Archer Tongue
1919 - 2006

Archer Tongue was Executive Director of the International Council on Alcohol and Addictions (ICAA) from 1952 until 1990, when he was succeeded by his wife, Eva.

Archer Tongue was, first and foremost, a family man. There was his immediate family: his wife and his six daughters, but there was also another, much larger family, consisting of scientists, scholars, researchers, clinicians, therapists, government officials, international civil servants and volunteers from around the world. These were the many people who actively participated in ICAA congresses and institutes, and who were drawn into a process of endless debate on the nature of the relationship between alcohol and society. Archer Tongue brought these two families together. For those fortunate enough to have been invited to the villa in Lausanne that was both his house and his office, dinner could consist of simultaneous conversations in several languages - with a biochemist from Chile about the importance of genetics, with a Swedish sociologist about the history of the Scandinavian temperance movement, and with his daughters about their homework assignments. Surrounded by one of the world's most extensive libraries on alcohol and grateful for the hospitality that always seem to extend to a room for the night, it was difficult not to look upon Archer, at the head of the table, as the benign father of all civilized discourse. Equally, at an ICAA conference, Archer could be found surrounded by people in a corner of the lobby. Same of their problems might have to do with the logistics of the meeting, but most were about significant issues of alcohol science and policy, where different constituencies had firmly held, but apparently irreconcilable views. Eva attended the conferences too, making it all happen, assisted by some of their daughters. Archer would listen, modestly offer suggestions, and turn to the next problem. Once again, as his two families mingled, he was in his element.

Archer Tongue was born in Birmingham, UK, in October 1919 and received his BA in history from the University of London. Although he initially went into business, he soon took a job as Secretary of the Friends Temperance Union. Indeed, his first experience of congress organization was preparing the World Congress of Friends in Oxford in 1952. He went straight from there to Paris, where the 24th International Congress on Alcoholism was taking place, and from there he went directly to take up his duties in Lausanne. He was to go on to organize international conferences on alcohol and alcoholism in countries around the world - more conferences than it would be possible to list.

ICAA was founded in Stockholm in 1907 and it is indeed a sad irony that his death should have occurred just one year short of the centenary of the organization, which rose to such prominence under his leadership.

From his early contacts with E. M. Jellinek, who worked with WHO in the 1950s, Archer Tongue remained a source of wisdom and experience to whom international organizations would repeatedly turn for advice. His relationship with WHO was especially important, including numerous consultancies and Expert Committees, hut he also forged important links with ILO and with the UN drug control bodies in Vienna.

There are few people working internationally on alcohol issues who do not have cause to remember Archer Tongue with admiration and with gratitude. The conferences organized by ICAA under his guidance were for years the most vibrant intellectual meeting places available to alcohol researchers and practitioners. They were not, it is fair to say, consistently of the highest scientific quality. But it was one of Archer's most firmly held beliefs that his conferences should be inclusive, that all those who had something interesting to say should have an opportunity to say it, whether or not the methodology was impeccable and whether or not it was politically expedient. In true Quaker spirit, Archer was deeply opposed to any kind of fundamentalism.

His ICAA, like any good family, was a place where you could speak your mind without fear that you would be rejected. This is not to say that he lacked intellectual rigour. Far from it. A conversation with Archer Tongue was always something from which you would come away impressed by his erudition and breadth of experience. It was simply that he was reluctant to judge - either people or ideas. Like any good diplomat, he would offer suggestions and encourage the discussion in what he thought was the most productive direction, but he never took the view that anybody should be excluded from the discourse. If the point of it all was to help develop international alcohol policy, supported by the broadest range of evidence and experience, Archer certainly saw that process as a collective responsibility.

Finally, it is Archer Tongue's overwhelming tolerance that persists. In a field that certainly has its share of conflicts, his was always a voice of reason and a voice of compassion. Archer took profound satisfaction in the divergent views of his many, many family members, around his hearth and around the world.

Marcus Grant