Former Surgeon General Julius Richmond

Julius Richmond was the first director of Head Start, a government health and education program for poor children. (By Jim Harrison -- Heinz Family Foundation)

Califano summoned him back to Washington in 1977 to be HEW's assistant secretary for health and surgeon general, the chief spokesman on the nation's health. It was the first time the jobs were combined.

Dr. Richmond aimed to improve the delivery of health services, especially to the elderly and poor. He also said at the time that Califano had given him the responsibility for one of President Jimmy Carter's goals: comprehensive national health insurance covering every American, from cradle to grave.

In his four years in that job, he issued the first surgeon general's report on health promotion and disease prevention, urging Americans to cut their consumption of alcohol, salt, sugar and fats, get moderate exercise, obey speeding laws, use seat belts and see a doctor regularly.

He also worked on a national strategy to combat infant mortality. Under his oversight, the federal government carried out a successful immunization campaign for measles and other childhood diseases that disproportionately affected the poor.

Califano said Dr. Richmond advised him to change a public health regulation that declared homosexuality an illness, a rule that barred gays from entering the United States. Califano quietly took his advice.

In 1979, Dr. Richmond issued a 1,200-page update to a landmark 1964 surgeon general's report on smoking. The follow-up study greatly expanded public knowledge of the evidence that smoking caused lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema and other illnesses.

This was a campaign he continued to wage throughout his life. After he left office, he served as an expert witness in lawsuits against tobacco companies, and he joined three other surgeons general in 2004 to unveil a national plan to curb smoking, calling for a $2 tax on every pack of cigarettes.

Julius Benjamin Richmond was born Sept. 25, 1916, in Chicago and graduated from the University of Illinois. He received a master's degree in physiology and a medical degree there as well, in 1939.

After two years at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, he served in the U.S. Army Air Forces as a flight surgeon during World War II.

He then joined the University of Illinois' College of Medicine in Chicago, where he was active both in nonprofit children's welfare organizations and Chicago's Institute for Psychoanalysis, until he moved to SUNY in 1953.

After his career in government ended in 1981, he returned to Harvard, where he was a professor of health policy until retiring in 1988.

Harvard launched its Center on the Developing Child in his honor, and the American Academy of Pediatrics named its Center of Excellence and a lectureship for him. He wrote "The Health Care Mess: How We Got Into It and What It Will Take to Get Out," (2005) with Rashi Fein. His many awards included the Heinz Award in Public Policy in 2003.

His first wife, Rhee Richmond, died in 1985. A son from that marriage, Dale Richmond, died in 1972.

Survivors include his wife of 21 years, Jean Richmond of Brookline; two sons from his first marriage, Dr. Barry Richmond of Bethesda and Charles Richmond of Indianapolis; two stepsons, Michael Berger of Detroit and Dr. Steven Berger of West Lafayette, Ind.; nine grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.