Dr.
William Haddon, Jr.
Class of 1987
Background:
William Haddon Jr., M.D., was born in Orange, New Jersey,
May 24, 1926. He received his Doctor of Medicine degree from
Harvard Medical School in 1953, a Master of Public Health
degree from the Harvard School of Public Health in 1957 and
a Bachelor of Science degree from the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology in 1949.
Professional
Experience:
Dr. Haddon served concurrently as president of the Insurance
Institute for Highway Safety and as president of the Highway
Loss Data Institute in Washington, D.C. from 1969 to 1972
respectively until his death March 4, 1985. He was the first
administrator of the National Highway Safety Bureau, U.S.
Department of Transportation, from 1966-69. He served as special
assistant for traffic safety planning for the U.S. Department
of Commerce from July until September 1966. From 1964-66,
he was associate director of the Division of Chronic Disease
Services for the New York State Department of Health, Albany,
New York. Prior to that position, he had served as acting
assistant commissioner for public health, research, development
and evaluation, and other assignments with the New York State
Department of Health, 1956-66. He was a research associate
in microbiology at Harvard School of Public Health from July
1955 until July 1956.
Career
Highlights:
Dr. Haddon served more than 37 committee appointments and
consultantships including: member, Board of Directors, Anthracothere
Hill Project, Omer, Israel (1983); discussant, National Academy
of Sciences, Conference on Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
(1978); chairman, Panel on Transportation of the Sick and
Injured, White House Task Force on Health (1967); and the
U.S. representative and chairman of U.S. delegation to the
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe's Working Party
on Road Safety, Geneva (1967).
He received
numerous awards including: Stone Award of the American Trauma
Society, 1977; 1975 Award of the American Association for
Automotive Medicine; and the 1969 Bronfman Prize for Public
Health Achievement. He was a member of many professional organizations
and honorary societies. He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps
during World War II. Dr. Haddon wrote extensively and has
been widely published.
In 1966,
Dr. Haddon created the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
"from scratch." He was appointed by President Lyndon
B. Johnson. He set the first federal safety standards for
motor vehicles and set standards for state and local laws
on drunk driving and requirements that motorcyclists wear
helmets. For many years, Haddon campaigned for mandatory air
bags in new cars.
