The Pivotal Leadership of Doctors R. Lee Clark and Murray M. Copeland in Transforming the Commission on Cancer (1955–1965)

In September 1959, Dr. Clark was appointed as Chair and Dr. Murray M Copeland as Vice Chair of the Committee on Cancer. With their typical leadership style to improve the functions and value of organizations, they reorganized and revitalized the Committee on Cancer during the next 6 years. Thus, Drs. Clark and Copeland and the Committee members developed more uniform standards of cancer registries, implemented the American Joint Committee on Cancer Staging and End Results Reporting (with Dr. Copeland as Chair), published a revised Manual for Cancer Programs (which defined minimum standards requisite for approval of a cancer service), established a new regionalization program (with liaison surgeons from each state), and planned all the cancer educational programs for the College’s annual Clinical Congress and Sectional Meetings. Importantly, Clark and Copeland led a 10-year strategic plan (called the “Program of the Sixties”) to expand and revitalize the scale and scope of the Committee’s activities and to reorganize the Committee structure by including liaison members from other physician, oncologic, and hospital organizations. As Dr. Clark completed his 5-year tenure as Committee Chair in October 1964, he formally recommended a reorganization of the Committee on Cancer to assume an even greater role in the cancer community as the Commission on Cancer. As the new Committee Chair, Dr. Copeland shepherded this recommendation to the ACS Board of Regents, which was approved and implemented in July 1965. The Regents emphasized that the functions and activities of the Committee on Cancer had become so complex and far reaching (under Clark’s and Copeland's leadership) that its many subcommittees had already assumed duties of committee stature. Dr. Copeland thus became the first Chair of the Commission on Cancer until October 1965, when Dr. John Cline became Chair. For his contributions to the cancer field and to the College of Surgeons, Dr. Clark received their Distinguished Service Award in October 1969 “for his life-long devotion to the treatment of patients and to research in cancer, for notable service to this College, particularly as Chairman of the Cancer Commission from 1960 to 1964”.