Former soldier who rose to become leader of global polio eradication campaign
Aidan O’Leary, who has died at the age of 59, was an inspiring humanitarian who was latterly head of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) polio eradication programme.
Described as “outstanding” by WHO director general Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus, he is also remembered as an optimist and a natural leader who was, in the words of daughter Eimear, “incapable of being anything short of brilliant”.
One of his last assignments — before his sudden death on a family holiday in Portugal — involved preparing two rounds of polio vaccination campaigns in Gaza, aimed at reaching 600,000 children.
“He served tirelessly in the most difficult parts of the world to help the most vulnerable populations survive and thrive, and to end polio,” Dr Ghebreyesus said.
Mr O’Leary “embodied the ideal of service and solidarity across peoples and borders.” His passing was “a terrible loss for WHO, for the UN, and for all of humanity”.
He grew up in Beaumont, north Dublin, as the eldest of a family of four reared by Pauline and Bill O’Leary, a garda superintendent.
His primary education was in Scoil Mhuire, Marino, then he attended Ardscoil Rís secondary school nearby. He joined the Army, passing out as a member of the 60th cadet class in March 1985.
Mr O’Leary was assigned to the supply and transport corps, managing logistics in Cork and Dublin, then he registered to study law and economics at University College Galway, as it was then, from 1986.
He continued with economics at postgraduate level in University College Dublin and qualified in chartered accountancy.
Mr O’Leary was seconded to the Department of Finance as a policy analyst in 1991 and assigned the following year to Defence Forces headquarters, first in the planning and research section and later as an analyst in strategic planning.
Former Defence Forces chief of staff Mark Mellett, who worked with him then, remembers him as an “extraordinary gentleman”.
Mr O’Leary served overseas with the army in UN peacekeeping, completing several terms in Lebanon and was part of the EU’s monitoring mission during the war in former Yugoslavia.
He had taken up football with St Vincent’s GAA Club in Marino, where he was known as “big Aido”, and maintained his loyalty to the club, including serving as its secretary long after being part of the winning junior football championship team of 1997.
During his time in university in Galway, he excelled at rowing and it was there he met engineering student Karen Higgins. The couple married in 2002, settling in Salthill
after an initial few years living as a family overseas.
In 2000, Mr O’Leary was seconded to work with the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe in Bosnia-Herzegovina. In 2006 he was appointed deputy director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine refugees.
Working with former army colleague John Ging, then director of UNRWA, Mr O’Leary was responsible for educational programmes in 250 schools in Gaza.
Five years later, he was appointed head of the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Afghanistan, working also on humanitarian aid in Iraq, Yemen and Syria for the organisation.
He assumed responsibility for the polio eradication programme run by Unicef in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the final two polio-endemic countries in the world, in 2015. After a further period with the OHCA, he was appointed to lead the WHO’s polio eradication programme in January 2021.
Former colleagues described him as calm, unassuming, empathetic, but having a clear sense of purpose and a unique ability to solve problems, however challenging.
When in Galway, he loved to spend time with family, walking the Salthill promenade and being involved with Salthill-Knocknacarra GAA club. He was also an enthusiastic follower of soccer and rugby.
At his funeral, his daughter Eimear said he would be remembered for saving “hundreds of thousands of lives” and he was “one hell of a father”.
President Michael D Higgins said: “It is with the most remote and vulnerable people on the planet that Aidan worked, and it is among those people that he will be remembered the most and his legacy of work most cherished.”
Mr O’Leary is survived by wife Karen, children Eimear and Darragh, siblings Art, Mary-Liz and Eoin, and mother Pauline.