Professor Carl Taylor, 1916-2010 

From William A. Reinke, PhD, Professor of International Health
When I first met Carl Taylor in 1963 I was a neophyte in the field of international public health, and he was already an established leader in the field, though this at first was not apparent because of his modest, low-key demeanor. In working directly with him, however, I soon came to recognize his contributions to the public’s health, and he served as a highly valued mentor and friend throughout my career. He was a cherished role model while encouraging and facilitating my own growth and development.

Carl had the unique strength of being out front from the pack in his broad vision of the future without losing sight of current personal concerns that were seemingly mundane but were major obstacles to those affected. At one moment he might give full attention in an international forum to the articulation of global health needs and solutions, then turn to the resolution of a student’s visa problem. Thus he was able to work effectively with other international leaders to strengthen village decision making capabilities while also guiding a highly motivated team of colleagues in the Department of International Health to achieve their potential, individually and collectively.

It has been my good fortune to observe Carl and to participate with him in leading a number of global health initiatives. From a personal perspective I am also grateful to have been able to work in an environment in which I could happily pursue my own professional development and gain satisfaction from consequent accomplishments.

Remembering Carl Taylor, February 10, 2010, by Henry Perry, MD, PhD, MPH, Sr. Associate, International Health
I knew Carl Taylor for 40 years. I met Carl in 1969 when I was a lowly medical student who aspired to be a medical missionary. I was applying for the Master of Public Health Program at Johns Hopkins. Carl took me to lunch that day. He became my teacher and mentor during my MPH year, and over the years that followed I had the privilege of keeping in touch with him on a personal basis, occasionally lecturing in one of his classes, and stopping by from time to time to say hello when I was visiting in Baltimore. In spite of his enormous workload and responsibilities, he always had a deep interest in me, my career, and my own meager efforts to promote the health of communities.

Between 2004 and 2009, I had the unique privilege of working with him as the Carl Taylor Professor for Equity and Empowerment at Future Generations, an NGO and graduate school without walls that is plowing exciting ground in educational innovation for practitioners who work with communities around the world. The field programs of Future Generations are built on SEED-SCALE principles outlined in the book Just and Lasting Change: When Communities Own Their Future, which Carl and his son Daniel co-authored. The Master of Arts Program in Applied Community Change and Conservation that Future Generations has been operating since 2004 is one of the most exciting new initiatives in graduate education to come along in many years, according to those who have served as members of accreditation teams. They have examined every nook and cranny of the program, leading to its full accreditation as a graduate school last month. These educational concepts were developed by Carl and Daniel together, reflecting their long experience in introducing students to communities and their joint commitment to and love for communities. Students are drawn from those who are working with or for communities anywhere in the world. While they continue their local work, they enroll for distance learning in the master's program but  gather in one place for a month twice a year over a two-year period—first in India, then in the US, then in Peru, then in Nepal. This period together provides opportunities for field visits, classroom sessions from the faculty, and learning from each other. «Continued»

From Assistant Professor Courtland Robinson, International Health 
I don’t remember when I first met Carl Taylor but it must have been when I was a child. My parents knew the Taylors through church and community connections. My father was also a medical missionary, (though to Korea, not India and Nepal) and my mother worked with Carl's beloved wife and life partner, Mary, in the early years of the Brown Memorial Tutorial Program, a church-based reading program for disadvantaged children in Baltimore City. It was not until I joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins that I came to understand the extraordinary range of Carl’s accomplishments, spanning multiple decades and many dozens of countries, and his vision of a world with health for all. That vision, and the relentless energy and boundless optimism that drove him to see it fulfilled, had its roots in a faith that saw each human life as a sacred gift, to be cherished, nurtured, and redeemed by giving back in service to humanity.   

It was this faith that gave Carl the warmth, humility, and vigor with which he undertook every task and encounter; and it was the same faith that gave him the grace to be present to the suffering in the world including, in the end, his own death. In the bulletin for Mary's memorial service several years ago, the Taylor family offered a quote from the novelist, E.M. Forster, that had been taped above her desk: "We move between two darknesses, and the two creatures who might enlighten us about them, the baby and the corpse, fail to do so." Life begins and ends in mystery but, for Carl, it was a Great Mystery, God's Mystery. It was not for the living to fully understand, but simply to live fully and enlighten the time between the two darknesses.

