Dearing, W. Palmer (Warren Palmer), 1905-1994.

Dr. Ward Dearing was born in Iowa in 1905 and raised in Omak, Washington. He received his BA with high honors from the State College of Washington in 1927, and received his M.D. cum laude from Harvard Medical School in 1931. For the next three years, he served on the faculty of the Department of Preventive Medicine and the School of Public Health as Assistant in Epidemiology. In 1934, he joined the Public Health Service, including nine years as Deputy Surgeon General. He was also appointed Chief of the U.S. delegation to the 14th Pan American Sanitary Congress (1954), served as U.S. representative to the NATO Medical Committee, and named by President Lyndon Johnson to the Consumer Advisory Council (1965). After leaving government service in 1961, he became a consultant to the Group Health Association. He retired in 1971 as the GHA's Executive Director.