Join the Henry R. Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions on Tuesday, April 14 at 12pm in Kresge Auditorium, 231 Albert Sabin Way for a panel discussion regarding the Ahron Leichtman Papers.
Ahron Leichtman was a national and regional leader in the quest to ban public smoking in the United States. He graduated in 1964 from the University of Cincinnati with a Bachelor of Arts in political science, and earned a creative writing certificate from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1971.
“Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” will discuss the nonsmokers’ rights movement and the impact on public health. The panel, led by local historian and journalist Dan Hurley, will include journalists Peter Bronson and Fred Anderson, former mayor David Mann and UC physician Peter Lenz who will provide their insights and expertise on the nonsmoking movement in Cincinnati.
The Ahron Leichtman Papers, housed in the Winkler Center, document Leichtman’s efforts to ban public smoking and to promote nonsmokers’ rights. They demonstrate how he was especially outraged about the ways tobacco companies utilized racist and gender-based advertising methods to recruit and retain smokers, and their targeting of children and teenagers in advertising campaigns. His research provides extensive documentation of the anti-smoking campaigns in the state of California and the city of Cincinnati, Ohio. More can be learned about Ahron Leichtman in a previous LiBlog post.
Leichtman’s archives comprise 84 boxes segmented into eight groups of correspondence, research, work activities, cigarette and tobacco advertisements, literary scripts, family history and media of his anti-public smoking advocacy in the 20th-21st centuries (1943-2018). The collection is accessible to researchers at the Henry R. Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions in the University of Cincinnati Donald C. Harrison Health Sciences Library.
The Smoke Gets in Your Eyes Lunch & Learn is complimentary and open to all to attend, however advance registration is requested. A corresponding exhibit is on display in the Winkler Center’s Stanley J. Lucas, MD, Board Room.
Speakers’ bios
Peter Bronson is a newsman, editor, magazine writer, author and owner of Chilidog Press publishing. He has written 10 books, including Magical History Tour, Promised Land, The Man Who Saved Cincinnati, Not in Our Town and Forbidden Fruit. He was editorial page editor and columnist for The Cincinnati Enquirer for nearly 20 years. Before coming to Cincinnati in 1992, he was editorial page editor and columnist at The Tucson Citizen in Tucson, Ariz. He was a regular panelist/producer on the Channel 9 WCPO TV show Hotseat, and also on the panel for a weekly Tucson news show Arizona Illustrated.
Fred Anderson is a public relations consultant who represents musicians, actors, comedians and filmmakers. As a former broadcast journalist and producer, he worked with 55KRC, 1530 WCKY and WKRC-TV, and freelanced for America’s Most Wanted, Extra!, Inside Edition and more. He is also the coauthor of the book Coal Mine to Courtroom: A Quadriplegic’s Memoir of Relentless Faith, Courage and Eternal Success (Headline Books, Inc.) with attorney W. Ron Adams.
David Mann served on the Cincinnati City Council for 26 years – 1974-1992 and 2013-2021. He served for three years as Mayor of Cincinnati – 1980-1983 and 1991. He was elected in 1992 to the 103rd Congress as the representative from Ohio’s 1st Congressional District, which then included most of the city of Cincinnati. Mann’s earliest public service was in the United States Navy for four years as a destroyer officer. He attended Harvard College on a Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps (NROTC) scholarship. Currently, David practices law with his son, Michael, in the firm of Mann & Mann.
Peter H. Lenz, MD, MEd, FACP, FCCP, is a professor of medicine at the University of Cincinnati where he serves as the program director for the Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine (PCCM) Fellowship. Dr. Lenz’s career centers on training fellows in a supportive environment to transition them to the independent practice of pulmonary and critical care medicine. As program director he has created medical education initiatives including the formation of the clinician educator track for PCCM fellows at UC.
Dr. Lenz served four years from 2018-2021 on the Board of the Association of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Program Directors (APCCMPD) as vice president, president elect, president and immediate past president. He currently serves on the ATS Scholar journal editorial board as a reviewer of medical education manuscripts.
Dan Hurley founded Applied History Associates, a public history consulting firm, in 1985. Dan contracts with museums and corporations to produce research reports, books, exhibits and video documentaries. He is best known as the producer and on-air reporter for Local 12 News (CBS affiliate) for 36 years. He worked as a columnist for the Cincinnati Post and Cincy Magazine. He also served as the original project manager from 1994 to 1997 for what became the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. In 2025 Dan published three books: Four Cincinnatis and Other Essays, Queen City Club at 150 and Crossing Borders/ Expanding Boundaries: A White Soldier’s Experience of the WWII Segregated Army.
