Eugene Lindsay Bishop

Eugene Lindsay Bishop (1886-1951) was an American physician who served as the Commissioner for the Tennessee State Health Department from 1924-1935 and as the Director of the Health and Safety Department of the

Tennessee Valley Authority The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolin ...

(TVA) from 1935-1951. He was awarded a

Lasker Award The Lasker Awards have been awarded annually since 1945 to living persons who have made major contributions to medical science or who have performed public service on behalf of medicine. They are administered by the Lasker Foundation, which was ...

in 1950. Bishop was born in Nashville,

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

to Eugene Edgar Bishop (1861-1889) and Elizabeth Lindsay Crittenden Bishop. He received his medical degree from

Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...

in 1914 and his Master of Public Health degree from Johns Hopkins in 1923. Bishop spent almost the entirety of his career serving as a public health official for the state of Tennessee, but was also a consultant to the federal government and a scientific director and board member of the

International Health Division The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Car ...

of the Rockefeller Foundation. As commissioner, he took a special interest in the problem of tuberculosis. As health director for the TVA, Bishop sought to reduce the threat of

malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...

along the 10,000 mile shore line of TVA's lakes, and devised a strategy that involved periodically raising and lowering the water level in each lake. For this innovation he was awarded the

Mary Woodard Lasker Award for Public Service Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

in 1950. Bishop died in 1951, less than a year after receiving the award.Obituary in the "American Journal of Public Health"
/ref> {{DEFAULTSORT:Bishop, Eugene Lindsay 1886 births 1951 deaths Vanderbilt University School of Medicine alumni Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health alumni American public health doctors People from Nashville, Tennessee