IN MEMORIAM

IN MEMORIAM

John Fredrick Schacher

Professor of Epidemiology, School of Public Health

Los Angeles

1929–2002

John F. Schacher, a former in-residence professor in the Department of Epidemiology, UCLA School of Public Health, who had retired from UCLA in 1983, died of complications following surgery in Los Angeles on June 6, 2002.

 

Dr. Schacher originally was appointed in the Division of Infectious and Tropical Diseases within the School of Public Health in 1969 as associate professor and subsequently attained the rank of full professor. In addition to his teaching and research in the area of human parasitic diseases, he helped found the Generalist Program in Public Health offered for a number of years by the School. He also served as assistant dean of Student Affairs for several years, reflecting his strong interest in students.

 

Following his retirement from UCLA he became a faculty member in the College of Allied Medical Sciences at King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He subsequently became chairman of the Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences until he retired in 1990. He then returned to Los Angeles where he remained until his death.

 

Professor Schacher conducted research in numerous areas of parasitic diseases in many tropical areas of the world. He worked for three years on filariasis as an agent causing eosinophilic lung disease in the mid-1950s at the University of Malaya. He returned to Tulane University in 1957 where he completed his Ph.D. in 1961 under the mentorship of professors Ernest Carroll Faust and Paul C. Beaver, both world renowned pioneers in the field of parasitology. Prior to coming to UCLA in 1969, he was a faculty member for nine years in the Department of Tropical Health of the American University of Beirut in Lebanon. His many research publications included significant contributions to our knowledge of the syndrome of visceral larva migrans and the identification of pentostomes as the etiologic agent for halzoun. He spent many years elucidating the pathogenesis of lymphatic filarial infections. He served as a member of the World Health Organization Expert Advisory Panel on Parasitic Diseases (Filarial Infections) from 1973 to 1978 and on the WHO Scientific Advisory Panel on Onchocerciasis in West Africa from 1974 to 1979.

 

Professor Schacher was preceded in death by his wife, Dolores, in 1987 and his long time companion, Elizabeth Sayegh, in 2000. He is survived by his three children and seven grandchildren.

 

Lawrence R. Ash

Roger Detels