GWU Prodigy, Doctor Habeeb Bacchus Dies

A small, energetic man, Dr. Bacchus was especially proud of his career as a professor and often reminded his students that "doctor" derives from the Latin word for "to teach," docere .

"I'm not the greatest researcher in the world, nor even the best clinician," he said when he retired in December 1994. "But I know how to teach. I get through to people."

Dr. Bacchus was one of eight children born to Muslim Indian immigrants in the Guyanese town of Triumph Village. He graduated from high school at 14 and spent the next two years, as he told The Post in 1950, "reading and idling." He enrolled at Howard because two dentists he knew in Guyana had been trained there.

An older brother also attended George Washington, but six sisters at home did not go to school.

"It is a matter of Moslem tradition," he told The Post in 1950. "A sad thing, for they are the smartest of all."

In Washington, Dr. Bacchus was once denied entrance to a restaurant because of his dark skin, and at least one patient refused to be treated by him.

"Before I came to the United States," he later said, "I was not aware of a color barrier, so it was rather a surprise to me. Because I had previously developed my self-confidence, I knew that whatever happened, I was going to beat it."

His marriage to Joan Kinsel Bacchus ended in divorce.

Survivors include his wife of 39 years, Frances Bacchus of Aptos; three children from his first marriage, Paula Roby of Riverside, Andree Scalissi of Huntington Beach, Calif., and Jeanne Weber of Salinas, Calif.; three children from his second marriage, David Bacchus of Lafayette, Calif., Michael Bacchus of Baltimore and Julie Bacchus Winters of Washington; one brother; four sisters; and nine grandchildren.