In Memoriam

• Up one level
• Herman Alfred (Al) Tyroler, MD, dies at 82
  Feb 27, 2007, UNC Gillings School of Public Health obituary
• New York Times death notice
  TYROLER--Dr. Herman Alfred, died February 18, age 82, in Chapel Hill, NC. A loving and generous husband, father, grandfather, and brother, he is survived by wife Marilyn (Chapel Hill); children William (Milwaukee), Barbara (Greenbelt, MD) and Steven (Chapel Hill); grandchildren Samm Tyroler-Cooper (New York), Elisabeth (Chapel Hill) and Isaac (Minneapolis); and sister, Leona (New York). . . .
• The Department of Epidemiology Remembers Dr. Herman "Al" Tyroler
  September 28, 2007, Kerr Building
• A personal remembrance
  From a 10/5/2007 email from Victor Schoenbach to Al Tyroler's assistant Phyllis Johnson:
  I have many memories of Al, going back to the late 1970s when I was thinking about applying to the Department for my PhD studies - memories of his openness, friendliness, modesty, and encyclopedic knowledge of CVD, his commitment to social justice, and his legendary mentoring. Al was remarkable in so many ways, but one is surely the juxtaposition of his international standing in cardiovascular epidemiology along with his great personal modesty. I would like to share two of my memories.
  
  During the 1990s I became heavily involved with the American College of Epidemiology, so I began paying more attention to things like nominations for the College's awards. When the annual call for nominations for the Abraham Lilienfeld Award, the College's highest recognition, came around in 1999 (or close to that), it occurred to me that the award had never been given to Al, so I nominated him and later learned that he had been offered the award. Unfortunately accepting the award meant coming to the College's annual meeting to receive it and give a talk, and when I called Al to find out why he hadn't responded to the letter of invitation, he explained that he couldn't travel there. I was sorry for him, since he richly deserved the recognition and would have enjoyed the event. I was also sorry for the College, since the award will have to go without being associated with Al's name.
  
  For 20 years I taught the introductory epidemiology course for the Department (then called EPID168). One year I heard that Al was a master at telling the story of Joseph Goldberger's investigations of pellagra, so I asked Al if he would tell that story to the EPID168 class. He agreed, and we put it on the syllabus for one or two sessions, I can't remember. He was indeed a master at telling the story, which he seemed to know as if he had been there with Goldberger but knowing the epidemiology we have learned during the ensuring 80 years. Al was so devoted to teaching that it's only now in retrospect that I realize how remarkable it was to have a world-renowned scientist who had travelled everywhere, a founder of and leader in CVD epidemiology spending a couple of hours sitting in room 228 Rosenau telling entering students not about his research but about an epidemiology classic that both of us had learned about from books but that he knew how to make come alive. That was one of Al's many gifts to students and faculty.