American physician Sylvester M. Lambert graduated from Hamilton college in 1903 and from Syracuse University in medicine in 1908. During the summer of 1907, Lambert took a position as a medical nurse with the Southern Pacific Railroad in Mexico where he met Eloisa Tays, whom he married in 1912. Lambert spent two decades in the Pacific working as a public health doctor for the Rockefeller Foundation's International Health Board, where his primary objective was the eradication of hookworm. Lambert and his team worked to reform sanitation systems and conducted health surveys encompassing malaria, leprosy, elephantiasis, yaws; and other medical conditions they encountered. Lambert was acting director for the International Health Board in Australasia. He spent 1920 in Papua and the following year in New Guinea Territory and the Solomon Islands. Fiji became the headquarters from which he would work for the next seventeen years, but he continued to work throughout the Pacific. Recognizing the advantages of training native medical practioners, Lambert procured funding from the Rockefeller Founation for the expansion of the Suva Medical School, which reopened under the name Central Medical School, now the Fiji School of Medicine.
From the description of Sylvester M. Lambert papers, 1883-1959 (bulk 1918-1947). (University of California, San Diego). WorldCat record id: 192023682
