Dr. S. Allen Counter
Ph.D., D.M.Sc.
Dr. Counter is a native of West Palm Beach, Florida. Following academic training at Tennessee University, Case Western Reserve University, and post-doctoral studies in Neurobiology at Harvard, he joined the Harvard faculty of Biology (neurobiology). After several years of teaching undergraduate biology (pre-med) courses, graduate, and medical students, and creating a new neurobiology course at Harvard (Biology 128-Advanced Neurobiology), Dr. Counter was promoted to Associate Professor of Biology, and in 1981 was appointed to the professorial staff of the Harvard Medical School. (Neurology Department). He presently teaches Neurotoxicology. He earned the Doctor of Medical Science (D.M.Sc.) degree from the Karolinska Nobel Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. In 1989, he was the recipient of the distinguished NAACP Image Award, and in 1994 the National Medical Association Hall of Fame Award. In 2003, Dr. Counter was appointed Visiting Professor of Neuroscience at the Karolinska Nobel Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.
Dr. Counter is the founding Director of the Harvard Foundation, an agency established by the President and Deans of Harvard University in 1981 to improve intercultural understanding, equality, civility and peace among students, faculty, and the entire University community. The Harvard Foundation sponsors and conducts over 200 student and faculty programs each year that serve to inform the Harvard community on matters of culture, ethnicity, religious differences and international concerns; and presents humanitarian, science and arts awards annually. The Foundation has been hailed as a model agency for intercultural harmony among communities and cultures.
Dr. Counter has published extensively in both cultural and scientific journals, including National Geographic and Scientific American. He has appeared on local and national television in numerous programs ranging from children's science shows ("3-2-1 Contact" and "Spaces") to talk shows. He is especially interested in increasing the scientific literacy of young people. To this end, he has presented talks and videos on science education to elementary, junior high, and high school students throughout the nation. He has also lectured on topics in science, medical anthropology, ethics, and environmental health to scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, to Fulbright Scholars, and internationally in, The People's Republic of China, Sweden, Suriname, Togo, and Ecuador. In addition to his scientific interests, he continues to work in the area of ethics in science and technology, nature conservation, and human rights at the international level. He is presently co-host of EcoForum, a nationally televised program on earth conservation.
Scientific Explorer
Dr. Counter is a professional explorer, and a member of the Explorers Club of New York. While pursuing a second academic interest in African-American ethnography, Dr. Counter initiated scientific research and cultural studies among the indigenous people of the Suriname (formerly Dutch Guiana) South American rain forest. His explorations led to over a decade of major articles on the little known rain forest descendents of 17th and 18th century African slaves, in a variety of international periodicals including Newsweek, Time, New York Times, Boston Globe, Smithsonian, Dagens Nyheter (Sweden), Expressen (Sweden), as well as scientific journals.
In addition, he produced an award-winning documentary on the culture of the Rain Forest African-American people entitled, I Shall Moulder Before I Shall Be Taken, which has been shown on television and screen throughout the world (including the ancestral villages in Africa). His research work with the Rain Forest African-Americans, and his films on their tribal customs and heritage have been the subject of a 90 minute PBS special entitled, I Sought My Brother, an ABC Television show called Rebel Slaves and a later PBS special called Vanishing Tribe. In 1981 Dr. Counter co-authored a book (with David L. Evans) on his experiences with the South American Rain Forest people called I Sought My Brother, published by MIT Press.
In 1993, Dr. Counter initiated research studies in the Ecuadorian interior where he discovered a unique group of African-descended people living high in the Andes mountain range, in the little known village of Chota. Dr. Counter produced a documentary film on these descendants of 18th century slaves entitled, Lost Africans of the Andes. From 1993 to 2000, he has led medical teams into the Ecuadorian Andes mountains to study the health problems of the indigenous children and to provide medical services. He is presently working to reduce the severe lead and mercury poisoning found among the children in the ceramics glazing and gold mining areas of Ecuador.
