Walter Lawrence, Jr.

Walter Lawrence Jr. (May 31, 1925 – November 9, 2021) was an American surgical oncologist at Memorial-Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Cornell Medical College, and at the Medical College of Virginia. He was a leader in civil rights health equity efforts.

Early life and education Born on May 31, 1925, in Chicago, Illinois, Walter M. Lawrence Jr., was the son of Walter Lawrence, a primary care physician, and Violette (née Mathews) Lawrence. He attended Oak Park and River Forest High School and the University of Chicago, earning a Ph.B. in 1943, and an S.B. degree in 1945. He also attended Dartmouth College training and served in a non-combat role in the United States Navy during World War II from 1943 to 1946. He earned his M.D. at the University of Chicago, with his dissertation, Constrictive Pericarditis with Obstruction of Pulmonary Veins, in 1948. He had surgical training residencies at Johns Hopkins Hospital and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, then served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps in Korea as Chief of Surgery of a MASH hospital from 1952 to 1954. He served on the VCU School of Medicine Admissions Committee where his primary focus was also on medical school teaching. Later, the teaching portion of his career consisted entirely of medical student teaching at Hunter Holmes McGuire Veterans Administration Medical Center.

Selected publications According to Bear, "Lawrence's bibliography includes more than 260 papers on a wide variety of topics, as well as half a dozen books, and 35 book chapters." 1971 American Cancer Society professorship of clinical oncology 1988 University Award for Excellence from the Virginia Commonwealth University 1999 President's Medal of the American Cancer Society 1999 Cancer Fighter of the Year Award from the Beckstrand Cancer Foundation 2000 Presidential Medallion from the Virginia Commonwealth University 2002 Lifetime Achievement in Science Award of the Science Museum of Virginia 2020 Honorary member of the American Society for Radiation Oncology