Leonard Cole, a dentist who became an expert on biological weapons and chronicled in troubling detail a secret U.S. Army program that turned millions of Americans into germ-warfare guinea pigs, died in September.
His death was confirmed by his daughter.
When Dr. Cole started his second career as a political scientist, his dental practice was already established. He wrote two other books, one on New Jersey's emerging class of Black elected officials and the other on the intersection of politics and science.
The program began in 1949 and ended in 1969 when President Richard M. Nixon halted it.
Army reports about the experiments were leaked to reporters in the 70s. The program was brought to the public's attention.
Dr. Cole used testimony from the hearing and declassified files to write "Clouds of Secrecy: The Army's Germ warfare tests over Populated Areas."
In the book, there is an in-depth examination of the Army program. The tests were meant to measure how biological and chemical weapons would spread in a real world.
The Army insisted that no one had been hurt in the experiments. Dr. Cole was not convinced.
The September 1950 test in which a military vessel blanketed the San Francisco coast with an aerosol cocktail that contained the bacterium Serratia marcescens was the subject of a large portion of "Clouds of Secrecy".
A group of people with the same symptoms checked in to a hospital. There was a rare pneumonia caused by the Serratia marcescensbacteria. Edward J. Nevin was one of the patients.
The Army denied that Mr. Nevin's death and the other hospitalizations were related to its spraying.
The monitoring of people who had been exposed to the tests was not included in the program.
In 1953, Dr. Cole wrote about open-air tests in Minneapolis that used fluorescent particles of zinc cadmium sulfide to make them look likebacteria.
A 1997 National Research Council report stated that the tests in Minneapolis and other cities did not expose residents to harmful levels of the chemical.
Critics said that "Clouds of Secrecy" exaggerated the risks of the testing program and that Dr. Cole didn't account for the military's need to conduct such experiments in the Cold War era.
The book was seen as a crucial public service by others.
Hugh L'Etang, a British doctor and editor, said in the journal Politics and the Life Sciences that Dr. Cole had written a horror story that showed how conscientious individuals were led to risk the health. The book was reviewed in The New York Times.
He changed his name as a young man because he was concerned about antisemitism. He held a number of positions in the Jewish community. Morris Cohen owned delis in New Jersey and New York. His mom was a homemaker.
Leonard attended the University of Pennsylvania's dental school after graduating from high school in Passaic. He joined the Air Force after graduating from dental school. He was in Japan for a couple of years.
He earned a degree in political science from the University of California after working at a dental office.
The couple moved to northern New Jersey in 1961. He earned a doctorate in political science in 1970.
In his second book, "Politics and the Restraint of Science", Dr. Cole examined the issue of government-sponsored scientific research on humans.
His credentials as an authority on the subject were solidified by a later book. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, he became a sought-after commentator. He wrote "The Anthrax Letters: A Medical Detective Story" in 2003
Dr. Cole testified before Congress many times on topics related to biological weapons. He was the founding director of the terrorism medicine program.
He is survived by his wife, two sons, two grandsons and six granddaughters. The man lived in the area.
Dr. Cole wrote books after retiring from dentistry. His 10th, published last year, told the story of Dr. Frederick Reines, who won a Nobel Prize in physics for his work. Dr. Cole was related to Dr. Reines.
In an interview with the online publication Authority Magazine last year, Dr. Cole said he gave his "undivided attention" to what he was doing at the time.
He said that he was the best political scientist and the best dentist.
Noyes was a researcher.
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