A public health physician, Hamill did things like study growth to update charts on childhood development used by family doctors, and treat Native Americans in Alaska for tuberculosis.
But he was best known for being the medical director for a special study commissioned by Dr. Luther Terry, the Surgeon General of the United States. In the early 1960s, concern was growing about the health effects of smoking. Tobacco companies had issued reports saying “studies” showed cigarettes were “healthful,” but evidence was mounting to the contrary. Hamill’s team studied the issue and issued a landmark report which proved the link between smoking and deadly diseases, including lung cancer; the findings were so conclusive that the government waited until a Saturday — Jan. 11, 1964 — to release the report to minimize the effect on the stock market.
“He and many of the panel members smoked,” said Hamill’s daughter, January Gatza, “but at the end of the study, I think, they had all quit” because the findings were so clear. Still, it took Congress a full year to require tobacco companies to print a warning on cigarette packs, the meekly worded “Caution” that cigarette smoking “may” be dangerous to health; the “may” wasn’t dropped until 1970, when the “Caution” was replaced with a “Warning”. Dr. Hamill died March 10 from pneumonia. He was 80.