H. Jack Geiger
American physician (1925–2020)
Herman J. Geiger (November 11, 1925 – December 28, 2020), known as H. Jack Geiger, was an American medical doctor and civil rights activist. He was a leader in the field of social medicine, the philosophy that doctors had a responsibility to treat the social as well as medical conditions that adversely affected patients' health, famously (and controversially) writing prescriptions for food for impoverished patients with malnutrition. Geiger came to embody the idea of the responsibility of a physician to do something about what is now known as the social determinants of health, believing that medicine could be an instrument of social change. He served patients' medical needs as well as social and economic necessities, which he believed were in large part responsible for the health problems communities faced. He was one of the doctors to bring the community health center model to the United States, starting a network that serves 28 million low-income patients as of 2020.
The Arthur C. Logan Professor of Community Medicine at the City University of New York School of Medicine, Geiger was a cofounder and president of Physicians for Human Rights as well as a cofounder and president of Physicians for Social Responsibility, each of which won Nobel Peace Prizes.
Early life, family and education
Herman J. Geiger, called Jack, was born in Manhattan, New York City, New York, on November 11, 1925. His parents, a doctor (Jacob) and a microbiologist (Virginia Lowenstein), were both Jewish immigrants, from Austria and Germany respectively. They raised "Jackie" and his sister on Manhattan's Upper West Side, with European relatives fleeing the Nazis often staying in the Geiger home after arrival in the United States.
Geiger rapidly skipped grades in public school and, as a result, graduated from Townsend Harris High School at the age of 14.
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