On Apr. 6, 1936, President Franklin Roosevelt swore in Thomas Parran, Jr. as U.S. Surgeon General. Parran was previously appointed by Roosevelt to the Committee on Economic Security, which drafted the Social Security Act of 1935.

Parran was known for his work in control of communicable diseases, and restructuring public health, both at home and abroad. On Oct. 1, 1948, Surgeon General Parran retired from Public Health Service to begin a career in academic administration where he served as the first dean of the new public health school at the University of Pittsburgh.