Dr. Jean Mayer, the Chancellor and former president of Tufts University whose work as a nutritionist helped clarify the nature of hunger and obesity and expanded the Federal food stamp and school lunch programs, died yesterday in Sarasota, Fla., where he was vacationing. He was 72 and lived in Boston.
Dr. Mayer, who was elevated to Chancellor on Sept. 1 after 16 years as the university's president, died of a heart attack, said Gail Bambrick, associate director of communications for Tufts, in Medford, Mass.
In a multifaceted career that spanned a half-century, the French-born Dr. Mayer earned the highest academic honors, was a hero of the Free French forces in World War II, became one of the world's leading nutritionists and directed pioneering research into problems of poverty, malnutrition, aging and obesity.
He also served as an adviser to three Presidents, helped develop national policies to combat hunger and improve nutrition among poor and elderly people, wrote 750 scientific papers and 10 books, taught for 25 years at Harvard and transformed Tufts from a small liberal arts college into a research university of international reputation. Blend of New and Old Worlds
A small, bespectacled man who became an American citizen after the war but never lost his French accent or Gallic jauntiness, Dr. Mayer (pronounced my-YAIR), was a perfect blend of European intellectual and American pragmatist: a charming, talkative, often stubborn educator who pushed the frontiers of knowledge in the laboratory and fought hunger and malnutrition wherever they flourished.
His personal philosophy -- that scholarship, research and teaching must be dedicated to solving pressing world problems -- helped to establish Tufts as a leader in interdisciplinary approaches to sustaining the environment, fostering good nutrition and preventing famine.
"The goal of ending hunger requires involvement, and Jean Mayer is an example of the rare breed of individual who has never hesitated to get involved when he saw a need," President Bush said in presenting the Presidential End Hunger Award to Dr. Mayer in 1989. Last year, he received another Presidential award from Mr. Bush for his environmental and conservation work.
Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, praised Dr. Mayer yesterday, saying: "Jean Mayer made hunger unacceptable in America, and today millions of healthy children have him to thank. All of us must continue his work until hunger is completely eliminated in this country." Advised Presidents
As an adviser to President Richard M. Nixon, Dr. Mayer organized the 1969 White House Conference on Food, Nutrition and Health, which assembled medical and nutritional experts, food producers, government officials and others and led to the introduction of food stamps for the poor in 307 counties and an expansion of the school lunch program for needy children.
Dr. Mayer had hoped for far more from the conference. His recommendations included a nationwide extension of food-assistance programs for the poor, a minimum annual income of $5,500 for a family of four, a national system for health and disability insurance, increased nutrition education, a 50 percent increase in Social Security benefits and mandatory enrichment of basic foods.
Also in 1969, Dr. Mayer led a mission to Biafra, in Nigeria, during the fighting at the time. He and his colleagues assessed starvation and other problems amid daily bombings that forced them to take cover in trenches, bunkers and ditches. His report to the President led to increase shipments of food, drugs and other relief supplies. Many Relief Missions
He also took part in relief missions to India, Ghana, the Ivory Coast and other impoverished nations, and in 1966 was among the country's first scientists to speak out against the use of herbicides to kill crops and foliage cover used by the enemy in the Vietnam war.
Many of his social ideas stemmed from his own pioneering research, notably his studies on obesity and the regulation of hunger. As a researcher at Harvard in the 1950's, he was credited with having discovered how hunger is regulated by the amount of glucose in the blood.
Focusing on obesity, which he called a "disease of civilization," he discovered how levels of phosphorus in the blood, the production of insulin and the function of the hypothalamus -- the brain's center for hunger and satiation -- contribute to excess weight.
He was early to note that obesity, combined with smoking, high-cholesterol foods, high blood pressure and lack of exercise, was a main cause of coronary heart disease among middle-aged American men and he advocated exercise to control weight and maintain health. Accomplishments at Tufts
After more than 25 years of teaching and research at Harvard, Dr. Mayer was named president of Tufts in 1976. In his 16-year tenure, he was credited with giving the university a new sense of identity, bringing it out from under the shadow of neighboring Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.