Former health director Adewale Troutman, father of Louisville's smoking ban, dies at 76

A nationally-recognized public health pioneer whose efforts led to widespread changes in Louisville and the end of smoking in public places has died, according to family members.

He was 76.

Adewale Troutman, who served as the director of Louisville Metro’s Department of Public Health and Wellness from 2004-2010, died Thursday in Tampa, Florida, from complications from Parkinson's disease.

Troutman is well-known for pushing for the implementation of Louisville's smoking ban in public buildings ― a move that major opposition in a state with a rich tobacco heritage and some of the nation's highest smoking rates.

In his first public appearance as the new health department director, Troutman voiced his support of a ban in Louisville ― Lexington had just successfully implemented a ban the year before.

"A complete ban is what makes the most sense ― there's no doubt about it," Troutman said. The city's business owners who allow smoking on their property, he continued, are "damaging the health of their constituents as well as the health of their workers."

It took two years of campaigning, but the ban was implemented in 2005.

"It is a truly groundbreaking step for the largest city in a leading tobacco-growing state to recognize the serious health risks of secondhand smoke and take decisive action to protect public health," the director of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids wrote in a 2006 statement about the ban.

Troutman also led the creation of Louisville's Center for Health Equity, which aims to address the root causes of health disparities among minorities and impoverished people. At the time, it was the nation's first center of that type.

In 2010, he led the effort to provide $500,000 in grants to local restaurants to help them calculate the number of calories in their meals so they could print them on their menus, in an effort to provide diners with more information about what they were eating and the impact on their health.

He also served as a professor at the University of Louisville.

Mayor Greg Fischer said in a release Monday he was saddened to hear of Troutman's death.

"Throughout his distinguished career, Dr. Troutman was an internationally known champion of better health for all, committed to the value of using equity as a lens for every decision and every policy," Fischer said. "He once said he chose public health as a career field because he knew it would allow him the opportunity “to have the biggest impact on the greatest number of people. … (to) make a difference in thousands of lives every day, rather than one at a time.”

That was certainly true of his time in Louisville, where he helped launch our city’s Center for Health Equity, and used his skills, experience and expertise to improve the health of all, especially those who’ve historically been underserved. He will be missed. Our sincere condolences to his wife, Denise Vasquez Troutman ― a community leader in her own right ― and their children."

Troutman was born and reared in New York City's South Bronx. Before coming to Louisville in 2003, he led the Fulton County Department of Health and Wellness in Atlanta and was a senior scientist at the Morehouse University College of Medicine.

Troutman had a deep aristocratic voice befitting his name, "Adewale," which means "the crown has returned home." He was given the name on a 1969 trip to Nigeria and had his name legally changed when he returned home.

When they arrived in Louisville in 2003, Troutman and his wife, Denise Vazquez Troutman, immediately became immersed in the community. She was later named as CEO of the Center for Women and Families, the city's domestic violence shelter.

After leaving Louisville, Troutman became the director of the University of South Florida's College of Public Health and also served as a professor at the school.

"He is not replaceable. A lot of what he's done has been groundbreaking," Sandra Brooks, former vice president of a Norton Healthcare research department, said at the time of his departure. "Part of what he's been able to do is bring public health into the consciousness of the community. He is certainly a person who came at the right time for the city, and Louisville is much better off for his having been here."

Among his many other accomplishments, Troutman was appointed to the national Advisory Committee on Infant Mortality during former President Barack Obama's administration. He also served as a consultant to the World Health Organization in Thailand and Japan.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Adewale Troutman, former Louisville Public Health Department, dies