Document KGdK9D1Ebj6y1dvrw9LBEoL0X

August 22, 1969 Berwyn F. Mattlson, M.D. Executive Director and Secretary Committee on Eligibility The American Public Health Association, 1740 Broadway Hew York, N. Y. 10019 Inc. Dear Doctor Mattlson: X am not sure that my reply to your letter of July 39, which came while I was having a fine holiday in Montana, will have reached you in time to be useful to you. If it should have been too late and if the application of Mr. Boumas Xor Fellowship standing in the American Public Health Association has been acted on favorably, no harm will have been done, for he is a decent and honest man. However, I cannot grant that he has "attained an established professional standing in the field of public health," and if he had asked my opinion, I would have advised him not to make such an application. I am sure that he would consider Fellowship in APHA to be advantageous in his work (for Lead Industries Association), and I sympathize, in a degree, with his wish to have such standing. Indeed, I may not be fully acquainted with his qualifications, but I know of no work or publication of his, nor of any educational, professional achievement or experience which X could cite in support of a recommendation. I regret the necessity of giving you this expression of opinion, and X should be personally (but not professionally) embarrassed at having it come to the attention of )|r. Boumas, who has reason, because of certain mutual associations, to expect my personal approval. X do. Indeed, think well of him personally, as I indicated above, but Z think he has underestimated the professional significance of Fellowship status in the American Public Health Association. Sincerely yours. RAK:wp Robert A. Kehoe, M.D. Professor Emeritus of OccupAtlonal Medicine N22081