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In Memoriam: Eric W. Mood, Lecturer in Public Health and Authority on Safety of Swimming Pool Water and Health Aspects of Housing

Eric W. Mood, Lecturer in Public Health (Global Health) and an authority in the fields of epidemiology of discomfort and disease from swimming pool water and the health aspects of housing, passed away on Friday, December 31, 2004.

Eric was born in Pennsylvania on December 30, 1916. He received a B.S. from the University of Connecticut in 1938 and an M.P.H. from Yale in 1943.

He served in World War II and later retired from the Army Reserve as a Colonel. In 1949, while serving as Director of the Bureau of Environmental Sanitation for the New Haven Health Department, he returned to Yale and joined the EPH faculty as a Lecturer in Public Health. From 1962-1975,Eric was a member of the ladder faculty and in the mid-1960's was charged with developing a division of Environmental Health. He succeeded in that endeavor and served as division head. After 1975, Eric held positions in the voluntary faculty ranks. Although he officially retired in 1987, he continued to teach at EPH until 1998.

Eric's research contributions were in the areas of food sanitation, waste water treatment, swimming pool standards, drinking water quality, air pollution, and the health aspects of housing.

His contributions to EPH alumni were enormous. In 1947, Eric organized EPH’s alumni association, the Association of Yale Alumni in Public Health, and was chosen as its first secretary, a position he held for 56 years. He chaired the Public Health Alumni Fund for 25 years and was editor of the alumni newsletter until 1986. He received the Distinguished Alumni Award in 1989, an honor he shared with Cecil Sheps, M.D., M.P.H. '47. From 1992-2003, he served as the Director of the Public Health Alumni Fund, co-chairing with Mary Palshaw, M.P.H. '75, in 1998. He tirelessly raised scholarship money for EPH students. Eric's countless contributions extend over generations of EPH alumni.

Eric received an honorary degree in 1971 from Upsala College for his work in environmental health. In 1985, the American Public Health Association presented its Distinguished Service and Professional Achievements Award in Environmental Health to Eric for his research and teaching in environmental health and his contributions to international health programs over several decades. He was a member of the World Health Organization Advisory Committee on Environmental Health for 25 years.

Eric was predeceased by his wife, the late Gwen Howell Mood, and is survived by his daughter Suzanne and her husband Gregory Porto, a sister, Ruth Mood, and grandchildren Gregory Porto, Jr. and his fiancée Kathleen Rogers, and Patrick Porto.

Funeral services were held on January 4 at the Bethesda Lutheran Church, St. Ronan Street, New Haven. Burial with full military honors was in Centerville Cemetery, Hamden.

Contributions may be made to Bethesda Lutheran Church, 305 St. Ronan Street, New Haven, CT 06511 or to Connecticut Hospice, 100 Double Beach Road, Branford, CT 06405.