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.