I am tempted to say "rest well, Carl, in the light perpetual" but something tells me he has his boots on, heading toward the furthest village, farther down the road.

Remembering Carl E. Taylor—From Robert (Bob) Parker, Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of International Health 
My introduction to the International Health Department in 1966 was the original IH-1 course led by Carl Taylor and Tim Baker. As a result of the mind-expanding readings assigned to us, and the discussion sessions with Carl's typical probing questions, I was immersed in the global issues that were to become my career for the next forty some years.  That year the full sequence of courses in the IH Department, combined with some electives on health services research, launched me on a path that fortunately frequently overlapped with Carl's. The most critical course in preparing me for the next step was Carl's IH-2 course, Project Planning and Program Development.  He along with Bill Reinke guided me in developing a proposal that ended up preparing me to participate in the field research activities at Narangwal, India. Over the next seven years, five of which were spent in Narangwal and its surrounding villages, Carl was my PI, mentor, research guide, and model of how to live and work at the village level. In spite of the many ups and downs of the research projects we were involved in, Carl was always optimistic and full of ideas. The Narangwal project staff called him the big "E!" for his enthusiasm.  

Following my work at Narangwal and the subsequent years as a faculty member in the Department, Carl continued to play an important role in my career. A time came when the demands of trips for the Department led to a discussion with Carl in which he strongly urged me to put my family first. He made it possible for me to take a part-time job for a year with the Maryland State Health Dept., then after that year reduce my travel times as well as their length and start planning with him a way to develop possibilities to work in China, the land of my birth. In 1981 he arranged for me to be the one person from Hopkins to join with a representative from the CDC in an exchange in Public Health between the US and China.  That led to some of the first health service research studies made in China and opened up possibilities for future involvement in that country.  When Carl became interim UNICEF Representative in China, that possibility materialized and I joined him on the UNICEF team. Under his leadership the UNICEF programs rapidly expanded and were shaped by his concerns for addressing the needs of the village communities that had been left behind in the newly instituted economic reforms.  I was fortunately able to carry forward his ideas and vision over the next nine years, even after he returned to Hopkins.  

On my return to the US and while I was the Health Officer for Washington County, Carl made it possible for me to help teach in his course, Case Studies in Primary Health Care. Two years ago, we sat and recorded a series of discussions for the on-line version of the course. It allowed us to express our experiences and perceptions of our work together over the years in a totally frank way. In many ways it was a fitting closing of the circle of our relationship—from teacher, to mentor, to role model, to colleague, and most of all, friend. Carl, I will miss your telephone calls where we would talk about our latest work and the ideas we wanted to pursue, but I will especially miss hearing your eternal optimism and enthusiasm. 

From Professor Alan Sorkin, International Health  
My first opportunity to spend much time with Dr. Taylor occurred on July 20, 1969. This was the day that the first American astronauts landed on the moon. Dr. Taylor watched the moon landing on television at the American Embassy in New Delhi and then we drove along the Grand Trunk Road to Narangwal arriving in the early evening.

Dr. Taylor once described himself at an AID site visit as a “villager.” He was most at home in the rural areas of developing countries. He spent much of his professional life encouraging local people to develop their own solutions to health and social problems.

From Lilian N. Anomnachi, MD, MPH '09
I remember vividly how I met this giant of Public Health.

I had just completed my summer and first terms of Public Health at Johns Hopkins as an international student. My journey to Hopkins was a tale of borrowed funds, self denial and drudgery in order to get the best public health education in the world. Graduating from a Nigerian medical school eight years prior to this, I was battling with new learning /teaching methods. Here we were all assumed to know what we were doing. I had worked in the development field for more than three years prior to my back-to-school project for my MPH, yet, I had no experience in randomized controlled clinical trials and other research methods.

Though I had thoroughly enjoyed my statistics classes (finally understanding the reasons behind some of the decisions we took on the field), and some of my other classes, I was almost despairing and questioning how useful my “Hopkins” masters would be to me in the real world back in Nigeria. Back home, service provision of the most basic amenities to the people had yet to be achieved, thus, I choose a course called “Case studies in Primary Health Care” by Professor Carl Taylor which looked a relevant choice.

From the very first class, I was mesmerized; this gentle giant had not only witnessed but been an integral part of bodies that shaped the field of public health most of us had only read about in text books. Though he was old, he painted very vivid pictures and spoke passionately about how to make public health programs sustainable especially in rural settings, and why communities must own their future. «Continued»