Microbiologist Maurice Hilleman Dies At 85; Dr. Hilleman Pioneered Development Of Vaccines For Dozens Of Diseases

Each time an American mother takes her child to the doctor's office for a checkup, she likely leaves with the fruits of Maurice Hilleman's career — vaccines that have helped put an end to childhood miseries. Hilleman, a microbiologist who helped save millions of young lives by developing vaccines for mumps, measles, chickenpox and other maladies, died Monday at Chestnut Hill Hospital in Philadelphia. He was 85. Over his career, the Miles City, Mont., native led or began the development of vaccines against diseases that once killed or hospitalized millions, including measles, German measles, meningitis, pneumonia, bacterial meningitis and hepatitis A and B. He began work on the mumps vaccine after his daughter, Jeryl Lynn, developed the illness at age 5 in 1963.