One of “touched” by Stan’s guidance and mentoring.

I met Stan in 1993 when joining IHPO on Carol Goettl’s team. While working to support the CCCD field staff and their programs on the admin/management front, and being a former Peace Corps Vol, my goal was to get out to the field. It took some time to get up the gumption to get Stan’s advice but once that contact was made, he committed to helping make that happen. When the first TDY opportunity arose, I asked Stan his advice about the Yellow Fever vaccine requirement (for entry into Rwanda). He was resolute in stating the current efficacy of that YF vaccine construct was so bad that it wasn’t wise to get it – as you would likely get yellow fever if exposed after inoculation. However, never one to keep someone from good work because of issues beyond their control, he gave me a wily smile and reached into his desk drawer and pulled out his USPHS crimping tool and ceremoniously crimped and stamped my vaccination card and declared my vaccinated! Well, that TDY never happened as it coincided with the horrible genocide that occurred in April 1994. But nonetheless undeterred, Stan put his full support behind me, as did his fellow public health demigod Jason Weisfeld, and encouraged me to take an assignment that had just opened up in an HIV research project in Côte d’Ivoire. And from there I continued supporting CDC global health programs for the next 20+ years. And finally, I was also a proud member of the Chronically Reproductive Hippos – a merging of the IHPO and reproductive health CDC recreational softball teams. We were a pretty good team, being Hippo’s and all… Rest in Peace Stan, that said, we all know that won’t happen if Stan figures out how to positively manipulate the afterlife to go good.