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Date:  August 16, 1995
For Release:  Immediately
Contact:  HHS Press Office (202) 690-6343

Statement by HHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala
Remembering Oveta Culp Hobby,
First HEW Secretary

"All of us in the HHS family will mark today the passing of Oveta Culp Hobby, the woman who served as the first Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare.

"Mrs. Hobby was an extraordinary person -- a pathbreaker, a forceful individual, and an exemplary public servant. She launched the new Cabinet-level Department of HEW with success and dignity.

"In her first year as Secretary, the NIH Clinical Center was dedicated. During her tenure, a nationwide program for hospital construction was begun. The FDA undertook action to protect consumers from pesticide residue on agricultural products. Social Security was amended to extend to farm and domestic workers and the self-employed. And in a crowning event, the Salk polio vaccine was successfully developed, tested, licensed and distributed nationwide.

"Mrs. Hobby's tenure as Secretary helped set this Department on a positive and productive course, protecting the nation's health and lending aid to those who need it most. In the memory of her accomplishments, we can all renew our own commitment to the high purposes that are entrusted to us at HHS."

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