Monday, October 17, 2005
Stephen J. Ackerman, 86, a retired public health expert with several federal agencies, died Oct. 10 of pneumonia at Shady Grove
Adventist Hospital. He was a lifelong resident of the District before moving last year to ManorCare Health Services, an assisted
living community in Potomac.
He was born in the District and proudly said he grew up in Swampoodle, a thriving Irish community around Union Station in the
late 19th and early 20th centuries. He graduated from St. John's College High School in 1937 and received a bachelor's degree
from Georgetown University in 1941.
He worked as a statistician for the War Production Board in 1942 and then was drafted into the Army. From 1942 to 1945, he
served with the Medical Corps in Africa and Italy.
After the war, he returned to the District and worked as a health program specialist for the U.S. Public Health Service from 1945
to 1950. He also received a law degree from Georgetown University in 1950.
From 1950 to 1953, he was a budget examiner in the Bureau of the Budget, and for the next 12 years, he was a financial
management officer with the Bureau of State Services of the U.S. Public Health Service. In 1966, he became executive secretary
with the President's Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer and Stroke, and later, he was chief of planning and evaluation for
the Division of Regional Medical Programs with the National Institutes of Health.
He retired in 1971 as associate commissioner for rehabilitation with the agency then known as the U.S. Department of Health,
Education and Welfare.
In retirement, Mr. Ackerman worked as a public health consultant and taught public health as a lecturer in the Department of
Community and Family Medicine at Georgetown University. He also worked with the Association of American Medical Colleges.
Mr. Ackerman received the Arthur Fleming Award for Outstanding Young Men in Government in 1955 and was a member of the
American Management Association, the American Association for Business Management in Public Health, the D.C. Bar
Association and Church of Christ the King in Silver Spring.
Survivors include his wife of 63 years, Genevieve Sullivan Ackerman of Washington; and two children, Mary Frances Abbott of
Napa, Calif., and Stephen J. Ackerman Jr. of Washington.