Nevin Stewart Scrimshaw, PhD, MD, MPH (1918–2013)

Nevin Stewart Scrimshaw passed away peacefully 8 February 2013, having celebrated his 95th birthday only 2 wk earlier. Globally recognized as the Dean of International Nutritional Science and Policy, he held a PhD in biochemistry from Harvard University (1941), an MD from the University ofRochester (1945), and an MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH; 1959). A Fellow of the ASN, Nevin accumulated awards from the Society in each of its 3 domains of basic, medical, and international contributions, these in parallel to his respective academic degrees. On a broader stage, he was elected to the US National Academy of Science and to the Institute of Medicine, he won the World Hunger Prize in 1991, and he received the Prince Mahidol Award, and a knighthood, from the kingdom of Thailand in 2004. Nevin was born in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, on 20 January 1918. His father, Stewart Scrimshaw, who began his career as a brick mason in rural England, emigrated to the United States in 1906 in pursuit of a college education; he rose to become a professor of economics at Marquette University. During his summers in northern Wisconsin, Nevin developed an avid interest in butterfly collecting and added to the collection of the Milwaukee Science Museum. His interest in biology continued through his years at Ohio Wesleyan College. His work on nutrition in pregnant fish for his Harvard doctoral degree led him to an interest in human nutrition and to seeking a medical degree. He forged and directed major institutions by an irrepressible dint of vision, intellect, insight, and humanitarian dedication over 6 decades of senior leadership in the community of nutrition. At age 31, having completed residency training in obstetrics at the US Army Gorgas Hospital serving the Canal Zone of Panama, Nevin was tapped by the Pan American Health Organization to be the founding Director of the Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama (INCAP) in 1949; later, in 1962, he returned to the United States to became the foundingHead of the Department of Nutrition and Food Science of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He completed his career leading and crafting the mission of the United Nations University (UNU) World Hunger Program (WHP; 1975–1985) and later (1982–2009) that of the International Nutrition Foundation for Developing Countries (INF). The INF, as of 2012 by decision of its board, added the founder s name, Nevin Scrimshaw, to become the NSINF, with the object of preserving his legacy in support of capacity building in developing regions of the world.