Dade William Moeller, who passed away Sept. 26 at age 84, was a widely respected researcher, professor and steward of environmental health. But in 1944, he was just another Georgia Tech freshman, albeit one able to claim the distinction of being the only student at his high school to have passed the V-12 Navy entrance exam.
In 1948, Mr. Moeller distinguished himself again, graduating magna cum laude from Tech with both a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering and a master’s degree in environmental engineering under his belt. He then joined the U.S. Public Health Service as a commissioned officer, which led him to being stationed across United States, at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and the service’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.
The Health Service sponsored Mr. Moeller’s return to academia, his 1957 PhD in nuclear engineering from North Carolina State University. Soon after, he launched into the professional study of radiation, which would define his life’s work. He first taught radiation protection courses at the Public Health Service’s Radiological Health Training Center in Cincinnati in 1959, then became a certified health physicist and a certified environmental engineer; by 1961 he was the officer in charge at the Northeastern Radiological Health Laboratory in Winchester, Mass. There, Mr. Moeller’s staff studied the radioactive fallout from weapons testing and the effects of radiation on children’s thyroids.
After retiring from the Public Health Service in 1966, he began his 26-year tenure at the Harvard University School of Public Health in Boston. There, among other accomplishments, he wrote a textbook, Environmental Health, which entered its fourth edition in 2011 and is used in public health graduate programs nationwide. After his retirement in the early 90s, he was granted the honor of professor emeritus.
Mr. Moeller was active in a number of organizations striving to protect the health and safety of the American public and its environment against the threats of ionizing radiation. He became president of the Health Physics Society and chaired a number of committees for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Council of Radiological Protection and Measurements, International Commission of Radiological Protection, National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Environmental Engineers, among others. He received numerous professional awards, including the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Meritorious Achievement Award and a 1999 induction into the Georgia Institute of Technology Engineering Hall of Fame.
The legacy of Mr. Moeller’s work lives on, notably in the mission of the environmental consulting company founded in 1993 by his son Matt, which bears his name: Dade Moeller & Associates. Today, the company’s nine offices across the United States employ more certified health physicians than any other company in America.
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