Harold A. Kahn (1920-2009): A Remembrance of a Life Devoted to Public Health

Harold Aaron Kahn was one of those many unsung heroes of the post-World War II movement in epidemiology and public health around the world. He played key roles in many of the early epidemiologic cohort studies important to resolution of the diet-heart hypothesis, produced a key monograph on the risks of smoking and health (1), and founded the Framingham Eye Study. However, most of all, he was an outstanding teacher, whether it was in the classroom, one-on-one, or as the author of one of the groundbreaking textbooks in statistical methods in epidemiology. Harold Kahn, or Hal as he was known to friends and colleagues, was born on January 4, 1920, in New York City. He graduated from high school at the age of 15 and then was admitted to the prestigious College of the City of New York, which offered free tuition to all admitted. There he completed a Bachelor of Science degree in biology in 1939. In 1940, he married Lenora Polsky—the love of his life—and their romance lasted for 67 years, until Lenora's death in 2006.