GEBHARD, BRUNO ( ca. 1899-12 Jan. 1985), a leader in public health education in Germany and the U.S., was the first Director of the Cleveland Health Museum (see HEALTH MUSEUM). Gebhard was born in Rostock, Germany, and studied medicine there, where his father was a hospital administrator. He completed his studies in Berlin and Munich, receiving his medical degree in 1925. Although Gebhard's internships were in pathology and pediatrics, his real interest was in public health, and he served as curator of the German Hygiene Museum in Dresden from 1927 until he and his wife Gertrude Herrmann Gebhard fled Germany in 1937. Invited to the U.S. by the Carl Schurz Memorial Foundation to plan design health exihibits, Gebhard established health museums at hospitals in Philadelphia and Reading, Penna.. He also planned and designed the health exhibit at the 1939-40 New York World's Fair. At the same time, he developed future plans for the Cleveland Health Museum, coming to Cleveland in the summer of 1940 to prepare for the museum's Nov. 1940 opening. As director of the first permanent health museum in the country practiced his philosophy of educating museum visitors by direct participation in exhibits.
Gebhard was the author of numerous articles in professional journals concerning family life, education, and geriatrics as well as museum planning and management. After his retirement as director of the museum in 1965, he continued as a consultant, residing in SHAKER HEIGHTS until his wife died in 1975. He then moved to California where he died. Gebhard was survived by daughters Ursula Fink of Rye N.Y. and Suzanna Goodman of Roosevelt Island, New York.