Richard A. Rettig, the author of an authoritative history of the writing of the National Cancer Act of 1971, died on Aug. 7.
We lost Jeff Weber, an amazing medical oncologist, an impactful clinical scientist, a leading immunotherapist, and one of the prominent global experts in melanoma.
Edward Sondik, an electrical engineer by training, followed a career path that led him to top public health positions.He was a director of the National Center for Health Statistics at CDC, an acting director of NCI, and a deputy director of the NCI Division of Cancer Prevention and Control.
Nathan Berger, professor of medicine, biochemistry, oncology, and genetics; the Hanna-Payne Professor of Experimental Medicine; the director of the Center for Science, Health, and Society; and a Distinguished University Professor at Case Western Reserve University, died on June 15. He was 83.
Pharmacologist V. Craig Jordan, a professor of Breast and Medical Oncology and Molecular and Cellular Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center who discovered selective estrogen receptor modulators and developed breakthrough breast cancer treatments, died June 9 at his home in Houston.
Richard M. Simon, NCI biostatistician who likely set a record for the number of first-authored papers, and whose interests included country music, horseback riding and ballroom dancing, died May 9, at age 80. Simon joined NCI in 1974.
A renowned surgeon and international authority on breast cancer, American College of Surgeons Past-President Edward (Ted) M. Copeland III, died on March 31 at the age of 86.
In September, Norm Coleman received great news: he qualified for the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in New Zealand.
Edith P. Mitchell, a medical oncologist, champion of health equity, and the first woman physician to attain the rank of U.S. Air Force brigadier general, died unexpectedly Jan. 21. She was 76.
Sidney Wolfe, a physician who co-founded the Health Research Group, and—as a pioneer of “research-based advocacy”—took pharmaceutical companies to task over bad drugs, often shaming federal regulators into changing policies for the benefit of patients, died Jan. 1 in Washington. He was 86.
