DR. FREDERICK R. SIDELL, age 71, of Bel Air, MD, died on February 14, 2006 at the Mariner Health and Rehabilitation Center in Bel Air, MD. Born in Marietta, OH, he was the son of the late Alonzo Russell and Frances Virginia Haught Sidell.
Dr. Sidell attended Marietta College and the NYU School of Medicine. He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at the Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital. After spending two years in the US Army, stationed at the Edgewood Arsenal, he was employed by the Department of Defense until he retired in 1995. While with the Department of Defense, Dr. Sidell developed into one of the world’s leading experts and educators on the impact and management of chemical agents.
In the late 1960s, Dr. Sidell and some colleagues developed a course for military personnel on the management of chemical agent causalities. Dr. Sidell served as the course director for many years. He also prepared much of the teaching material and provided instruction on the Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program and for the Domestic Preparedness Program.
Dr. Sidell was frequently sought out by media outlets to discuss his field of expertise, and contributed to CNN and the New York Times among others.
He was called upon by the Department of Defense for a number of highly sensitive assignments. These included a trip to Southeast Asia in 1979 to investigate the alleged use of “yellow rain” against Hmong tribesmen in Laos. In 1987, he examined Kurdish civilian casualties who were victims of chemical warfare in their homeland. He traveled to Japan in 1995 to assist and advise Japanese physicians on the care of causalities from a terrorist-led nerve agent incident in the Tokyo subway system.
Dr. Sidell spent his retirement years providing education and training in the management of chemical agents and casualty treatment to initial civilian responders, including many EMT units throughout the United States.
His research and studies have been published in over 100 reports and articles. He wrote several handbooks and was the senior editor of the military’s textbook on the management of chemical and biological causalities.
Dr. Sidell was the recipient of many achievement awards and commander’s medals. A new building at the Edgewood area of the Aberdeen Proving Ground was named the Sidell Learning Center in 2002 in recognition of his work. He was inducted into the Marietta College Hall of Honor in 2003, becoming one of only 24 people to be so recognized at that time.
Dr. Sidell is survived by one son, Bruce R. Sidell of Roanoke, VA; two daughters, Rebecca Sidell Harris of Wallingford, PA and Kathrin R. Sidell of Palo Alto, CA; one sister, Janet S. Townsend of Williamstown, WV; and three grandchildren, Eleanor Harris and Robert Harris, both of Wallingford, PA and Cooper Sidell of Roanoke, VA.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the American Diabetes Association, 800 Wyman Park Drive, Suite 110, Baltimore, MD 21211, or to the Kidney Foundation of MD, 1107 Kenilworth Drive, Suite 202, Baltimore, MD 21204.
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