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“David was a great champion of global health and health equity, and a wise, generous mentor to countless individuals,� Tedros wrote Saturday. “His work touched and impacted so many lives across the world.�

knighted Nabarro in 2023 for his after he served as to the WHO on COVID-19. He won the for his work on health and hunger issues.

He also was a candidate for the but lost out to Nabarro left the U.N. later that year.

In 2003, Nabarro survived a bombing at the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad that killed 22 people, including the High Commissioner for Human Rights at the time, and wounded dozens more.

Nabarro, then one of the WHO's senior directors, was in a meeting when “suddenly there was this extraordinary thud," he told reporters during an emotional news conference days later in Geneva, still carrying his blood-spattered notebook.

“We found some first aid kits, got bandages and turned people onto their sides. We were working like in a cloud, in this fog of moaning and crying,� he recalled.

The 4SD Foundation, a social enterprise in Switzerland where Nabarro served as strategic director, said he died Friday in a “sudden passing.�

“David’s generosity and unwavering commitment to improve the lives of others will be sorely missed,� it said.

Thuy Maryen, Nabarro's longtime friend and the foundation's former communications director, said he was 75 and died at his home in Ferney-Voltaire, France, a suburb of Geneva.

The foundation is focused on mentoring the next generation of leaders in global sustainable development.

Survivors include his wife, Flo, as well as his five children and seven grandchildren.