A Tribute to Fred Toca

BY JOHN MOORE

Fred Toca, PhD, CIH, CSP, FAIHA, has long been recognized as a pioneer and expert in the field of environmental health, on matters such as industrial hygiene management, chemical exposure, toxicology, regulatory interpretation, exposure monitoring, product evaluation, environmental issues, and exposure assessment. If you have never met him, you may be astonished to know that he has been a leader in the profession since it was new.

Back in 1962, Toca received his bachelor’s degree in biology and medical technology from Xavier University, a historically Black college in New Orleans. He then served in the U.S. Army before going on to pursue his master’s in public health and industrial hygiene from the University of Michigan in 1968. There, he studied under one of the most admired professionals in the industrial hygiene field, Warren Cook. He then acquired his PhD in preventative medicine (creating his own course of study) with an emphasis in toxicology and industrial hygiene from the University of Iowa in 1972.  It was 1992 when I first discovered who Fred Toca was and what he meant to the field. I had aspired to become an industrial hygienist. I was a student at Saint Augustine’s College in North Carolina, pursuing my bachelor’s degree in industrial hygiene and safety. St. Augustine’s College was the only historically Black college that had a NIOSH-supported industrial hygiene program. Mr. Roamless Hudson, my advisor, spoke about how pioneers like Fred Toca were responsible for getting the program started and funded in the 1970s. Toca and others would teach, give tours, provide jobs, and mentor students from our program. Many successful industrial hygienists, including me, have been mentored by Fred Toca. Years later, I learned that he had relocated to Atlanta, where I currently reside, so I reached out to him to have a conversation. I last bumped into him at AIHce 1999 in Toronto. After our first conversation, I adopted him as one of my favorite mentors. I am not alone in listening to his wisdom, as many others have gained knowledge from him by working with him, serving with him, and pursuing many endeavors with his support. To us, he represents excellence and what those of diverse backgrounds can accomplish by walking in his footsteps. He encourages us to view minorities as a majority, where the work that we do is bigger and more important than we can ever imagine. Looking at his life and long list of accomplishments, I and others aspire to encourage a new legion of industrial hygienists just like he has over the past 40 years. We have discussed his perspectives on leadership, mentoring, the future of the profession, and life in general.  During my lunch meetings with Fred, I witnessed how sharp he is and how he is always prepared for conversations. He understands how his guidance benefits those who seek his knowledge and opinions. He takes his role as mentor very seriously, once telling me that nothing is more important for our profession than helping younger colleagues navigate challenges in their careers. As EHS professionals, our legacy is in “the people [we] interact with and how [we] change their lives,” Fred told me. “From my perspective, having worked for corporations for most of my life, [my legacy] was the people I had on staff who I could nurture and move along. It amazes me when I look at them now and they have their own companies, because a lot of them worked for me as technicians, and now they have moved along. The people who you impact is the real legacy that you leave behind.” Fred’s concern with helping the people who worked for him was one of his motivations for writing, with Dee Woodhull, the book , which AIHA published in 1996. “What I was trying to do [in the book] was basically get technical professionals to move into how you manage people and how you manage programs,” Fred told me. “And at the time I wrote it, it was one of the few books written with the industrial hygienist in mind.”