Reflecting on Opposition by the Public Health Community to Dr. C. Everett Koop’s Nomination as Surgeon General

Rick Richards, MD and Alan Blum, MD, co-founders of DOC (Doctors Ought to Care, 1977-2002), discuss the opposition by the American Public Health Association and the American Medical Association to President Ronald Reagan’s nomination of renowned pediatric surgeon Dr. C. Everett Koop as Surgeon General in 1982.

Reference: https://www.upi.com/Archives/1982/01/22/Dr-C-Everett-Koop-whose-nomination-to-the-post/9554380523600/.

AB Koop 2 wm
Drs. William Cahan AB Koop wm
Dr. C. Everett Koop presents Drs. Rick Richards and Alan Blum with the Surgeon General's Medallion, 1988

At the 1988 Annual Scientific Assembly of the American Academy of Family Physicians(AAFP) in New Orleans, US Surgeon General C. Everett Koop awarded Dr. Rick Richards, Dr. Alan Blum, and Dr. Tom Houston the Surgeon General’s Medallion for their decade-long health education work with DOC.