We remember FR. Stanislaus D'Souza, S.J.

Born 29 September 1934 – Died 08 September 2006

Internationally renowned ICDDR,B demographer, statistician and population researcher, Father Stanislaus  D’Souza, S.J., expired in Belgium  on the 8th of September 2006 at the age of 72.   He had worked with Johns Hopkins ICMRT and later at ICDDR,B after serving UNDP in Bangladesh.
 
According to his younger brother, Archbishop Henry D’Souza, Stan was a brilliant student from his early Calcutta years, always at the top of his class and did Mathematics Honours in College. In the early 1950s, Stan was one of the young college students going on Thursdays to help Mother Teresa with the poor. Mother Teresa inspired these young men, with several becoming Jesuits. Stan joined the Society of Jesus in 1953 after receiving news that he had graduated 3rd from the University of Calcutta.   He completed his PhD dissertation from Princeton University in 1971: “A statistical model for interlive birth intervals on non-contraceptive populations.”
 
Dr. D’Souza was the United Nations resident senior demographer in Bangladesh and consultant in many countries.  While working as an Associate Director at ICDDR,B from 1980 to 1984, Dr. D’Souza was involved in analyzing Matlab data with Michael Koenig, Jim Phillips, and Oma Campbell (Birth intervals and childhood mortality in Rural Bangladesh) as well as Abbas Bhuiya, Lincoln Chen and Susan Zimicki (Sex differences in childhood mortality in rural Bangladesh, Socioeconomic differentials in mortality, nutrition and morbidity in a rural area of Bangladesh, Mortality impact of an MCH-FP program in Matlab, Bangladesh.). His “Overall assessments of preventable infant and child deaths in developing countries” was published in World Health Statistics Quarterly 1989, v. 42, no. 1. In 1990 IUSSP published his work with Jacques Vallin and Alberto Palloni on 7 Measurements and Analysis of Mortality - New Approaches.
 
Two of his last publications clearly demonstrate his compassionate research: Poverty among widows of Kinshasa, Congo in Journal of Health Population Nutrition2000 Sept and The burden and determinants of reproductive tract infections in India: a population based study of women in Goa, India, Sex Transm Infect. 2006 June. At one time Dr. D’Souza was Director of the Indian Social Institute, New Delhi. He served on the faculty of Johns Hopkins University, was a long-term member of IUSSP and acted as the Coordinator for the Jesuit organization International Population Concerns based in Brussels, Belgium. His last book was the 2004 Ethical Approach to Population, Poverty and Conflict With Special Reference to Islam, a compilation on the topic.
 
 
Archbishop Henry D’Souza eulogized his brother at a Requiem Mass held in St. Thomas Church, Kolkata on 15 September by saying: Stan lived in a world of his own, which most of us never experience. It was a world of ideas, ideologies and policies. His mathematical expertise had qualified him to enter into the field of demography. The UN picked him up and was deeply impressed by his research qualities and total integrity. It appreciated deeply his acceptance of hard living conditions and his readiness to tour in far-flung and even dangerous terrain. The UN posted him to frontier countries, difficult of access as Afghanistan, or in areas where reliable data were not easy to get.
 
His posting to Bangladesh gave him the opportunity to begin a Jesuit presence in that country. He was also mandated by the UN to Africa: Benin and Congo Kinshasa in the Programme for Development, and to West Sahara as Commissioner for the Referendum.    Stan retired from UN service after 15 years. He however remained a true Jesuit all through his long UN career. He would always stay in Jesuit communities, if they existed in the areas of his work. Otherwise he would rent very modest lodgings, in spite of the rather high UN position he was holding in the country. He lived a life of practical poverty, choosing to walk rather than to ride; preferring to go by a lower class rather than accept the comfort of an upper one.
 
