Kim Painter, Special for USA TODAY
C. Everett Koop, the former surgeon general who brought frank talk about AIDS into American homes, has died at his home in Hanover, N.H., officials at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth announced today. He was 96.
Koop, a pediatric surgeon with a conservative reputation and a distinctive beard, was surgeon general from 1981 to 1989, during the Reagan administration.
"Dr. Koop will be remembered for his colossal contributions to the health and well-being of patients and communities in the U.S. and around the world," said a statement released by Chip Souba, dean of the Geisel School of Medicine and Joeph O'Donnell, senior scholar at the C. Everett Koop Institute. "As one of our country's greatest Surgeons General, he effectively promoted health and the prevention of disease, thereby improving millions of lives in our nation and across the globe."
He is best remembered for his official 1986 report on AIDS - a plain-spoken 36-page document that talked about the way AIDS spread (through sex, needles and blood), the ways it did not spread (through casual contact in homes, schools and workplaces) and how people could protect themselves.
The report advocated condom use for the sexually active and sex education for school children, pleasantly surprising liberals and upsetting many of Koop's former supporters. An eight-page version was mailed to every American household in 1988.
The brochure came in a sealed packet with the warning that "some of the issues involved in this brochure may not be things you are used to discussing openly."
In interviews and speeches, Koop always stressed that sexual abstinence and monogamy were the best protection against AIDS, but that medical experts had a duty to tell people who did not choose those paths how they could stay healthy.
"My position on AIDS was dictated by scientific integrity and Christian compassion," Koop wrote in his 1991 biography, Koop: The Memoirs of America's Family Doctor.
Koop also made his mark in the fight against smoking, with another 1986 report that alerted the public to the dangers of second-hand smoke - setting the stage for today's widespread prohibitions against smoking in public places.
Charles Everett Koop was born in Brooklyn on Oct. 14, 1916. He briefly played football at Dartmouth College, where he acquired his lifelong nickname Chick, according to a biography posted online by the National Library of Medicine. An early fascination with medicine eventually led him to Cornell University Medical College. In 1945, he became first surgeon-in-chief at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, a position he held until his appointment as surgeon general.
His nomination for that position was opposed by groups who feared he would use the office to promote his anti-abortion views - which he said were developed during a career saving newborns with life-threatening birth defects. But Koop avoided abortion politics during his tenure.
After he left office, he became one of the first high-profile doctors to establish a presence online. His website, DrKoop.com, was launched in 1997 and was intended to provide reliable health information to the public, he said. But Koop and his backers faced criticism over ties with companies advertising on the site. Like many Internet efforts of the era, it failed, going bankrupt in 2001.
Koop remained active, though, heading his C. Everett Koop Institute at Dartmouth in New Hampshire. At a news conference in Washington, D.C., in 2010, when he was 94, he spoke from a wheelchair and told reporters that he was "very, very deaf" and legally blind, the Washington Post reported.
But he still had the strength to warn that AIDS was becoming a "forgotten epidemic." Although 56,000 Americans were still getting infected each year, "simply put, HIV is no longer on the public's radar screen," he said.
Statement on Koop's death from US Health & Human Service Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius: "I am deeply saddened by the passing of former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop. Dr. Koop was a fearless public servant and a pioneering pediatric surgeon. I was honored to have worked with him on several occasions.
During his nearly eight years as "America's Family Doctor," he not only advised Americans about improving their health, he brought important public health issues to the country's attention.
He was a powerful and early voice in the fight against AIDS, and will long be remembered as the surgeon general who educated America about this disease.
Dr. Koop was also vocal about reducing tobacco use and stopping people from taking up smoking. While surgeon general, he issued eight reports on tobacco, including the nation's first on the health consequences of secondhand smoke exposure.
Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, and we are grateful for his public service."
Statement from former US Surgeon General, Dr. Regina Benjamin: "Today, America lost an extraordinary physician, public servant, and great American; I, like many others, lost a mentor and a friend.
As surgeon general from January 1982 until October 1989, Dr. Koop proved to be an outspoken advocate on public health issues. The problem of tobacco was one that he attacked particularly vigorously.
As the nation began to recognize AIDS as a new and deadly disease, Surgeon General Koop became an influential voice in educating Americans. Dr. Koop released "Understanding AIDS," a U.S. Public Health Service brochure based on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, which was sent to 107 million households in the United States in 1988, the largest public health mailing ever done.
When I assumed the role of surgeon general, Dr. Koop sat down with me on what would become the first of numerous occasions to offer guidance and support. We often prayed together.
The nation and the world will miss a most notable public health figure."