Reimert T. Ravenholt (1925-2020), M.D., was the first director of the Office of Population at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), working at the agency from 1966 to 1980. During these years, Ravenholt was responsible for allocating a total of over a billion dollars to population control and family planning organizations and projects. The Pathfinder Fund, whose records are also available at the Center, are one of the organizations whose activities were funded by USAID under Ravenholt. Ravenholt’s approach emphasized contraceptive availability, collaboration with nongovernmental organizations, and use of demographic statistics.
Ravenholt was also trained in epidemiology. Prior to his time at USAID, Ravenholt was Director of the Epidemiology and Communicable Disease Control Division for the Seattle-King County Health Department, and later Epidemiology Consultant for the European Area, based at the American Embassy in Paris. He continued his epidemiology career after leaving USAID, working at the CDC and the FDA. In these roles he traced disease outbreaks, researched the health impacts of smoking, and the causes of cancer. He was also interested in historical epidemiological methods.
The R.T. Ravenholt papers, 1942-2021 (inclusive) consist of correspondence, reports, data, and publications from Ravenholt’s research interests in population and epidemiology. Population records are mostly from Ravenholt’s time at USAID, and topics include USAID programs, relationships with other organizations, country files, and population statistical methods. Epidemiology records are primarily from Ravenholt’s time in Seattle at the Seattle-King County Health Department and the University of Washington; his time in the Division of Foreign Quarantine, American Embassy; and research conducted in his retirement. Topics include the health impacts of tobacco smoking, cancer epidemiology, and research on possibility of Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809) having had neurosyphilis.
For more information on the R.T. Ravenholt papers, please view the collection’s online finding aid. For information about accessing the collection, please consult the Center’s website or email Public Services.