GERALD M. HANSLER, P.E.
Assistant Surgeon General
Rear Admiral, USPHS (ret.)
Gerald M. Hansler, born in Pierce County, Washington in 1933 is known to his friends and colleagues as “Jerry.” His career exemplifies outstanding engineering achievement, leadership, vision, and dedication to environmental control efforts.
Hansler received a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering and a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Washington in 1956, and immediately began a 21-year career as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Public Health Service in Portland, Oregon with the Bureau of State Services, where he served to until 1958.
During his early career Jerry Hansler transferred to a variety of posts with the Bureau of State Services, each with increasing responsibility, where he worked with individual states, large municipalities, and industrial companies in the broad fields of water supply and pollution control and emergency planning related to chemical, bacteriological and radiological threats. Those locations included Washington, D.C. from 1958 to 1961, Indianapolis, Indiana from 1961 to 1963, and Atlanta, Georgia from 1963 to 1967. In 1961, he married Leslie Ervin of Morganton, North Carolina.
In 1967, Hansler transferred to the PHS New York Regional Office to assume regional responsibility for environmental heath programs in the Bureau of Disease Prevention. In 1969, with the establishment of the Consumer Protection and Environmental Health Service, he was appointed as New York Regional Assistant Administrator for the new Service.
In 1972, Jerry Hansler was appointed as the New York Region Administrator of the newly formed Environmental Protection Agency. As such, he was responsible for the environmental protection programs for the States of New York and New Jersey, as well as Puerto Rico and the Virgin islands. In June of 1972, in recognition of his leadership responsibilities and professional competence, Gerald M. Hansler was appointed as an Assistant Surgeon General with the equivalent rank of Rear Admiral (RADM) in the PHS Commissioned Corps.
RADM Hansler retired from the Commissioned Corps in September 1977 to assume a second career as Executive Director of the Interstate-Federal Delaware River Basin Commission. That Commission is responsible for promoting interstate comity in water and related land resources planning, management, development and protection for the 13,000 square-mile river basin compact established in 1961. In addition to his domestic activities related to the Commission, Hansler served as a consultant to a variety of nations including Australia, Bulgaria, Romania, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Brazil, the Dominican Republic and China. He retired from the Commission in June of 1998.
RADM Hansler’s Public Health Service awards include the Commendation Medal and the Meritorious Service Medal. He is a registered engineer in the State of Washington and a Diplomate of the American Academy of Environmental Engineers, a life member of the American Water Works Association, and a member of the Water Environment Federation.
He currently serves as an environmental health consultant from his home in Pennington, New Jersey.
March 2008
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