This article is adapted from “Cancer Crossings: A Brother, His Doctors and the Quest to Cure Childhood Leukemia,” Wendel's forthcoming book. The book is available for pre-order here.
Jon M. Huntsman Sr. dared to eradicate cancer from the face of the earth. People thought he was crazy, but for someone who started out delivering fresh eggs as a boy to support his family, went on to invent and then manufacture the polystyrene egg carton, and built from scratch a $12 billion global chemical company with more than 12,000 employees, there was no holding him back. Jon was a dreamer, a risk-taker, a true visionary, and a man whose compassion for others knew no limits. He didn’t sleep. His life was dedicated to making the world a better place: a world without homelessness, a world without hunger, a world without cancer.
Marsha Fountain, retired president of The Oncology Group, died Jan. 7 after a long struggle with metastatic breast cancer. She was 65.
Robert W. Day, former president and director of Fred Hutch.Photo courtesy of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research CenterRobert W. Day, the longestserving president and director of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, died at his home Jan. 6 of non-small cell squamous carcinoma. He was 87.
Gerald E. Hanks was a giant in the world of radiation oncology and oncology in general. It isn't often that we can say this and probably understate a person's significance and influence, but Jerry was one of those people. He died on Dec. 20, 2017, at the age of 83.
Jimmie C. Holland, internationally recognized as the founder of the field of psycho-oncology, died suddenly on Dec. 24, 2017, at the age of 89.
Donald S. Coffey, Ph.D., cancer warrior, humanist, mentor to hundreds of researchers and physicians, friend to countless people, was filled with a burning curiosity to understand the world and to know personally everyone he came in contact with.
Dr. Oliver "Ollie" Press, photographed on Jan. 19, 2017 at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington.Oliver “Ollie” Press, a blood cancer physician who made foundational contributions to the development of targeted cancer therapies, died Sept. 29 of complications from glioma. He was 65.
Source: University of Maryland Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center Angela Hartley Brodie, professor emeritus in the Department of Pharmacology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and a scientist whose groundbreaking research is considered among the greatest advances in treating breast cancer, died of complications from Parkinson's disease at her home in Fulton, MD. She was 82.
H. Jean Khoury, an expert in hematologic malignancies at Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, died May 22, after a year spent battling cancer. He was 50.
