C. Everett Koop

An American pediatric surgeon who served as the thirteenth Surgeon General of the United States from 1982 to 1989, under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. Koop became, in the words of one contemporary account, the only Surgeon General to become a household name, largely on the strength of his direct public campaigning during the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 1980s, when he mailed an educational brochure on the disease to every household in the country over the objections of some in the administration that appointed him. He was also an outspoken advocate against tobacco use, pressing for warning labels and workplace smoking restrictions, and he spoke out on the health needs of children with disabilities. His willingness to take strong, independent public positions, sometimes at odds with the political administration he served, distinguished his tenure from that of earlier Surgeons General.