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Adcock, City's Health Chief, Dies

Posted on: Tuesday, 21 December 2004, 06:00 CST

Cincinnati Health Commissioner Malcolm Adcock, the city's top public health official the past 11 years, died Sunday.

Adcock, 61, of Mount Washington, who had a pacemaker and had been treated for several heart conditions in recent years, suffered a heart attack at his home about 1 p.m.

Paramedics were unable to revive him as he was rushed to Mercy Hospital Anderson, where he was pronounced dead.

"He was extremely dedicated to public service," said Adcock's son, Ryan Adcock. "He put a lot of time and effort into his job.

"He was genuinely interested in trying to make the city as healthy a place as possible."

Adcock became health commissioner in 1993, succeeding Dr. Stanley Broadnax, who quit under pressure for abusing sick leave to work a second job. Broadnax later was convicted of drug trafficking and sent to prison.

Adcock came to Cincinnati from his native Detroit in 1982 to be laboratory director of the Cincinnati Health Department. He was promoted to assistant health commissioner in 1987.

As health commissioner, Adcock was widely praised for his administrative skills in running a department of several hundred employees, his supervision of health clinics for poor people and his dedication to public health.

Public health involves two main functions -- communitywide health education and disease prevention and, in areas where funding and policies permit, health care for the poor.

"We're fortunate at the Cincinnati Health Department that we get to do both," Adcock said in an interview with The Post three years ago. "Cincinnati is one of the rare places where people have public health resources available that many communities don't have."

Cincinnati City Council member David Crowley praised Adcock for his professional knowledge and personal manner. "We're going to miss Malcolm as a professional because he has shown such leadership of the department of health and has tackled a lot of serious issues from a public health point of view.

"In the last several years, he was very much involved in emergency preparedness and has taken a real leadership role in this region and in the state."

"He was always very gracious and very gentlemanly. He seemed to know how to get things worked out. He was always accommodating and enjoyed being a teacher -- helping people understand complicated issues."

While Adcock had suffered several heart conditions in recent years, his fatal heart attack was sudden.

"I talked to him about an hour before he died, and we made plans to go shopping," said Ryan Adcock. "He was in great spirits Saturday night and Sunday morning.

"He was at home sitting in his favorite chair when he had the attack. We had always been concerned about his heart, but there was no outward sign whatso-ever of any problem before the attack."

Ryan Adcock said his father was as dedicated to his family as he was to public health. "As his son, I think of him as the greatest father anyone could ask for.

"He was incredibly generous and giving. He showed me what unconditional love was throughout his life."

Adcock, in an interview with The Post in 2001, traced his interest in public health to nature walks as a boy, which led to studies in biology and then micro-biology, which is closely connected to public health.

He said as a child he liked to walk in the woods and inspect bugs and plants. "I liked to turn over rocks to see what was under them," he said in the interview.

Adcock majored in biology at the University of Michigan and received a Ph.D. in microbiology at Wayne State University in Detroit, where he worked 14 years at the Detroit Health Department before coming to Cincinnati.

"There are many areas of micro-biology that affect public health," Adcock said in the 2001 interview. "Water quality, food safety, infectious diseases -- there are so many things where the two go together."

As an adult living in Mount Washington, Adcock said his hobbies reminded him of his boyhood. He liked to hike in the woods and take nature photographs. His favorite spot was Stanbery Park in Mount Washington. "Many a Sunday morning you'll find me in Stanbery Park, hiking a trail," he said.

Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday at St. Timothy's Episcopal Church, Mount Washington. Visitation will be from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday at T.P. White & Sons Funeral Home, Mount Washington.

Memorials may be made to the Hoxworth Blood Center, Financial Services, University of Cincinnati Medical Center, P.O. Box 670055, Cincinnati, Ohio 45267.

Source: Cincinnati Post

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