Brief Chronology

  • 1893 --Born in Hutchinson, Kansas, to Socrates John Soper, a pharmacist, and Mary Ann Jordan, a schoolteacher (December 13)
  • 1914 --Received BA from University of Kansas
  • 1916 --Received MS in Embryology from University of Kansas
  • 1918 --Received MD from Rush Medical College at the University of Chicago
  • 1919 --Finished internship at Cook County Hospital in Chicago; married Juliet Snider in December
  • 1920 --Started work at Rockefeller Foundation's International Health Board; moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to begin RF work on hookworm eradication
  • 1920-22 --Hookworm eradication campaign in Pernambuco, Brazil
  • 1922-23 --Earned MPH from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health
  • 1923-27 --Hookworm disease control in Paraguay
  • 1925 --Earned DrPH from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health (in absentia)
  • 1927 --Returned to Rio de Janeiro to head RF Regional Office there
  • 1928-29 --Yellow fever epidemic in Brazil
  • 1930-34 --Directed anti-YF campaign; documents existence of Jungle YF
  • 1935-42 --Led successful campaign to eradicate Anopheles gambiae mosquito, the malaria vector, from Brazil
  • 1942 --Left Brazil
  • 1943-45 --Worked on typhus prevention with the U.S. Typhus Commission in Egypt and Italy
  • 1944-45 --Anopheles gambiae eradication program, Egypt
  • 1944-46 --Malaria control, Italy
  • 1946 --Regional Director, Rockefeller Foundation, Africa and Middle East
  • 1946 --Received Lasker Award for malaria eradication in Brazil
  • 1947-59 --Served as director of the Pan American Sanitary Bureau
  • 1949-59 --Regional Director for the Americas, World Health Organization
  • 1949-66 --Visiting Lecturer on Tropical Public Health, Harvard School of Public Health
  • 1959 --Retired from PAHO; became Director Emeritus
  • 1959-60 --Consultant, International Cooperation Administration, Agency for International Development (Malaria eradication).
  • 1960-62 --Directed the Pakistan-SEATO Cholera Research Laboratory in Dacca, Bangladesh
  • 1962-72 --Special Consultant, Office of International Health, U.S. Public Health Service
  • 1977 --Died in Wichita, Kansas (February 9)