The family behind the Harold R. Shipman Award for Excellence in Environmental and Occupational Health
A variety of University of Minnesota School of Public Health (SPH) students have benefitted from the generosity of the annual Harold R. Shipman Award for Excellence in Environmental and Occupational Health since 2002, including those who went on to become leaders in epidemiology and environmental health, leading both practice and research.
The award recognizes an outstanding student in environmental and occupational health who achieves academic excellence and embodies the characteristics of SPH alum Harold Shipman (MS 1948): commitment, integrity, humanity, and leadership. It was established about a decade after Shipman’s passing in 1992 by his wife Lois to provide scholarships to deserving students pursuing careers in public health—a field that was central to Shipman’s life’s work.
The fund continues to be overseen by his sons, Richard and Bruce, with grandchildren David and Kristina standing by to continue support for the fund into the future.
A Lasting Legacy
Shipman was a pioneering sanitary engineer, a profession now known as environmental engineering. “He worked with water systems and environmental water treatment,” Richard recalls. In the 1940s, Shipman earned both his undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of Minnesota, where he met Lois and built the foundation for a distinguished career that would span several continents and global institutions.
After completing his master’s degree, Shipman worked for the Minnesota Department of Health as a regional engineer. During the Korean War, he was offered a job as an engineering advisor with the United Nations. This experience “opened up the world for him,” Richard says, and led to further assignments with the World Health Organization in Turkey and Egypt, where Harold focused on improving water treatment systems in rural areas.
“We spent about two years in Turkey and five years in Egypt, interspersed with a six-month stay in Geneva where we evacuated during the Suez crisis of 1956,” says Richard. It was a colorful and varied childhood. He remembers learning to play tennis on clay courts in Egypt, a hobby that would stay with him for life. While Harold worked on water systems, Lois taught American history at the Cairo American School in Maadi, Egypt, and served as a school librarian.
Harold received citations from the governments of Korea, Israel, Egypt, and Bolivia and was awarded the Friendship Medal by the British Institute of Water Engineers. He was also a Centennial Fellow of Johns Hopkins University.
Shipman work had a significant impact on communities worldwide. “He worked for the Pan-American Health Organization, and then subsequently the World Bank in Washington, D.C., where he had a very distinguished career,” Richard says. The family always emphasized giving, including sponsoring a Cambodian refugee family through their church in the 1970s.
The Next Generation of Stewardship
Shipman’s sons’ contributions to their father’s memorial fund to help maintain the family’s Minnesota roots and their shared commitment to public service. Together, they’re ensuring that their father’s memory lives on through the impact of the scholarships that bear his name.
Richard notes that the fund is a way to ensure his father’s contributions to environmental health are remembered and that the next generation of public health professionals can continue the work that Harold was so passionate about.
“The School of Public Health launched my father’s very successful career and gave him the tools, background, and knowledge to proceed on into a wide variety of locations and associations,” Richard reflects.
The Harold R. Shipman Memorial Fund stands as a testament to the lasting influence of a man who devoted his life to improving public health on a global scale. Through the continued support of his family, Harold’s legacy will inspire and empower future leaders in environmental and public health for generations to come.
Fund: Harold R. Shipman Award for Excellence in Environmental and Occupational Health
