Royd R Sayers MD (1885-1965), c. 1940

Sayers was an American physician and industrial hygienist. In 1926, Sayers and William Parks Yant (1893–1963) of the U.S. Bureau of Mines found that humans could breathe helium-oxygen mixtures without discomfort, and both humans and animals could breathe this mixture without demonstrable ill effects. Sayers served in the U.S. Public Health Service from 1914 to 1948. In 1917, Sayers became the Chief Surgeon and Chief of the Health and Safety Branch of the U.S. Bureau of Mines, continuing until 1933 when he became the Chief of the Division of Industrial Hygiene at the National Institute of Health. In the 1930s, he designed the industrial hygiene program for the city of Baltimore, Maryland. From 1940 to 1947, Sayers served as the seventh Director of the U.S. Bureau of Mines. From around 1950 to 1960, he served as Senior Medical Supervisor of Occupational Diseases, Baltimore City Health Department. (Source: Ballard M Humanity's Helper-Dr. Royd R Sayers: Newly-Appointed Director of U.S. Bureau of Mines Has Fine Record. Indiana Alumni Magazine 1940;2(9):18-9. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.)