Victor Sidel ’53

Vic, a tireless campaigner for justice and peace in a warring and unjust world, died Jan. 30, 2018, at his younger son’s home in Greenwood Village, Colo.

Born in Trenton, N.J., Vic came to Princeton after graduating from Trenton Central High School. He was a member of Prospect Club and majored in physics. He was also a member of Whig-Clio and teamed up with Chris Webber to win several intercollegiate debate tournaments, including the 1952 Eastern district championship.

Vic graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1957 and then trained in internal medicine and public health, becoming head of the Community Medicine Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital.

In 1969 he moved to New York to become distinguished professor of social medicine and chairman of the Department of Social Medicine at Montefiore Hospital and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx.

In 1961 Vic founded Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) and contributed a series of articles on the medical consequences of nuclear war that spurred the formation of PSR chapters across the country. Later, he became co-president of PSR’s global affiliate, International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, which won the 1985 Nobel Prize for its work in bringing about the Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

He traveled frequently to China, Vietnam, Cuba, Chile, and other countries to lecture and to study public-health systems. He wrote a number of articles and books including War and Public Health and The Global Gun Epidemic.

He frequently contributed essays to the class five-year books denouncing American social and international policy and noting, “While millions live in poverty and squalor in a rich country … the resources needed to alleviate these disparities … are usurped by the wealthy.”

Vic was predeceased by his wife of 60 years, Ruth. He is survived by their two sons, Mark ’79 and Kevin, their wives, and three grandchildren.