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- San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
November 10, 1988
Philadelphia
Dr. Timothy Talbot Jr., 72, nationally recognized medical researcher and a founder of the Fox Chase Cancer Center, died of cancer on Monday. Talbot was vice chairman of the Fox Chase board of directors from 1980 to 1983. He had since retained an office at the center and remained involved in its growth and development until his death.
Talbot joined Fox Chase in 1957 as director of the Institute for Cancer Research, which in 1974 joined with the American Oncologic Hospital to form the cancer center. He was the center's first president, serving until 1980. Fox Chase officials credit Talbot with helping lay the foundation for the continuing National Cancer Program, which made cancer research a priority beginning in 1971. In addition to being center president, Talbot remained the institute's director until 1977. He was among the scientists who worked with Congress to promote passage of the National Cancer Act of 1971. He remained an active advocate of federal support for cancer research and treatment and frequently testified before Congress.
Born in Berkeley on July 14, 1916, Talbot moved with his family to Philadelphia at the age of 11. He was educated at the University of Pennsylvania.
United Press International
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Unknown newspaper
Cancer specialist Timothy R. Talbot Jr., 72, died of cancer Monday at the Fox Chase Cancer Center, one of the country's premier cancer research and care facilities, which he had created 14 years ago. He was a resident of Haverford. As director of the Institute for Cancer Research in Fox Chase, a post he assumed in 1957, Dr. Talbot paved the way for the institute's merger in 1968 with the American Oncologic Hospital. In 1974, the facility became the Fox Chase Cancer Center. Dr. Talbot was its president until 1980. The quiet, lanky Dr. Talbot was a leader in promoting cancer research for more than 30 years. Beginning in the 1950s, he drummed up government support for cancer studies and worked to build a coalition among cancer facilities. He was a founder of the Association of American Cancer Institutes in 1958, and twice served as its president. Dr. Talbot pressed for the creation of "cancer centers" - adjoining hospital and research facilities devoted to cancer study and treatment. "He was probably one of a handful of people who in the late 1950s and early 1960s had a vision of what cancer research could be and where it could go in this nation, and helped develop an infrastructure to make it happen," said Francis J. McKay, executive vice president at Fox Chase. At the same time, he worked on his own institution. First as director of the institute and later as president of the center, Dr. Talbot emphasized that to make progress in cancer research, progress must also be made in understanding basic biological sciences. He created a science advisory committee. He recruited numerous talented scientists, including five members of the National Academy of Sciences and Baruch S. Blumberg, who won the Nobel Prize in 1976 for his work with the hepatitis B virus. During Dr. Talbot's tenure, the tiny facility with 100 employees grew to a spacious cancer center where more than 900 worked. Laboratory space more than quadrupled. It now treats 30,000 outpatients a year and admits 3,200 more. All along, he was a firm believer in the concept of a combined research- hospital center. "Cancer researchers all have an interest in life and the human condition," Dr. Talbot said in a 1982 interview. "If they see people suffering from cancer, they can't help but wonder about broader issues than they face in their laboratories. In the same way, when clinicians are near superb scientists, their yearning for greater knowledge increases."
Born in Berkeley, Calif., Dr. Talbot moved with his family to Philadelphia when he was 11. He earned his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1941 and then entered the Naval Reserve, conducting research on medical problems related to chemical warfare. Dr. Talbot completed his medical residency at Boston's Evans Memorial Hospital. Pursuing studies of leukemia and other diseases of the blood, Dr. Talbot joined the staffs of Cornell University and what is now the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He returned to Philadelphia in 1951 and joined the medical faculty at Penn. In 1956, working under a fellowship from the National Cancer Institute, Dr. Talbot studied cancer chemotherapy at the Chester Beatty Research Institute in London. Afterward, he took over at what would become Fox Chase. Over the years, Dr. Talbot was among the scientific leaders who worked with Congress to promote passage of the National Cancer Act of 1971, and he testified frequently to advocate federal funding of research and treatment. From 1972 to 1976, he served on the U.S. National Committee for the International Union Against Cancer. As a member of the Governor's Task Force on Cancer Control from 1974 to this year, he also had a major role in developing the Pennsylvania Cancer Plan. He was honored for his work. In 1977, the cancer center's scientific library was named the Talbot Research Library. Dr. Talbot was later presented with the center's Stanley P. Reimann Award, named for the institute founder whom Talbot had succeeded as director. Dr. Talbot remained on the center's board of directors, serving as vice chairman, until 1983, when he was named president emeritus. In hours away from his work, Dr. Talbot was known for his physical vigor. He enjoyed his vacations at the family's summer home in Maine and his annual walking tours of various parts of Britain. Throughout his life, Dr. Talbot liked to quote Robert Browning in saying that "a man's reach should exceed his grasp." Dr. Talbot's always did, his colleagues said. "Tim was truly, in his own way, a great man, and it's hard to measure the impact that someone like that has," said Fox Chase's McKay. "He influenced an enormous number of people over the years who went on to be very important contributors to the national cancer effort . . . and allowed us to dream dreams about cancer that we couldn't before." Dr. Talbot became a fellow of the American College of Physicians in 1958 and a fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences in 1960.
Surviving are his wife, Mary; three sons, Timothy R. 3d, William R. and David C.; two daughters, Mary T. Havens and Lucy T. Myers, and seven grandchildren.
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1916 - 1988 (72 years)
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