Sad report of Ruth Roemer death, on August 1, after a short illness, at age 89.

Message from Ross Hammond: margross@igc.org
(I am posting this on behalf of Allyn Taylor -- Ruth was an extraordinary person who made a huge mark in the field of public health, not the least of which was the FCTC. She will be sorely missed.)


It is with great sadness that I report the death of our dear friend and colleague, Ruth Roemer, on August 1, after a short illness, at age 89.

For over five decades Ruth was a tireless advocate for the improvement of local, national and global health conditions and being a giant in the field of public health law. A graduate of Cornell Law School, in the 1950s she participated in a landmark study of the law governing the state’s admissions to mental hospitals. Her research, with Professor Bertram Wilcox, resulted in a book and a change in New York law in this realm. In the early 1960s Professor Roemer and her late husband, the eminent Dr. Milton Roemer, joined the faculty of the UCLA School of Public Health. Ruth became the principal organizer and vice president of the California Committee on Therapeutic
Abortion. Her group spear-headed abortion law reform in California in 1967, six years before Roe v. Wade. Over the years, she championed numerous public health causes including fluoridation of public water locally and globally, education and regulation of health personnel, hospital patients’ rights and admissions, and universal health care. In 1987 she was elected President of the American Public Health Association.

For over the last two decades, Professor Roemer made seminal contributions to the field of global tobacco control, starting with a global review of legislation for tobacco control worldwide commissioned by the World Health Organization. Her book, Legislation for Tobacco Control, first published by WHO in 1982, proved helpful to many countries grappling with tobacco control policies. In the 1990s she initiated the idea of an international instrument for tobacco control. I had the great privilege of working with Ruth on the development of the idea of a tobacco control treaty and our 1995 feasibility study for the WHO Executive Board became the foundation for the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Ruth was a relentless
campaigner for the FCTC – pushing and building global support for this legal instrument in its early stages and long before there was much interest in a tobacco control treaty. In her last years, Ruth remained vitally active in global tobacco control, preparing a study on tobacco control legislation for WHO in 2003 and contributing to a new textbook in the field. Her final article on the origins of the WHO Framework Convention was just published by the American Journal of Public Health in June.

Ruth’s extraordinary accomplishments and contributions to local, national and global public health comprised just a small part of the remarkable person that she was. Ruth mentored scores of students, colleagues and friends – often redirecting their careers and working to create opportunities for them. She also had a tremendous capacity to bring people together, building networks of colleagues and friends around the world. She will be terribly missed.

Contributions in her memory can be made to the Ruth Roemer Scholarship Fund at the UCLA School of Public Health. Checks should be issued to the "UCLA Foundation" and on the check write "Ruth Roemer Award Fellowship Fund #3851" and sent to:

UCLA School of Public Health, Development Office
650 Charles Young Drive
PO Box 951772
Los Angeles, CA 90095
USA


Dr. Allyn Taylor, JD, LLM, JSD
University of Maryland School of Law
University of Maryland School of Medicine
500 West Baltimore Street
Baltimore, MD 21205
Email: ataylor@law.umaryland.edu
Phone: 410-706-4206
Fax: 410-706-4808