Late Richard Alan Cash, a visionary American global health researcher, public health physician, and internist, first forged his bond with Bangladesh when he moved to Dacca, East Pakistan, after completing his medical studies, a decision that would shape both his life and the future of global health.
Cash passed away quietly in his sleep on Tuesday after an eight-month battle with brain cancer. His wife Stella was by his side. He was 83.
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.
He joined the Cholera Research Laboratory (CRL), now known as the International Centre for Diarrheal Diseases, Bangladesh (icddr.b).
In the late 1960s, Richard, along with fellow US doctor David Nalin, conducted the first clinical trials of Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT) in cholera patients, marking the start of a medical revolution.
His work expanded further in the late 1970s, when he advised Brac, Bangladesh’s largest NGO, on its Oral Therapy Extension Program.
This initiative reached over 13 million mothers and caregivers, teaching them how to prepare ORT at home using simple ingredients like salt, sugar, and clean water.
Bangladesh became a central part of Richard’s life. His involvement went beyond medical research; he stood with expatriates who opposed the Nixon-Kissinger administration’s support for Pakistan during the country's liberation war, advocating for US recognition of newly independent Bangladesh.
Even as his career took him around the globe, Richard remained deeply connected to Bangladesh.
He returned every year to collaborate with the icddr,b and Brac, also sharing his knowledge as a teacher at the Brac School of Public Health.
He made a lasting impact on the country he had first come to decades earlier.
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 Bangladesh.
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.
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 TH 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 did not 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 and Stella shared a love of art, travel and adventure: they travelled 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.
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.
A funeral service will be held at 11am on 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 at https://bracusa.donorsupport.co/page/drcash. A memorial service will be held at a future date.
