The Mittal Institute Mourns the Passing of Steering Committee Member Dr. Richard Alan Cash (1941–2024)

Richard Alan Cash in front of his favorite café in Paris.

The Mittal Institute mourns the passing of Dr. Richard A. Cash, Senior Lecturer on Global Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and an esteemed member of the Mittal Institute’s Steering Committee. Richard A. Cash was a highly distinguished scholar of public health with longtime ties to South Asia. He conducted the first clinical trials of Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT) in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). This relatively simple innovation proved highly effective and led to a globally accessible and affordable solution to dehydration that has since saved over 60 million lives worldwide.

A funeral service will be held at 11 am on Sunday, October 27, at Levine Chapels, 470 Harvard St, Brookline, MA. Burial will follow at Netherlands Cemetery, 38 Linwood Ave, Melrose, MA. Richard’s wife Stella requests that no flowers be sent but, rather, that donations be made to the BRAC Ultra Poor Graduation Initiative. A memorial service will be held at a future date.

Cash’s friends Marty and Lincoln Chen and close cousins Jimmy and Nina Recht remember him below. Colleagues from Harvard and South Asia also paid tribute to him at the Mittal Institute’s symposium in May (see videos at the end).

Richard Alan Cash: A Kid from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Helped Save Millions of Lives Around the World

Richard Alan Cash passed away quietly in his sleep on October 22 after an eight-month battle with brain cancer. His wife Stella was by his side. Richard lived life to the full and on his own terms – a free spirit and loving soul, a medical doctor turned global public health specialist and teacher, a kid from Milwaukee, Wisconsin who won a global health prize. People from around the world were saddened to hear of his death.

Richard Cash was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he spent his childhood with his parents, Isabel (a devoted mother who nourished her children’s cultural and intellectual curiosity) and Irv (a prominent and progressive family physician), and his two younger sisters, Kathy and Ellen. Their community included a large extended family of aunts, uncles, and cousins, most of them descendants, like Richard’s grandparents, of Eastern European Jews who had fled the pogroms. Richard remained a devoted and beloved member of his extended family throughout his life.

Richard’s affinity for the natural sciences began in childhood when he discovered the dioramas in Milwaukee’s Museum of Natural History. Richard excelled athletically and intellectually at Jean Nicolet High School in Milwaukee (Go Knights!) and went to the University of Wisconsin in Madison for college. He first left his beloved Wisconsin to study medicine in New York City. After graduation from the New York University School of Medicine and an internship at Bellevue Hospital, Richard spread his wings further still, moving to Dacca, East Pakistan, to work at the Cholera Research Laboratory (CRL), which is now the International Centre for Diarrheal Diseases, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B). That decision shaped his career and life.

In the late 1960s, together with David Nalin, another U.S. doctor at the CRL, Richard conducted the first clinical trials of Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT) in cholera patients. In the late 1970s, Richard advised BRAC (the world’s largest NGO founded in Bangladesh) on its Oral Therapy Extension Program which taught over 13 million mothers and caregivers how to prepare ORT in their homes by stirring a pinch of salt and handful of sugar into a glass of clean water. In 2006, the Royal Thai Government presented Richard, David Nalin, and Dilip Mahalanobis a joint Prince Mahidol Award for their “exemplary contributions in the field of public health,” specifically for their “contributions to the application of the oral rehydration solution in the treatment of severe diarrhea worldwide.” The impact of ORT has been and continues to be extraordinary: the World Health Organization estimates that the use of ORT has saved over 60 million lives around the world.

Bangladesh remained a touchstone in Richard’s life. With other expatriates who lived in East Pakistan in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Richard lobbied against the Nixon-Kissinger “tilt” towards Pakistan and for U.S. recognition of newly independent Bangladesh. Throughout his career, Richard returned to Bangladesh on an annual basis to work with the ICDDR,B and BRAC, including teaching at the BRAC School of Public Health. Neighboring India became another touchstone where he also lived, worked, and taught.

Beginning in 1977, Harvard University and Cambridge, Massachusetts, became Richard’s home base. He taught countless students at the Harvard School of Public Health (now the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health) and ran several international public health projects for the Harvard Institute for International Development. Richard was a dedicated and caring teacher who deeply influenced the thinking and careers of countless students. Wherever he traveled, from Mexico to Vietnam, he would meet former students who credited him with inspiring their passion for public health.

Richard had a knack for friendship, making friends wherever he went. He was a great conversationalist, welcoming conversation on any issue or topic with a seemingly endless reservoir of knowledge and curiosity. He enjoyed a good debate, asserting his opinions with a rare mix of passion and civility. He often visited and traveled with family and friends and eagerly spent time with grandparents, parents, children, and grandchildren of his friends, not just his relatives. With his natural ability to connect with children and young people, he was “Uncle Richard” to many around the world.

Richard was a ladies’ man from a young age, who had several girlfriends over the years but didn’t marry until he was 60 years old. He met his wife Stella Dupuis at an ayurvedic spa in Kerala, India. Stella, a Swiss writer, businesswoman, and yoga instructor, was born in Panama and raised in Colombia and had developed an interest in Indian mythology and iconography. Richard was smitten by Stella’s beauty, informed fascination with India and vivacious energy. Stella, previously married with two sons and four grandchildren, was struck by Richard’s good looks, charm, and intelligence. They shared a love of art, travel, and adventure: They traveled the Silk Route in China, circumambulated Mount Kailash on foot alongside pilgrims, drove along the Skeleton Coast in Namibia and through the Mongolian steppes, and visited other remote corners in many countries in Asia, Africa, and South America. Stella used to tease Richard for shooting so many photos of toilets at ancient sites because of his public health interest in water, sanitation, and cultural beliefs. Theirs was a joyful marriage full of family, friends, travels, adventures, and laughter.

Richard had many interests. He was an Asian art collector and a jazz aficionado. He was a sports fan who remained devoted to the Green Bay Packers as well as the University of Wisconsin Badgers. He proudly sported a foam “cheesehead” (worn by Green Bay Packer fans) but found close games too hard to watch. He loved to read books and watch movies, always recommending what he had just read or watched to colleagues, friends, and relatives.

With Stella as a loving caretaker, Richard lived his final months as he lived his 83 years – with grace, gentleness, and humor; making those who came to visit and say farewell feel special and loved. And many, from near and far, came to visit or wrote beautiful letters after he was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.

Richard Cash not only saved millions of lives by co-developing ORT but also enriched many lives, including our lives and those of our children and grandchildren. We and so many others loved him “more than tongue can tell.”

Marty & Lincoln Chen, long-time friends
Jimmy & Nina Recht, close cousins

Honoring Richard Cash (Video)

In the following video, colleagues of Richard A. Cash honor his outstanding work in South Asia. The videos were published in May 2024 as part of a special intermission session of the Mittal Institute’s Annual Cambridge Symposium. The following speakers address Cash’s impactful work and character:

Vikram Patel, Paul Farmer Professor and Chair of Global Health and Social Medicine, and Head of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School
V K Ramachandran, Vice Chairperson, State Planning Board, Government of Kerala, India
Sabina Faiz Rashid, Mushtaque Chowdhury Chair in Health and Poverty, Director of the Center for Excellence for Gender, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, BRAC University
Asif Saleh, Executive Director of BRAC Bangladesh
K. Srinath Reddy, Honorary Distinguished Professor, Goodwill Ambassador, and former President of the Public Health Foundation of India
Tarun Khanna, Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at the Harvard Business School, Faculty Director of the Mittal Institute
Soumya Swaminathan, former Chief Scientist of the World Health Organization