
>
>A short, slight man, Dr. Sze had the reserve of his British and Chinese
>background. He was cultured and friendly. He spoke English, Chinese and
>French, and maintained friendships around the world.
>
>"He was always very well-mannered and smiled a lot," Wei said. "He was
>such a gentle man -- except for when he was on the tennis court, and
>then he was fierce."
>
>His family moved to Britain when he was 5 or 6, and he attended
>Westchester, the renowned prep school, and Cambridge University, where
>he earned his degree in internal medicine.
>
>He became interested in public service when he treated the poor during
>his medical residency at St. Thomas Hospital in a London slum made
>famous by the novels of Somerset Maugham. Dr. Sze wrote in his "Memoirs
>of an International Life": " ... I began to be influenced less by the
>desire to be a great clinician with a lucrative private practice and
>more by the hope to be able to do some public service."
>
>He met his wife, Bessie Li, a woman from a prominent Chinese banking
>family, when she was studying in England to be a concert pianist. They
>married in 1934 and moved to Shanghai to raise their children. But the
>Japanese invaded China in 1937, and Dr. Sze brought his family to the
>United States in 1941.
>
>Throughout World War II, Dr. Sze worked for China Defense Supplies, an
>organization set up in Washington, D.C., by the Chinese government to
>secure war supplies from the U.S. government under the Lend-Lease Act.
>
>He went with Chinese foreign minister T.V. Soong on missions to the
>wartime capital of Chungking in western China. The land route was
>constantly bombed so they had to fly from India over the Himalayan
>Mountains. Food was scarce in Chungking and it was subject to constant
>bombing, said Dr. Sze's brother-in-law, George Kao.
>
>It was his wartime work as personal secretary to Soong, writing his
>speeches in English, that led to Dr. Sze's involvement in the San
>Francisco conference where he and others took the first steps to form
>WHO.
>
>"While the part I was privileged to play in these early steps became
>quite important, and at times even crucial, my presence at the
>conference was almost accidental," Dr. Sze wrote in "The Origins of the
>World Health Organization."
>
>When Soong was called to represent China at the U.N. conference in April
>1945, he asked Dr. Sze to again write his speeches for him.
>
>The work of several international health organizations had been
>disrupted by the war. Dr. Sze didn't know that the United States and the
>United Kingdom had agreed before the conference -- without telling all
>the delegations from other countries -- that they would not put health
>on the agenda. At a medical lunch, Dr. Geraldo da Paula Souza of Brazil,
>Dr. Karl Evang of Norway and Dr. Sze decided to raise the issue of
>establishing a single international health organization.
>
>Dr. Sze wrote the declaration to set up an international conference to
>create WHO, which was adopted at the San Francisco meeting.
>
>Eventually, Dr. Sze became chief of specialized agencies for the
>Economic & Social Council of the United Nations. He was greatly
>disappointed when he was later offered a job at WHO that he couldn't
>take because of his U.N. commitments.
>
>He became U.N. medical director in 1948, taking care of the permanent
>staff of about 3,000, including inoculating them and preparing them for
>missions abroad. He held the position for 20 years.
>
>Dr. Sze moved to Oakmont to be near his daughter in 1982. He continued
>to travel the world, wrote his memoirs and worked on developing an
>international language he called "Globalese." He became a bird watcher
>and trained chickadees and tufted titmice to eat out of his hand.
>
>"He mostly gardened," Wei said. "He was a very keen tennis player. He
>played singles up until the age of 80, and he had no problem beating all
>of us and our friends who were much younger."
>
>In addition to his daughter, he leaves his son, architect Chiaming Sze
>of Boston; two sisters, Julia Sze-Bailey of New York City and Alice Wang
>of Cambridge, Mass.; five grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.
>
>He was cremated and his ashes will be interred next to those of his wife
>in Cambridge, Mass.
>
>