The North Pole Legacy: Black, White and Eskimo
In 1986, Dr. Counter traveled to the northernmost settlements in Greenland on a scientific mission and discovered the eighty year-old Amer-Eskimo sons of North Pole discoverers Rear Admiral Robert E. Peary and Matthew A. Henson (fathered with Polar Eskimo women during the 1906 expedition). After bringing the existence of these men to international attention, Dr. Counter enabled them to fulfill their life-long dream of visiting the birth and resting places of their respective fathers and meeting their American relatives.
Dr. Counter brought Anaukaq Henson and Kali Peary, and twelve members of their families to the United States for their first visit on May 29, 1987. During their two week visit, dubbed the "North Pole Family Reunion," each son laid a wreath at his father's grave site and met his American relatives for the first time. They received numerous tributes, including a personal message from the President of the United States, a proclamation from the Mayor of Washington, D.C., declaring June 3, 1987 Matthew Henson Day, a Service of Welcome at Harvard's Memorial Church and New York City's Abyssinian Baptist Church, and an honorary banquet hosted by the President of Harvard University.
Robert E. Peary was buried with full honors in an impressive monument at Arlington National Cemetery in 1920. In contrast, Matthew A. Henson, master Arctic explorer and most admired by the Eskimos, was buried in 1955 in a simple grave at Woodlawn Cemetery in Bronx, NYC. In 1986, Dr. Counter petitioned the President of the United States for permission to transfer the remains of Matthew A. Henson from Woodlawn Cemetery to their rightful place among other American heroes in Arlington National Cemetery.
In October of 1987, the President of the United States granted Dr. Counter's request. Dr. Counter organized, planned, and coordinated the reinterment. On April 6, 1988, the 79th Anniversary of the North Pole discovery, Matthew Henson and his wife Lucy Ross Henson were reinterred by Presidential order with full military honors and a fitting new monument next to Robert and Josephine Peary in Arlington National Cemetery. Dr. Counter is the author and producer of a book and films on his work with the Henson-Peary descendants entitled, North Pole Legacy: Black, White and Eskimo (Invisible Cities Press, 2001).
For many years, Dr. Counter sought proper recognition from the United States Navy for Matthew Henson's contributions to Arctic and oceanographic exploration. In October 1996, the United States Navy commissioned the U.S.N.S. Henson, a T-AGS 63 class oceanographic explorer ship, in honor of Matthew Henson. Dr. Counter was invited by the United States Navy to participate in the launching ceremony. He escorted Matthew Henson's great-niece, Mrs. Audrey Mebane to the ceremony, where she christened the ship. Dr. Counter was invited by Admirals of the U.S. Navy to sail on the U.S.N.S. Henson during its maiden voyage, in November 1998.
On November 28, 2000, the National Geographic Society awarded the Hubbard Medal, to Matthew A. Henson, posthumously. Dr. Allen S. Counter, who had petitioned the National Geographic Society for many years to present its most prestigious medal to Henson, escorted Mrs. Audrey Mebane, Henson's 74 year-old great-niece to the ceremony to receive the award. The medal was presented at the newly named Matthew A. Henson Earth Conservation Center (MAHECC) in Washington, D.C., and accompanied a scholarship given in Henson's name by NGS. Attending the ceremony were John Fahey, president of NGS, Gilbert Grovesnor, Chairman of NGS, Robert Nixon, director of the MAHECC, Ethel Kennedy, board member of the MAHECC, and mayor Anthony Williams of Washington, D.C.
In September 2004,
Dr. Counter was appointed Consul General of Sweden in Boston and New England
by a decree from King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and by Jan Eliasson, Ambassador
of Sweden to the United States. Dr. Counter represents Sweden in Massachusetts,
Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont. A world-renowned explorer
of the Amazon and the Arctic, Dr. Counter is an elected member of the
prestigious Explorers Club of New York