The Leslie Corsa, Jr. collection consists of six linear feet of papers covering the years 1937 to 1986. In addition to some biographical material, mainly articles about Corsa and personal notes that he entitled "The Course of My Life" in which he discusses his education and training in the period 1940-1947, the bulk of the collection consists of professional correspondence, personal diaries, and subject files relating almost entirely to his career and professional interest in population planning. These subject files largely reflect Corsa's organizational activities: Center for Population Planning (of the U-M's School of Public Health); Department of Population Planning; and School of Public Health. There is also a China series consisting of correspondence and other materials gathered by Corsa in his study of population planning in China. Much of this research was done jointly with Dr. Pi Chao Chen of Wayne State University. The collection concludes with a series of topical files, some of which concern his association with the American Public Health Association and the Office of Technology Assessment in 1979-1980.
Leslie Corsa, Jr. was born in Brooklyn, New York, October 10, 1920. He earned a degree in chemical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1941 and received his MD from Harvard Medical School in 1946. His internship was in Oakland, California where he met and married Patricia Phillips in 1948. In 1952, Corsa received his M.P.H. in preventative medicine and public health from Harvard's School of Public Health.
Returning to California, Corsa served as chief of the Bureau of Maternal and Child Health in the state's department of public health. here, Corsa was involved in epidemiological research relating to human reproduction and childhood accidents. During 1959-1960, Corsa also served as chairman of the Maternal and Child Health section of the American Public Health Association. In this capacity he introduced family planning to the government in Karachi, Pakistan.
In 1965, Corsa was asked by the University of Michigan to direct its newly established Center for Population Planning in the School of Public health. The success of this center under his leadership resulted in the formation in 1970 of a department of population planning. Corsa served as its first and only chairman.
In 1972, Corsa took a leave of absence to serve as consultant in population planning to the World Health Organization in Geneva. In 1977 he resigned as chairman of the Department of Population Planning to begin a study of birth planning in China. His book, written with Deborah Oakley, Population Planning was published in 1979. Then, for eighteen months he was a consultant to the US Congress in the Office of Technology Assessment. In 1981 he returned to rural China to do field research in birth planning.
Upon his retirement in December 1983, the University of Michigan School of Public Health named Leslie Corsa professor emeritus of population planning. He died of cancer March 2, 1984.
