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On the Town

Inigo Thomas on Jerry Morris

Jerry Morris, a doctor and epidemiologist who established that bus conductors, in general, have longer lives than bus drivers, who was an authority on exercise and life expectancy, and who firmly believed in the importance of the public health service, died last week aged 99. From the Camden New Journal's obituary:

To think of Jerry's life in terms of his immense contribution to public health overlooks his fanatical interest in culture. He read widely, a subscriber to the London Review of Books, the New York Review of Books, the New Yorker and the British Medical Journal. He was also an insomniac and would read two to three thrillers every week.

Intelligent and racy reading may keep you and your heart going. The obituary goes on to mention Morris's enthusiasm for going out: in September and October he went to the theatre 14 times, the opera four times and the concert hall twice. Whether he travelled by bus or not, the obituary doesn't say, but he did like to be on the town.


Comments


  • 13 November 2009 at 9:19pm
    Martin says:
    What a fantastically useless (and potentially disruptive - what if all the drivers had demanded to become conductors?) bit of research! The irony is that, while bus drivers might have shorter lives, it's the conductors who have died out.