Acta Tropica, 60(1995) 1-2 1 © 1995 Elsevier Science B.V. All fights reserved 0001-706X/95/$09.50

ACTROP 00480

O b i t u a r y

Fergus Samuel McCullough (1925-1995)

Dr. Fergus McCullough was born in Newtownards, County Down in Northern Ireland on 25 July 1925. After graduation from the Queen's University of Belfast in Zoology in 1948, he pursued postgraduate studies in the Veterinary Laboratory of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries at New Haw, Weybridge, Surrey, England and continued as a temporary research officer until December 1951. He began a long career in Africa as a medical biologist in the Ministry of Health of the Gold Coast between January 1952 to December 1956. In 1957 he went to Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) as a WHO field biologist consultant and was appointed a full- time medical officer assigned to the national WHO schistosomiasis control pro- gramme in Ghana (Project 005) in 1959. He received the M.P.H. from the Harvard School of Public Health in 1965-66 and returned to his post in Ghana until April 1967 when he joined the WHO Schistosomiasis Tanzania (Project 0039) in Mwanza, Tanzania. In 1974 he was transferred to AFRO in Brazzaville and in September 1977 was reassigned to the Division of Vector Biology and Control at WHO headquarters, where he remained until his retirement to Divonne France on 31 July 1985. In retirement he was a WHO consultant for the Division of Tropical Diseases on schistosomiasis and guineaworm eradication in West Africa. Dr. McCullough died on 1 May 1995 in Geneva, Switzerland after a long illness. He is survived by his wife, Elizabeth in Divonne, France and three children.

Fergus was a pioneer in studies of the ecology of water related diseases in West Africa. His renown among African scientists whom he trained and encouraged was widely recognized. The author of more than 40 scientific papers on schistosomiasis, dracunculiasis and other tropical diseases, he contributed greatly to the work of WHO and to alleviate the suffering of the African peoples. He will be remembered warmly as a good friend who always had a kind word for everyone and as a professional concerned with future of developing countries.

SSDI 0001-706X(95)00097-6