# "Acting" surgeon general under three presidents? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 9, 2005, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-surgeon-general-under-three-presidents/283901 "2005-01-09T17:12:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![brianmelendez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/65b543/32.png) [@brianmelendez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianmelendez)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-surgeon-general-under-three-presidents/283901/1 "2005-01-09T17:12:27Z")
_The Washington Post_ today reports the [obituary](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59832-2005Jan8.html) of S. Paul Ehrlich, whom it identifies as “acting Surgeon General under Presidents Nixon, Ford and Carter”: > [@](#): > > **S. Paul Ehrlich, Acting Surgeon General, Dies** > > _By Patricia Sullivan_ > Washington Post Staff Writer > Sunday, January 9, 2005; Page C10 > > S. Paul Ehrlich, 72, acting Surgeon General under Presidents Nixon, Ford and Carter and U.S. representative to the World Health Organization, died of pneumonia Jan. 6 at Bethesda Memorial Hospital in Boynton Beach, Fla., near where he lived for the past eight years. He had multiple sclerosis. > > Dr. Ehrlich, who was appointed by President Richard M. Nixon in 1973 and served until 1977, was among six Surgeons General who in 1994 urged Congress to ban smoking in public buildings and to enact stricter controls on secondhand smoke and the sale and advertising of tobacco. > > … > > Dr. Ehrlich worked for the Public Health Service for 25 years. He researched the relationship of cholesterol to heart disease and then became director of the Office of International Health, representing the United States at the World Health Organization. At age 38, he became one of the youngest people to achieve a flag rank in the Public Health Service’s uniformed services. > > After four years as acting Surgeon General, he was vice president of the American Institutes for Research and deputy director of the Pan American Health Organization, part of the World Health Organization. Why was Dr. Ehrlich the “acting” surgeon general for such a long period – why didn’t he ever become the surgeon general? ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-surgeon-general-under-three-presidents/283901/2 "2005-01-09T17:30:11Z")
As far as I can tell, Nixon didn’t like the office of Surgeon General so he tried to eliminate it by not appointing anyone to fill the job. Once Carter was in office, he appointed someone. Ehrlch must have been the second in command and was left to handle all the work. ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-surgeon-general-under-three-presidents/283901/3 "2005-01-09T17:37:10Z")
> [@brianmelendez](#): > > _The Washington Post_ today reports the [obituary](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59832-2005Jan8.html) of S. Paul Ehrlich, whom it identifies as “acting Surgeon General under Presidents Nixon, Ford and Carter”:Why was Dr. Ehrlich the “acting” surgeon general for such a long period – why didn’t he ever become the surgeon general? I assume that his appointment was never confirmed by Congress, and, as a result, he never officially received the office. [As seen here,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surgeon_General_of_the_United_States) there have been several times when the Surgeon General’s office has been filled by an acting Surgeon General. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-surgeon-general-under-three-presidents/283901/4 "2005-01-10T21:24:48Z")
Just to clarify, when the SG dies or resigns, or his four-year term expires without a successor being nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate, the Deputy Surgeon General takes over as Acting Surgeon General. (If the DSG office is also vacant, then a lower ranking official in the Public Health Service does the same.) This is what happened to Ehrlich. If a person is nominated by the President to be SG, but not confirmed, that person would be the Surgeon General-designate, but would not exercise any of the powers or duties of the office. It’s conceivable that Ehrlich was both ASG and SG-designate, but in fact I don’t believe he was ever nominated to be SG. The [Surgeon General’s web site](http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/history/sglist.htm) provides some clues as to what apparently happened between 1973 and 1977. During Nixon’s first term, > [@](#): > > . . . there was an effort to do away with the Public Health Service’s Commissioned Corps, and a 1971 report made such a recommendation. The report also called the position of Surgeon General “an organizational anomaly,” thus calling into question the need for such a position. Steinfeld spoke on behalf of the internal opposition to the report, and thanks to strong support for the Corps and the Surgeon General on the part of certain members of Congress, the recommendations of the report were not implemented. In other words, it’s probable that neither Nixon nor Ford nominated a successor Surgeon General because they believed (and possibly hoped) that the position would soon be reorganized out of existence. Then, after Jimmy Carter became President, > [@](#): > > . . . former OEO official Joseph Califano, now President Carter’s Secretary of DHEW, asked (Julius Richmond) to return to Federal service as Assistant Secretary for Health (July 1977). Richmond accepted, on condition that his position as Assistant Secretary, with its line authority over PHS, be combined with that of Surgeon General, widely recognized as a spokesperson for public health. Califano obliged with a December 1977 inhouse reorganization that boosted and streamlined PHS’s management capabilities through its Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH). ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/acting-surgeon-general-under-three-presidents/283901/5 "2005-01-10T22:26:14Z")
> [@Governor Quinn](#): > > I assume that his appointment was never confirmed by Congress, and, as a result, he never officially received the office. > > [As seen here,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surgeon_General_of_the_United_States) there have been several times when the Surgeon General’s office has been filled by an acting Surgeon General. If a nomination was brought to the Senate, but not confirmed, the person could not serve as Surgeon General though. There could have been a recess appointment, but that would have expired at the end of the Congress. The Surgeon General prior to Ehrlich had been fired by Nixon also and with all the other stuff Nixon had to deal with in 1973, it’s likely that picking a Surgeon General was high on his “to do” list and it just would have been another opportunity for the Democrats to wreak some havoc against him.