Dr. Leland Fairbanks (1930-2025) was a dedicated doctor, public health advocate, educator, and civil rights activist. He was awarded the Surgeon General’s Exemplary Service Medal in 1988 and named the Arizona Family Physician of the Year in 1998, but he is best known for his work in public tobacco control.
While working in the U.S. Public Health service in 1983, Dr. Fairbanks was instrumental in the Keams Canyon Hospital on the Hopi reservation becoming the first smoke-free hospital in the nation. He led the successful 2002 campaign in Tempe where voters passed a landmark public smoking ban. This served as a springboard to his efforts to raise awareness of the dangers of second-hand smoke at the local, state and national level, including his leadership in getting voters to pass the Smoke-Free Arizona Act in 2006.
While he modestly referred to himself as the old country doctor, his efforts included working with the Peace Corps and training nurses in Africa, training medics to work on Indian reservations, treating patients at multiple government hospitals and in private practice, speaking at world conferences, and tirelessly promoting public health.