FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER ALEXANDER "MAC" SCHMIDT (1930-1991)

FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER ALEXANDER "MAC" SCHMIDT (1930-1991) headed the agency from July 1973 through November 1976 during a particularly difficult period of public criticism. Schmidt, who died of coronary artery disease on Jan. 28 two days after his sixty-first birthday, was in charge of the agency during the high visibility of Sen. Kennedy's (D-Mass.) investigations into alleged industry bias by FDA reviewers. In a Jan. 31 memo to the FDA policy board, current FDA Commissioner Kessler noted that Schmidt "faced many of the same problems, frustrations and criticism that we confront today and he answered them with vigor and dedication." Kessler said Schmidt's "personal integrity and steady hand provided FDA with precisely the kind of leadership it needed during the tumultuous post- Watergate era, when many institutions came under intense scrutiny." Schmidt had a dry humor and a natural sense of timing and delivery that enlivened public appearances and helped maintain a sense of levity about the agency despite heavy criticism. At one White House conference to ballyhoo the transfer of government-funded research into new medical products, Schmidt was put at the end of the schedule after a series of government figures from other agencies such as NASA and NIH described breakthrough technologies. Schmidt began his remarks dryly noting that as FDA commissioner he would be the one to take all the just- described inventions off the market. At the Kennedy hearings, his wit may have earned him a rougher going over by the senator. One incident during testimony was particularly noteworthy. An agency employee, John Nestor, MD, testified to Kennedy that he had "not done three months of work in the last two-and-a-half years." Nestor claimed that management harassment prevented him from handling his work. Asked by Kennedy about Nestor's statement on not working, Schmidt drew laughter from the committee room by answering deadpan: "I saw that and was shocked by that." However, that laughter elicited a warning from Kennedy not take the personnel matter too lightly. Schmidt was most recently head of the University Hospital Consortium Technology Advancement Center, appointed to that position in September 1988. Prior to that he was VP of health sciences at the University of Illinois. He had remained active in FDA matters. In lieu of flowers, contributions are requested to be sent to the following organizations: Oak Park-Riverforest High Schools Scholarship Fund, c/o William Farley, 201 N. Scoville Ave., Oak Park, Ill., 60302; and University of Illinois Foundation, College of Medicine, University of Illinois, Box 4348, M/C 177, Chicago, Ill., 60680.