NATHAN SINAI, pioneer in public health economics and for thirty-two years Professor of Public Health at the University, formally retired from the active faculty this past summer.
Dr. Sinai was born and schooled in Stockton, California, and earned a degree in veterinary medicine from San Francisco College in 1915. In the years following he gained practical experience as a sanitation and public health officer in his native Stockton. In 1923 he came to Ann Arbor to undertake graduate work in the Division of Hygiene and Public Health, as it was then called. He has remained here since. Earning a master's degree in 1924 and a Doctor of Public Health degree in 1926, he became also an Instructor in Public Health in 1924 and rose through the several ranks to a professorship in 1932. In 1941, the year in which the School of Public Health was officially made one of the colleges of the University, he became secretary of that School and of its faculty. He also served on the Executive Board of the Graduate School.
Keeping abreast of the rapid changes in the economic context of health services, Dr. Sinai became at once an expert in the field of medical insurance and a persuasive, popular exponent of the humane and sensible distribution of medical care. One of his most distinguished services in that interest was his recent analysis of the uses of the California plan of disability insurance. Within the School of Public Health, of which he was long the senior member of the faculty, he was esteemed for his superior teaching and his imaginative contributions to new instructional programs. He lent honor both to his School and to the University by the published record of his findings and judgments and by his eminent services to the World Health Organization and other national and international agencies.
Regents’ Proceedings
September 1964, Page 517
