Extracted from The Washington Post (Washington, DC)
Saturday, April 7, 2007

William H. Cope, Physician

William Henry Cope, 88, a physician who was an expert in preventive medicine and in establishing overseas medical clinics, died March 21 from complications of pneumonia at Greenspring Village retirement community in Springfield, where he had lived for the past four years.

Dr. Cope served with the State Department, the U.S. Public Health Service and the old Department of Health, Education and Welfare before becoming regional director of a state health office in Virginia.

He was born in Wellsville, Ohio, and was a 1943 graduate of Ohio State University. He received his medical degree from Ohio State in 1947. He joined the Navy in 1947, and the next year was assigned as a medical officer with the U.S. diplomatic mission in Greece.

He later studied preventive medicine in Venezuela and, in 1953, received a master's degree in public health from Harvard University. From 1953 to 1955, he served as a Navy medical officer in Norfolk. ad_icon

Dr. Cope was in private practice in Cleveland from 1955 to 1959 and was also chief of clinical services for the U.S. Steel plant there.

From 1959 to 1961, he was a public health and medical officer with the State Department's Foreign Service in Brazil, where he advised the government on medical education. He later served as a public health adviser and field director in Colombia, El Salvador and Guatemala.

Dr. Cope transferred to the international health office of the U.S. Public Health Service in 1963 and served as chief of the Latin American office. In this role, he helped establish health clinics and launch preventive medicine programs across Latin America. From 1965 to 1967, he was medical director of the Public Health Service and chief of the neurological and sensory disease service program.

In 1968, Dr. Cope was named director of international affairs for HEW's Health Services and Mental Health Administration, retiring from the federal government in 1978. He then became health director of Virginia's Peninsula Health District in Newport News until his retirement in 1988.

For several years, Dr. Cope taught international health at Georgetown University's School of Medicine. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and published many professional articles in medical specialties.

During his time in Washington, Dr. Cope lived in the Mantua section of Fairfax County. He lived in Williamsburg from 1978 to 2003.

His wife of 31 years, Dorothy Hargrove Cope, died in 1982.

Survivors include his wife of 14 years, Judith Meitin Toll Cope of Potomac; three children from his first marriage, William Henry Cope Jr. of New Orleans, Nancy Holt of Dumfries and Patty Cook of Lake Ridge; and four grandchildren.