Szeming Sze

Szeming Sze (Chinese: 施ほどこせ思おもえ明あきら; pinyin: Shī Sīmíng; April 5, 1908 – October 27, 1998) was a diplomat for China who helped build the World Health Organization into a specialized United Nations agency.

Early life

Sze was born in Tientsin (now Tianjin), People's Republic of China on the 5th of April, 1908. He was the eldest son of Dr. Alfred Sao-ke Sze.

Education

He was educated at Winchester College and Christ's College, Cambridge (1925 to 1928), and received degrees in chemistry and medicine. He interned in Britain, where at St. Thomas Hospital in a London slum decided to do public service, before coming back to China in 1934.

Career

Early years

He was in the United States when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, and he joined the Lend-Lease program for the Chinese Government. Dr. Sze attended the San Francisco Conference that gave birth to the United Nations as an official of Chinese delegation and medical expert. He later on became his country's Ambassador to Great Britain and, later, the United States.

UN years

Dr. Sze became chief of specialized agencies for the Eco-nomic & Social Council of the United Nations. He was greatly disappointed when he was later offered a job at WHO that he couldn't take because of his U.N. commitments.

He became U.N. medical director in 1954, taking care of the permanent staff of about 3000, including inoculating them and preparing them for missions abroad. He held the position for 20 years.

Reputation

In 1975, Henry Van Zile Hyde, Chief of Health Division during the Truman Administration, said of Dr Sze “...[he] was the member of the Chinese delegation. His father had been the Chinese Ambassador to England and the United States. And Szeming Sze was a very brilliant Chinese”.

In 1998, at the 51st World Health Assembly, the Norwegian Minister of Health, Mr Dagfinn Høybråten, acknowledged Dr Szeming Sze as “one of the initiators of the WHO”. Mr Høybråten quoted Dr Sze as saying “Of course we can learn from history. We learn from the mistakes made if not from the successes. Learning the reasons why certain things happened often saves us from making the same mistakes again”.

Personal life and posterity

Dr. Sze married to Bessie Li (Chinese: 李り月がつ卿きょう), a pianist in 1934 and he is survived by a daughter, Diane Wei (Chinese: 施ほどこせ家か莲); a son, architect Chia-ming Sze (Chinese: 施ほどこせ家か铭); two sisters, Julia Sze-Bailey, and Alice Wang; five grandchildren, and fourteen great-grandchildren. Sze's granddaughter, Sarah Sze (born 1969) won a MacArthur "genius grant" in 2003 for her work as an installation artist. His grandson, David Sze, is a managing partner at the venture capital firm Greylock Partners.

Death

Dr. Sze died on October 27, 1998 at Presbyterian Senior Care, at Presbyterian Medical Center in suburban Pittsburgh at the age of 90.