The Cancer Crusades: The American Cancer Society’s 90 years of service in San Joaquin County

When we think of philanthropic organizations that have made a difference in the history of American public health, there are few as storied or as historically successful as the American Cancer Society, or ACS. Founded in 1913 in New York City as the American Society for the Control of Cancer, the ACS has been instrumental in dozens of significant public health victories in its lifetime, including sponsoring the development of the first chemotherapy treatment, developing cures for childhood leukemia, funding research that ultimately identified the link between cancer and smoking, and supporting the invention of the mammogram. The American Cancer Society is truly a triumph of partnership between community members and the public health establishment.
In San Joaquin County, the American Cancer Society has a long and storied history. The organization first came to Stockton on the lecture circuit, with Dr. T. W. Huntington, director of publicity for the ACS, publishing articles and later speaking to audiences in Stockton in 1921 about the organization and the scourge of cancer. By 1923, Dr. J.D. Dameron, of Dameron Hospital, had created a Cancer Committee of San Joaquin County that was in constant contact with the New York-based ACSS.

The story of cancer society activities in San Joaquin County begins with the organizing of women for a good cause. In 1936, the ACSS organized the Woman’s Field Army as a militant body of women who would carry out a national campaign to promote fundraising for cancer research. California organized a state chapter in December of that year, and by March 1937, Mrs. Marvin Herman was named the chairman of the San Joaquin County Women’s Army. Enlistment stations were developed in Stockton, Lodi, Tracy, Lockeford and Escalon. Representatives from several of the region’s prominent families fronted initial fundraising efforts, including the Wagner family of Wagner Leather Company, the Shaw family and the ownership group of Bank of America. The San Joaquin Women’s Field Army would ultimately raise over $1 million in San Joaquin County in 1937 and 1938 alone and was noted as a “county that punched above its weight.”

In 1945 the ACSS was reconstituted as the American Cancer Society, and soon after the society would initiate its Cancer Crusade campaigns, which would take place in April and serve as the ACS’s primary fundraiser for decades. Led by local luminaries such as Charles C. Wagner, Ort Lofthus, William Beckman, Ruth Graffigna and Joe Cecchini, the Crusades were wildly successful. By 1956, the local branch had hired a permanent staffer, Faye McKinsey, and was making grants to UC Berkeley, CalTech, UCLA and Stanford totaling $223,667 and averaging $210,000 per year. Many of these grants would fund the first chemotherapies developed in the 1950 to 1970 range, many of which were developed at California universities. To this day, the ACS is a major force for public health advancement in our community.

It’s worth taking a look at some of the amazing things our community has accomplished for the greater good of the world. ®