Ward Cates Jr., MD, MPH, one of the co-authors of Contraceptive Technology, died March 17, 2016, in Chapel Hill, NC. Cates was president emeritus and distinguished scientist at FHI 360, a global nonprofit human development organization based in Durham, NC.
“The health advances for which Ward Cates has been responsible will continue to have a global impact for years to come,” said Patrick Fine, chief executive officer of FHI 360 in a statement following Cates’ death. “He was a man who exemplified the idea that one person can make a world of difference.”
Cates had a distinguished career, spanning more than 40 years in the fields of women’s health, prevention of sexually transmitted infections and HIV, contraceptive technology, and reproductive health services. At FHI 360, he helped design groundbreaking studies and implement programs on the prevention of unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections. He also led FHI 360’s biomedical HIV prevention research efforts, first with barrier methods and topical agents, and then through the use of oral products.
Before joining FHI 360, Cates spent two decades at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where he helped lead its family planning, STD/HIV, and epidemiology training units. While at the CDC, Cates served as the first permanent chief of its abortion surveillance branch. He later became director of the CDC’s Division of Sexually Transmitted Diseases, which coincided with the dawn of the U.S. HIV epidemic. His work on the CDC’s Kaposi Sarcoma/Opportunistic Infections Task Force led to Cates’ interest in the international HIV epidemic.
In 1994, Cates began his career at FHI 360, where he served as principal investigator on many microbicide trials. He also served as a scientific investigator for the HIV Prevention Trials Network, and he was a principal investigator for the Microbicide Trials Network.
Cates was a familiar face at Contraceptive Technology conferences, where he served as a featured speaker for more than 20 years at the events held three times per year.
Robert Hatcher, MD, MPH, professor emeritus of gynecology and obstetrics at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, says, “Arnold Toynbee, the historian, said the supreme accomplishment was to blur the line between work and play. Ward Cates achieved that. He was constantly open to change, he was eloquent in both written word and speech, but how he treated people was simply spectacular.”
