William H. Foege was an American physician and epidemiologist who proposed a global strategy leading to the eradication of smallpox in the late 1970s.[1][3] He was born on March 12, 1936 in Decorah, Iowa, USA and died on January 24, 2026 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA at age 89 of congestive heart failure.[1][3] As a doctor-missionary in Nigeria in 1966, he developed a successful strategy of surveillance and vaccination around the cases (ring vaccination), which replaced mass vaccinations and enabled the eradication of smallpox outbreaks despite limited resources.[1][2] This method became central to the global effort, the last natural case of smallpox was recorded in Somalia in 1977, and the World Health Organization declared it eradicated in 1980.[2] Foege served as chief of the CDC's smallpox eradication program and director of the CDC from 1977 to 1983.[1][3][4] He was involved in the eradication of Guinea worm, polio and measles, as well as the elimination of river blindness, and co-founded the Task Force for Child Survival in 1984.[1][3] He led the creation of the Mectizan Donation Program, the first major onchocerciasis drug donation program, distributing billions of ivermectin tablets.[3] He received the Future of Life Award in 2020 for the eradication of smallpox together with Viktor Ždanov.[1]