Dr. Herbert F. Schoof, ESA Fellow (1952)

Dr. Herbert F. Schoof (deceased 15 October 1993), technical advisor to the Chatham County Mosquito Control Commission, was elected as Fellow in 1952.  He was a commissioned officer in the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) and an international leader in research pertinent to the control of arthropods of public health importance.

Herbert Schoof was born in Long Island, NY on 18 April 1914, and remained in New York City for the early years of his life. He attended North Carolina State College of Engineering and Agriculture, where he earned a B.S. in 1936 and an M.S. in 1938, both in biology, and served as a student assistant in zoology. In 1940, he was awarded a Ph.D. in entomology from the University of Illinois.

By 1941, Schoof was married to Beulah W. Schoof and serving as an entomologist on the North Carolina Board of Health. In 1942, he started his dynamic and productive career as a commissioned officer in the USPHS; by the time of his retirement 31 years later, he had earned the rank of Captain in the Navy. In the USPHS, he served in a variety of positions, starting with six years of service in malaria control in the Southeastern U.S. In 1948, he transferred to the Fly-Borne Disease Section of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) where he initiated research in fly-poliomyelitis transmission. Between 1952–1973, Dr. Schoof worked at the Technical Development Laboratories (TDL) of the CDC. His numerous positions there included 11 years of service as chief of the biology section, chief of the Aedes aegypti eradication program, and chief of the TDL Malaria Program. While working at the CDC, Schoof also completed a number of special assignments, including 14 with the World Health Organization between 1956–1973, and three with the Pan American Health Organization (Mexico in 1959 and Brazil in 1964 and 1966). In addition, Dr. Schoof received a commendation from the Government of Java in 1968 for his work under primitive conditions with a CDC team battling an outbreak of plague.

Over the course of his career, Dr. Schoof published 169 papers on entomology and vector control. He helped to establish guidelines for pesticides and hazardous materials during the early years of the Environmental Protection Agency, and published many annual reports in Pest Control Magazine.

In 1967, Schoof received a Commendation Medal from USPHS for his leadership in the study of arthropods of public health importance. In 1975, he was presented with a Meritorious Service Award from the American Mosquito Control Association. Finally, Dr. Schoof was instrumental in the creation of the Chatham County Mosquito Control Commission in 1957, the first effort to combat salt marsh mosquitoes of Georgia and he continued to serve as a technical advisor until his death.  Herbert Schoof’s hobbies included bird hunting and saltwater fishing.

(updated February, 2012)