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CARL L. BRUMBACK, MD, MPH
COUNTY’S FIRST PUBLIC HEALTH DOCTOR
1914-2012
Carl L. Brumback, MD, MPH, Palm
Beach County’s first Public Health
Doctor passed away this morning at
age 97. Dr. Brumback’s lifetime was
dedicated to bettering the health of
all people in Palm Beach County and
was the first to serve as Health
Department Director beginning in
1950.
Dr. Brumback had very modest
beginnings as he began serving the
community from his Rambler Nash
Station Wagon that carried him from
the ocean communities to the muck
farms in its farthest reaches. It
was his foresight and dedication to
keeping people healthy that molded
Public Health into what it is today.
Dr. Brumback is credited with
numerous firsts as he brought in
nurses, nutritionists, and social
workers, to help champion good
health for all in the community and
especially the 55,000 migrant
workers that picked vegetables,
fruits and cut sugar cane every
year. In 1956 he also began the
first Public Health Residency
Program within a health department.
At the time, Dr. Brumback said, “I
felt the best way to attract quality
public health physicians was through
an accredited residency program that
was unique in the country.” The
residency program remains today and
has trained hundreds of physicians
in public health and preventive
medicine.
Current Palm Beach County Health
Director, Alina Alonso, MD, said, “I
am honored to have learned from
truly one of the best. Dr Brumback
was not only my teacher in the
Residency Program he has been my
mentor throughout my career in
Public Health....He is the champion
for healthy people.”
In his lifetime Dr. Brumback
administered the polio vaccine that
stopped the epidemic, led the way
with tetanus shots to prevent lock
jaw and brought under control the
rampant tuberculosis that was
prevalent in the Glades. But, he
always felt curbing pollution was
the best way to fight disease and
created the Environmental Health
program to protect the people from
environmental hazards. It was this
group that stopped raw sewage from
being dumped into Lake Worth and
through photographs, letters and
personal visits convinced
legislators to clean-up Lake
Okeechobee. He has said, “The gas
coming off the lake was so bad it
would tarnish silverware.”
Environmental Public Health has
grown to encompass drinking water
programs, hazardous waste programs,
animal and insect borne diseases,
food hygiene, air pollution, solid
waste, biomedical waste and more.
Today, Palm Beach County Health
Department operates seven primary
care health centers from Delray
Beach to Jupiter and west to Belle
Glade and Pahokee. The first of
these began under Dr. Brumback who
pioneered these centers as a means
of preventive care that would lower
the incidence of hospitalizations
for the poor and needy. He also had
a long struggle with state and
federal officials to lift
restrictions on Medicaid funding so
more people could receive dental
care, physicals, and prescriptions.
He successfully accomplished this in
1981. The C.L. Brumback Health
Center in Belle Glade bears his name
in honor of his many
accomplishments.
Although he turned over Direction of
the Palm Beach County Health
Department in 1986, after a 36 year
career, he never stopped educating
in the residency program and
advocating for the health of the
people.
Further information is on the Palm
Beach County Historical Society site
www.pbchistoryonline.org/page/clarence-l-carl-brumback-md-mph .
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