Stan did not want his illness to be talked about. He came to know of the cancer about a year ago. He gave the impression that it was under control… He came to Calcutta for a check-up in 2005 but returned to Belgium for the next year of his life. He lived with great asceticism and commitment. He died as he wanted to- without giving trouble to any one.
                                                                                                                                               
Sentu B. Gomes, Office Manager, HDSU, Public Health Sciences Division, ICDDR,B:
I came to know Stan D’Souza first in 1974 when he was seconded from Baltimore JHU to take over a position with the Johns Hopkins – Centre for Medical Research & Training, Dhaka. He was assigned to the Bangladesh Fertility Research Project for a year and half. Starting from 1st January 1976, we both moved to UNDP, Dhaka. Stan D’Souza was responsible for writing the report of the 1974 Bangladesh National Population Census. We remained there for 18 months. Since September 1980, I had the opportunity again to work with him at ICDDR,B.
 
I saw him very closely. While Mr. Abed, Chairman, BRAC, was his best friend in Bangladesh, Prof. John C. Caldwell and Prof. Lincoln C. Chen were among his best friends in his professional circle. Stan D’Souza used to visit Mr. Abed at BRAC’s office in Circular Road almost twice a day, 5 days a week, on our way and return back from the office, which was located at Sidheswari.
 
He was a man of principle and great human being. His life-style was very simple and he used to wear deep-blue shirts and pants all through his life. He used to spend all of his earnings for the welfare of human beings. Although he was a priest of the Society of Jesus congregation, he never revealed that in his professional practice, rather by showing his [personal] consciousness towards the people’s well being. His contributions to ICDDR,B, particularly in Matlab DSS, is still remembered with great respect. He made the Matlab DSS into a real longitudinal surveillance system, which is regarded as a Jewel of ICDDR,B. He was my boss, mentor and a colleague. I will always remember his fatherly affection that he extended to me during my long association with him.
 
Professor Patrick Vaughan of London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine wrote
Thank you for forwarding this sad news…he was instrumental in my first ever visit to Bangladesh and ICDDR,B in 1979, when together we planned a two week short course on programme evaluation to be given at ICDDR,B later in that year. It was great fun and a stimulating experience. At the end of this first visit he introduced me to you, Mushtaque, and suggested that you were looking for a chance to follow your own PhD in evaluation – the start of a wonderful friendship, your links to the London School and my links with BRAC! He also visited us at our home in London but was quite shy and kept his religious life quietly to himself. A wonderful demographer and a most humane and sympathetic Jesuit. We will all miss him. May he rest in peace.
 
From Harvard University, Lincoln Chen’s memories of Stan D’Souza included: Stan and I were friends and colleagues, as I was responsible for recruiting him to join and then head the demography work at ICDDR,B in the late 1970s. In the several years we worked together, I found Stan to be an outstanding statistician/demographer, always extremely careful about the scientific basis of his work. We were as a consequence able to co-author several papers together, especially those related to gender balance in mortality and morbidity in Matlab.
 
Stan had great intelligence, profound humility, and an hilarious sense of humor. He never advertised his Jesuit background but rather pursued his personal faith quietly. His tolerance of others was extremely generous. Even after Bangladesh, when Stan was in the Congo, Belgium, and other locations, he and I would reconnect whenever feasible to re-live the grand times of travelling and working in Matlab together. I am not surprised that Stan carried the burden of his illness quietly; he never made demands of others. He was a remarkable human being who led a remarkable life.
 
Abbas Bhuiya, Senior Social Scientist, ICDDR,B, Dhaka, Bangladesh
I first met Stan in 1979 in response to his search for a research assistant while he was in his beginning year at ICDDR,B. I worked as a part-timer during 1979 and then joined ICDDR,B in 1980 to work with im as a full timer. I worked very closely with him. I visited him in Brussels with my wife and our younger son during the first half of 2006. He spent a couple of hours with us, fully alert and was very interested to know about ICDDR,B and individuals he know from his tie in Bangladesh. I requested him to visit Dhaka on his ensuing trip to Kolkata. He did mention that he would love to but his health was not that exceptional. He was a man with very strong feeling for the cause of the poor and vulnerable. Most of his work was around poverty and disparities in health. He was a very meticulous professional; always for excellence. He possessed and extraordinary mentoring quality and was always helpful in finding avenues for higher training for junior colleagues. He left an enormous impact on the lives of many of us who had the opportunity to be around him. I pray for his eternal rest.