Charlie Althafer, 77, used jokes to fight smoking

Charlie Althafer didn’t beat people over the head about the dangers of smoking. He used humor.

When someone asked to smoke at his home, he’d hand them a wooden ashtray shaped like a coffin with a sticker: “Please don’t smoke. You might croak.” He also had a cigarette lighter that, when flicked, unleashed a horrific, hacking cough.

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Charles ‘Charlie’ Althafer had a decades-long career with the Centers for Disease Control.

Friends and family say such antics were vintage Althafer, a health educator who oversaw anti-smoking campaigns in a decades-long career with the Centers for Disease Control.

Charles “Charlie” Althafer, 77, of Tucker, died Feb. 9 of heart failure at his home in Tucker. A memorial service will be 1 p.m. Saturday at Living Grace Lutheran Church in Tucker. Wages & Sons Funeral Home in Stone Mountain is in charge of arrangements.

In the 1960s, Mr. Althafer was acting director for a project of the National Clearinghouse for Smoking and Health that researched smoking and its consequences in San Diego. He joined the CDC in the mid-1970s as deputy director of a federal anti-smoking program, said Dr. William Foege of Atlanta, CDC chief from 1977 to 1983.

“Smoking was a huge health problem,” he said, “and Charlie was one of the pioneers who just kept working at it, saying it was something we had to change. He was involved not only in the usual anti-smoking programs, but in developing surgeon general reports that came out on smoking. You can see the results now of his work in this country.”

And then there were the jokes. Mr. Althafer, who had been a radar specialist with the Marines during the Korean War, had one for any occasion.

“I always marveled at his retentive memory,” said Dr. Foege. “It didn’t matter what the subject was.”

Mr. Althafer later oversaw the CDC’s health risk appraisal program. He worked with other experts to develop a computer program that could estimate an adult’s risk of dying based on activities such as smoking, drinking and seat belt use, David G. Moriarty of Decatur wrote in an e-mail. The retired CDC scientist worked with Mr. Althafer in the mid-1980s.

“He was a straight shooter with a strong moral compass who was blessed with a solid background in community health education and smoking research,” he wrote.

Though Mr. Althafer occasionally joked about the risks of smoking, the message to friends and family was clear.

“He always told us to never smoke,” said his daughter, Martha Althafer of Atlanta. “But he did it in a positive way, with education. He had a wonderful sense of humor. “

Other survivors are his wife, Nancy Althafer of Tucker; a son, Chuck Althafer of Sugar Hill; another daughter, Holly Quinn of McDonough; a sister, Carol Hafs of Lake Geneva, Wis.; and two grandchildren.