Charles Everett Koop, M.D. (born October 14, 1916) was the United States Surgeon General from 1982 to 1989, under Ronald Reagan's presidency. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, as Charles Everett Koop. He obtained his B.A. degree from Dartmouth College in 1937 and his M.D. degree from Cornell Medical School in 1941. During the 1940s and 1950s he rose in the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine to become professor of pediatric surgery, and later, professor of pediatrics. In February, 1981, President Reagan appointed Koop as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health with the promise, fulfilled a year later, that he would be nominated as Surgeon General.

Koop is well known for four facets of his work:

• Abortion: Koop, a religiously inclined man, took a relatively hard line on abortion; his opinions on the subject were the matter of some disquiet when he was nominated for the post.

• Tobacco: In 1988 he published a report stating that nicotine has an addictiveness similar to that of heroin or cocaine. Koop's report was somewhat unexpected, especially by those who considered he would support the status quo.

• AIDS: Koop's tenure included the period during which public health authorities began to take notice of AIDS. Koop wrote the official U.S. policy on the syndrome, and took unprecedented action in mailing AIDS information to every U.S. household. Equally, many were unhappy with the way in which he dealt with gay sex and the risk of infection through anal sex; Koop was unapologetic and explained his position in terms of such activities entailing risks several orders of magnitude greater than other means of transmission.

• Profile: Taken together, these three issues —combined with Dr. Koop's personality and his willingness to make use of mass media —brought to the office of Surgeon General a higher public profile than it previously had merited; he is, for instance, the first Surgeon General to have been the subject of a popular song—"Promiscuous", by Frank Zappa. Koop was a somewhat eccentric and flamboyant figure, well-known for his mustache-less beard and colorful bow ties. He wore the Surgeon General's ceremonial military uniform (complete with medals) during much of his day-to-day work, reviving an old practice.

External link

• Biography at Dartmouth College
• Biography at surgeongeneral.gov