Dr. Terry, Who Issued Smoking Warnings, Dies

Dr. Luther L. Terry, who as U.S. surgeon general in 1964 issued the first federal report linking smoking to heart disease and cancer, has died of heart failure. He was 73.

Terry died at Pennsylvania Hospital on Friday, relatives said Saturday.

A smoker until the early 1960s, he devoted the last two decades of his life to warning Americans that cigarette smoking increases the risk of heart disease, cancer and emphysema.

Report’s Impact Cited

Terry, appointed surgeon general by President John F. Kennedy in 1961, once described the U.S. Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health he issued in 1964 as “probably having the greatest impact of any government report ever issued.”

In 1965, at Terry’s urging, Congress required tobacco companies to stamp each pack of cigarettes with a warning that reads, “The surgeon general has determined that cigarette smoking is dangerous to your health.”

Later that year he stepped down as surgeon general, but he continued lobbying for stricter smoking sanctions and in 1971 helped obtain a ban on cigarette commercials on radio and television.

Terry, born in Red Level, Ala., served as associate director of the National Heart Institute from 1950 to 1961. After leaving the surgeon general’s post, he became vice president for medical affairs at the University of Pennsylvania.

Joins Consulting Firm

He served from 1973 to 1980 as president and director of University Associates of Washington, a nonprofit consulting firm that works with colleges, research agencies and government.

He graduated from Birmingham Southern College in 1931 and received his medical degree from Tulane University in 1935.

He is survived by his wife and three children. Funeral arrangements were pending Saturday. Family members said he would be buried in Arlington National Cemetery.