Chris A. Hansen

Chris A. Hansen, 90, former director of Research Services at the National Institutes of Health, died January 8 in Westport, Massachusetts, of prostate cancer. Mr. Hansen, a Public Health Service officer, was director of research services at the NIH from 1956 until 1968, receiving a Meritorious Service Medal in 1965. After leaving NIH, he served two years as assistant surgeon general of the Environmental Control Administration. From 1970 until 1973 he was vice-president for planning and physical plant at Georgetown University. Born in Guelph, North Dakota in 1915, he attended the State Normal and Industrial College in Ellendale, N.D. and North Dakota State University, receiving a degree in civil engineering in 1937. He then served in various positions as an engineer for the Georgia State Department of Public Health. In 1942 he received a master's degree in sanitary engineering from the University of North Carolina and accepted a commission in the U.S. Public Health Service, serving as district engineer for Malarial Control in War Areas (MCWA), which later became the Communicable Disease Center. He became assistant chief of CDC in 1952. After retirement, Mr. Hansen was an engineering consultant in Maryland before moving to Arizona. He was active in many environmental and community organizations there, assisting with projects for the Nature Conservancy and Habitat for Humanity. Survivors include two daughters, Elizabeth Kugler of Westport, and Kristie Hansen of Chevy Chase, Maryland, a sister, Frances Casanova of Rochester, Minnesota, and five grandchildren. Jean (Rudrud) Hansen, his wife, died on January 5 in Waukesha, Wisconsin; his first wife, Mary (Runice) Hansen died in 1992.