Although Charles Edward Smith did not discover coccidioidomycosis, he defined the disease through his infatigueable studies of the epidemiology, clinical findings, and immunology of this infection. He became its preeminent authority. He also had an important role in the development of public health, and for the last 16 years of his life he was the Dean of the School of Public Health at the University of California at Berkeley, where he was a revered and energetic leader.
HirschmannJV. The early history of coccidioidomycosis: 1892–1945. Clin Infect Dis2007; 44: 1202–1207.
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SmithCEReminiscenses of the flying chlamydospore and its allies. In: AjelloL (eds). Symposium on coccidioidomycosis, 2nd ed. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1967, pp. xiii–xxii.
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Gifford MA, Buss WC and Douds RJ. Annual report. Kern County Department of Public Health for the fiscal year July 1, 1936, to June 30, 1937, California, 1937, pp.47–52.
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SmithCE. Epidemiology of acute coccidioidomycosis with erythema nodosum (“San Joaquin” or “Valley Fever”). Am J Public Health1940; 30: 600–611.
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Provided by the Prelinger Archives in San Francisco within the collection of Edward Laidlaw Smith (one of Charles Smith’s son, who became an entomologist). Thanks to Megan and Rick Prelinger for alerting me to these films and providing digitized versions. Not only do they display the terrain of the San Joaquin Valley, but they also show patients with cutaneous findings of coccidioidomycosis, including disseminated disease, erythema multiforme, and erythema nodosum. In the patients depicted, the plenitude and distribution of erythema nodosum are remarkable. In addition to the usual site on the shins, many patients have lesions on the thighs, arms, face, and neck.
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SmithCESaitoMTBeardRR, et al.Serological tests in the diagnosis and prognosis of coccidioidomycosis. Am J Hyg1950; 52: 1–21.
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DavisBLSmithRTSmithCE. An epidemic of coccidioidal infection (coccidioidomycosis). JAMA1942; 118: 1182–1186.
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SmithCECoccidioidomycosis. In: CoatesJBHoffECHoffMA (eds). Preventive medicine in World War II. Communicable diseases transmitted chiefly through respiratory and alimentary tracts. Vol. IV, Washington, DC: Office of the Surgeon General, Department of the Army, 1958, pp. 285–316. (published under the direction of SB Hayes).
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SmithCEBeardRRWhitingEG, et al.Varieties of coccidioidal infection in relation to the epidemiology and control of the diseases. Am J Public Health1946; 36: 1394–1402.
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ZelnikREOn the side of the angels: the Berkeley faculty and the FSM. In: CohenRZelnikRE (eds). The free speech movement: reflections on Berkeley in the 1960s, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002, pp. 264–338.
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Most of the information about his administrative accomplishments, the tributes that he garnered on receiving the Bronfman Award, and the letters to his family after his death come from the Charles Edward Smith Papers at the University of California, Berkeley, Bancroft Library. The two cartons of these archives contain tributes, correspondence, newspaper clippings, and miscellaneous items, but the individual contents are not labeled and are somewhat scattered throughout the folders without strict chronological or thematic organization.
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YeatsWB▪▪. In: AlbrightD (eds). The poems, London: Everyman’s Library, 1992, pp. xlvii–xlvii.
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Shapiro FR (ed.). The Yale book of quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006, p.423.
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The anecdotes and impressions of Charles Smith as Dean come from delightful and illuminating telephone conversations with his following former students and colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health, who shared their reminiscences from a half century or more ago: Arlyn Christopherson (BS, 1958), Martin Paley (MPH, 1958), Paul Anderson (MPH, 1960), Lawrence Green (MPH, 1962), Richard Seiden (MPH, 1964), Snehendu Kar (MPH, 1964, DrPH, 1966), Cathy (Bromage) Park (MPH, 1966), and Lucy Johns (MPH, 1967). I thank Eileen Pearl, Director, External Relations Programs and Annual Giving, from the Dean’s Office at the School of Public Health for contacting these alumni on my behalf.
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BrandsHW. Reagan: the life, New York: Doubleday, 2015, pp. 171–171.
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DebreP. Louis Pasteur, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998, pp. 139–141, 195, 333.
