Dr. John A. Grant, a pediatrician who gave up a career in medical education and research to become a public health officer for Kent and Caroline counties, died of cancer Monday at Chester River Hospital Center in Chestertown. He was 71.
"He had a passion for public health and a passion for people who needed help. He was always referred to by his fellow public health officers as `the dean,'" said Becky S. Loukides, acting health officer for Kent and deputy officer in Caroline.
Dr. Grant was born and raised in Hanover, Pa., the son of a dentist.
"I think I always wanted to be a doctor," he told Dateline DHMH, a publication of the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, at his retirement last year. "As a child, I greatly admired our family doctor and wanted to be like him."
Dr. Grant was a graduate of Mercersburg Academy and earned a bachelor's degree from Gettysburg College in 1953. He was a 1957 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Medical School and served his internship at the old Church Home and Hospital in Baltimore.
He also completed a residency in pediatrics in 1962 at the University of Maryland hospital and earned a master's degree in public health from the Johns Hopkins University in 1969.
Dr. Grant maintained a pediatrics practice in Hanover, Pa., from 1962 to 1967, when he moved to Baltimore and became chief of the state health department's School Section, Division of Maternal and Child Health.
In 1970, he joined the pediatrics faculty at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He also was an associate professor in the department of population and family health at Hopkins' School of Public Health.
Interested in developmental pediatrics, Dr. Grant also wrote widely on adolescent rape and pregnancy, child health screening and program evaluations.
Noting the strains of teaching and research, Dr. Grant accepted in 1972 the post of health officer for Kent County. In 1977, Caroline County was added to his responsibilities.
"He liked the hands-on approach, and his goal in life was to improve child care. That's why he went into public health," said Maryland Miles Massey, a nurse who retired in 1998 as Kent County deputy health officer.
Dr. Grant formed a "think tank" in the basement of a county building with other health workers to hammer out new approaches and solutions to health issues, Mrs. Massey said.
