Curiosity may not have been good for the cat, as the old saying goes, but George Healy’s inquisitive nature was a source of life at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Carolyn Healy said her father was “born curious” and that she’s seen pictures of some of the creative ways her grandmother kept up with Healy’s whereabouts as a young child.
“He would explore all over everywhere,” Healy said of her father. “In fact, it was what he found alongside the road one day that sent him into the field of parasitology.”
As a pre-teen, his daughter said, Healy picked up a Mason-style jar that held something submerged in a liquid. He not only figured out that the mysterious finding likely belonged to a scientist, but to one who studied parasites.
“He was also trying to figure out what to do as a career,” she said. “And when he found out parasitologists get to save lives and travel a lot, he was sold.”
George Healy ended up working for the CDC from 1954, when it was then called the Communicable Disease Center, until he retired in the late ’80s.
“Dr. Healy headed up the laboratory for diagnostics of parasitic diseases,” said Dennis Juranek, who retired from the CDC as deputy director of the parasitic diseases division. “He quickly became a mentor for all of us who had questions about parasites, where they lived, how they behaved and how to diagnose them.”
Healy died March 2 of complications from emphysema. He was 89.
A memorial service is being planned. A. S. Turner and Sons was in charge of cremation arrangements.
Before Healy joined the CDC, he served in the Army Air Corps and went to Providence College on the G.I. Bill, his daughter said. He went on to earn a master’s degree from the University of Kentucky and a doctorate from Rice Institute, now Rice University.
When Healy was hired at the Communicable Disease Center, he was one of the first six scientists at the agency. His role was a detective of sorts, Juranek said.
“Sometimes he knew what he was looking for, but sometimes he didn’t,” Juranek said. “But he knew when something didn’t look right, or looked different from something he’d seen. And when he found that thing, he would use his skills to figure out the organism.”
Healy’s specialty was the study of single-celled organisms that cause disease in humans. He worked with labs all over the globe in an effort to diagnose deadly parasites and save lives.
“Sometimes he could not save the life of an individual, but he set up protocols so it wouldn’t have to happen again,” Healy said of her father and his desire to prevent parasite-related deaths.
In addition to his daughter, Healy is survived by his wife of 60 years, Shirley Healy of Atlanta; and sisters, Eileen Rogers and Sheila Keene, both of Springfield, Mass.
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