Steve Wilbur, 59; explored world and delivered hope

Steve Wilbur's travels to Africa included fishing in Lake Victoria. The Brockton native was a public health specialist.

WASHINGTON - Steve Wilbur's passport was, in his wife's words, "very, very fat and very interesting." Since 1971, when he graduated from college, hardly a year went by that he didn't travel overseas. He lived in other countries for half of his adult life and visited every continent except Antarctica.

"He had a life that other people can only dream of," said his sister, Meredith Teague of Marino Valley, Calif.

Mr. Wilbur fell one merit badge short of making Eagle Scout while growing up in Brockton, Mass., and could pitch a tent and make a fire anywhere. At Brown University, he studied international relations. "As soon as he graduated from college," his sister said, "he had his knapsack on and hitchhiked throughout Europe."

He joined the Peace Corps and then became a public health specialist, with an expertise in logistics that enabled him to create refugee camps in Sri Lanka and distribute HIV drugs in Uganda.

Until he died Feb. 23 from a heart attack at his Alexandria home at age 59, he played a key role in a program sponsored by the US Agency for International Development to prepare the world for a possible outbreak of avian influenza. He coordinated efforts to distribute laboratory equipment, hazmat suits, and other safety items to dozens of countries with large poultry populations.

"Steve was somebody who would set a vision for himself and pursue it relentlessly," said Edward B. Wilson, a colleague at John Snow Inc., a company specializing in international public health programs where Mr. Wilbur had worked since 1995. "He could step on a few toes, but everyone recognized it was for the greater good and not for his personal gain."

Although bird flu had the potential to lead to a worldwide pandemic, Mr. Wilbur managed to see a lighter side to his project. In his office, he displayed decorative chickens of all kinds, including a rubber one. He gave everyone working for him a miniature glass chicken.

Throughout his life, Mr. Wilbur blended altruism with a spirit of adventure. In the Marshall Islands in the South Pacific, where he served in the Peace Corps in the early 1970s, he stayed in a coconut leaf house and lived on bananas and freshly caught fish. He learned from the locals that the most efficient way to kill a fish was to bite down behind its head.

After several years in Washington, he moved to Sri Lanka in 1980 and worked in community development programs. After civil unrest rocked the island nation in 1983, Mr. Wilbur set up refugee camps that sheltered and fed 20,000 displaced residents.

When people began to lose their feet or legs from land mines and bombs, Mr. Wilbur established a branch of the Jaipur foot program, which provided low-cost, flexible artificial limbs - usually made of rubber - to more than 6,000 people.

Mr. Wilbur and his British-born wife, Claire, met in the Maldive Islands and were married in 1984. When they left Sri Lanka a year later, they spent nine months traveling wherever whim took them. Without an itinerary or knowing where they would sleep at night, they trekked through Nepal and Tibet, then went on to Thailand, Indonesia, New Zealand, and New Caledonia.

"Other people would talk about doing these things," Claire Wilbur said, "but Steve would make it happen."

In Tibet, they slept in stables. In Papua New Guinea - where headhunting has been known to occur - they walked into villages with backpacks and smiles and were offered places to stay.

"He could communicate with people very easily," she said.

They developed an interest in Asian textiles, which helped open doors and led to a business that the couple operated in Washington from 1985 to 1988.

"Then he came home one day," Claire Wilbur recalled, "and said, `How would you like to live in Indonesia?' "

Working for the Helen Keller Foundation, Mr. Wilbur distributed vitamin A to children to prevent a nutritional imbalance that leads to blindness or death. They spent six years in Indonesia, where they adopted their daughter, before settling in Alexandria in 1995. In 2001, they were off to Uganda, where Mr. Wilbur supervised a nationwide project to reduce the spread of AIDS. They returned to Alexandria two years ago to allow their daughter, Katherine, to complete high school.

"Steve felt very strongly about what he could do to help people," his wife said. "He thought each day could be an exploration of the world."

In addition to his sister, wife, and daughter, Mr. Wilbur leaves his father, Ernest, of Brockton; and another sister, Janet, of Blackstone, Va.