Justin Meredith Andrews (August 28, 1902 – June 29, 1967) was an American public health administrator and

parasitologist Parasitology is the study of parasites, their hosts, and the relationship between them. As a biological discipline, the scope of parasitology is not determined by the organism or environment in question but by their way of life. This means it fo ...

, specialising in

malaria Malaria is a Mosquito-borne disease, mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes Signs and symptoms, symptoms that typically include fever, fatigue (medical), tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In se ...

Early life and family

Andrews was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on August 28, 1902, the son of Clarke Willett Andrews (1872–1907), who worked with the New England Telephone Company, and his wife Annie Frances, ''née'' Bliven (b. 1878). The family descended from John MacAndrews, who settled in

North Kingstown North Kingstown is a town in Washington County, Rhode Island, United States, and is part of the Providence metropolitan area. The population was 27,732 in the 2020 census. North Kingstown is home to the birthplace of American portraitist Gilbe ...

in 1671. Andrews married twice: firstly in 1927 to Arline Sylvia, daughter of Henry and Hattie Anderson; and secondly in 1957 to Jean Simonne, daughter of Harry W. and Elaine Grant. With his first wife, he had two sons, Donald and Theodore; his second marriage gave him a step-son, Richard Grant.

Career

Academic

After graduating from

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Provide ...

with a PhB degree in 1923, Andrews attended the School of Hygiene and Public Health at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consiste ...

, which awarded him the ScD degree in 1926. He was an instructor there for a year, before becoming an Associate in Protozoology in 1927; he was then promoted to be Associate Professor of Protozoology four years later. In 1929, he had also worked on the

Rockefeller Foundation 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 Carne ...

's Malaria Survey in the

British West Indies The British West Indies (BWI) were colonized British territories in the West Indies: Anguilla, the Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands, Montserrat, the British Virgin Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada ...

. Throughout his time at Johns Hopkins, Andrews's research focused on malaria and a range of other parasitic, tropical diseases."In Memoriam: Justin M. Andrews (1902-67)"
''The Journal of Parasitology'', vol. 56 (December 1970), pp. 1248-1249.

Public health administrator

In 1938, he was appointed Director of the Division of Malaria and Hookworm Service at the Georgia Department of Public Health. He served there until 1942."Justin M. Andrews, Ph.D., Sc.D."
''National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases''. Retrieved 5 June 2019. During World War II, he served with the Sanitary Corps; he was the official malariologist to American forces in the

North African North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in t ...

(1943–44) and

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

(1945) theatres and ended the war a

colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...

. He continued working for the US government as an officer in the

US Public Health Service The United States Public Health Service (USPHS or PHS) is a collection of agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services concerned with public health, containing nine out of the department's twelve operating divisions. The Assistant S ...

, assigned to what became the Communicable Disease Center (now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). He was Deputy Officer in Charge there from 1946 to 1951, and served as Officer in Charge from 1952 to 1953. As one obituary noted, it was during this time that "He was one of the principal framers and executors of the plan to eradicate malaria from the United States" – the

National Malaria Eradication Program In the United States, the National Malaria Eradication Program (NMEP) was launched in July 1947. By 1951 this federal program—with state and local participation—had reduced the incidence of malaria in the United States to the point that the pr ...

. After leaving the CDC, he became Assistant Surgeon General of the Public Health Service and Associate Chief for Program in the

Bureau of State Services The Bureau of State Services (BSS) was one of three principal operating agencies of the United States Public Health Service (PHS) from 1943 until 1966. The bureau contained the PHS divisions that administered cooperative services to U.S. states ...

. He then moved to the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late 1 ...

, where he was Director of the

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID, ) is one of the 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). NIAID's ...

(1957–64); during his leadership, the institute created the Middle America Research Unit.

Later life and assessment

Andrews retired in 1964 and died on June 29, 1967 at Largo in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to th ...

. Martin D. Young, writing in '' The Journal of Parasitology'', called him "an internationally known parasitologist, a distinguished teacher, author, and public health administrator". His death was reported in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', which described him as "an authority on malaria"."Dr. Justin Andrews Dies; Authority on Malaria, 64"
''The New York Times'', 2 July 1967, p. 35. He published over 100 articles in scientific journals, was President of the American Society of Parasitologists, the National Malaria Society and the

American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) is an Arlington, Virginia-based non-profit organization of scientists, clinicians, students and program professionals whose longstanding mission is to promote global health through the ...

. In his lifetime, Andrews received numerous honors. He was a Fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsi ...

among several other national organisations, and received several awards for his work: the

Legion of Merit The Legion of Merit (LOM) is a military award of the United States Armed Forces that is given for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services and achievements. The decoration is issued to members of the eight ...

for his wartime work (1944), the Joseph Augustin Le Prince Award from the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (1960), and the

Public Health Service Meritorious Service Medal The Public Health Service Meritorious Service Medal is an honor award presented to members of the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Officer Corps and to members of any Uniformed Services of the United States The United States h ...

(1964). Johns Hopkins awarded him an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hon ...

in 1951 and Brown University, his ''alma mater'', gave him its Bicentennial Medal in 1965.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Andrews, Justin 1902 births 1967 deaths American parasitologists Malariologists People from Providence, Rhode Island Brown University alumni Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health alumni Johns Hopkins University faculty Directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Institutes of Health people Truman administration personnel Presidents of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Presidents of the American Society of Parasitologists