Haitian President. He received world-wide notoriety as the President of Haiti with his 1957 election to office, which was followed by a reign lasting for fourteen years until his death. In a nation with a history of an unstable government full of violence, his reign was the longest in the nation's history. Of the thirty-six presidents prior to his reign, twenty-three were either assassinated while holding the office or overthrown. In 1934 he graduated from the University of Haiti School of Medicine, and served as a hospital staff physician until 1943. For this reason, he was called “Papa Doc.” In 1934 voicing his political viewpoints, he became a contributor to the daily newspaper “Action Nationale.” He was a part of a group of writers who were against the European culture in Haiti and encouraged black nationalism with mystical voodoo as the key part of the Haitian culture. During World War II, he worked to improve the poor sanitation conditions in the country and studied at the University of Michigan. He was appointed director general of the National Public Health Service in 1946. With thousands of the country's children chronically infected with the contagious disease called “Yaw,” he became active with the United States-sponsored anti-yaws campaign. Yaw is related to living in poor sanitation conditions and eventually debilitates the children by invading their joints; the campaign failed. In 1948 he was the Under Minister of Labor and in 1949 became the Minister of Public Health and Labor, a post he held until May 10, 1950. At this point, the government was overthrown by Paul Magloire. From 1951 to 1954 he held a position with the American Sanitary Mission and began to form a resistance group against Magloire's government. By 1954 he went underground as he was the central figure in the opposition. By December of 1956, Magloire's controlling power had weaken, thus he resigned and for ten months the government was unstable. In September of 1957, he was elected President of Haiti. He quickly reduced the size of the national army, appointed a chief aide to organize his private secret police called “Tontons Macoutes” or “Bogeymen,” which terrorized and assassinated anyone who opposed him. He had a heart attack in 1959 with his loyal chief aide appointed to act in his place, and upon the end of his recuperation, the chief aide was sent to prison and eventually became one of the nearly 30,000 of his political enemies killed during his reign. He manipulated the election in 1961 to have his term extended to 1967. This and other corrupt measures led the United States to terminate aide to Haiti. By April of 1964, he considered himself as the Divine Ruler of the country and appointed himself “President for Life.” He was excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church for harassing the clergy. He married a nurse and the couple had three daughters and a son. Upon his death, the office of President of Haiti was transferred to his son, Jean-Claude or “Baby Doc.” He was originally buried in Grand Cimetiere, but his crypt was later looted with the body possibly removed.