Final tribute is paid to Cooper classmate

Dr. Martin D. Abeloff, director of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore passed away. He was born and raised in Shenandoah and was a graduate of J.W. Cooper High School there.

"Marty," as we called him, was well-mannered, studious, very humble and a brilliant young man.

Despite not seeing him in many years, his achievements in the medical field were closely followed by those of us who are proud to say we knew him.

Marty was an avid Phillies fan. We knew him well as a classmate. He was liked by everyone and never whispered a harsh word about anything or anyone. Marty was truly the most humble person we had the pleasure of knowing.

We remember him as the tall, lanky center on our basketball team. He was very conscientious and truly a good sport.

Upon graduating from J.W. Cooper in 1959, he continued his education at Johns Hopkins University. He earned an A.B. degree in biology in 1963, prior to receiving his medical degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1966.

He received his internal medicine training at the University of Chicago and the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston and his sub-specialty training in oncology and hematology at the National Cancer Institute, Tufts New England Medical Center and the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center.

Marty joined the faculty of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1972. He served as director of the cancer center from 1992 to 2007. He held an American Cancer Society clinical professorship since 1991.

Throughout his career, Marty was deeply committed to translational research - the transfer of research findings from the laboratory to the clinic.

His personal research interests were in the study of treatment of breast cancer and lung cancer.

He was responsible for the development of the solid tumor clinical research programs in the oncology center in the early 1970s and played a leadership role in the development of broad-based research programs in solid tumors, hematologic malignancies and in cancer prevention and control.

During his 15 years at the cancer center he doubled the size of the faculty, raised research funding six-fold and the cancer complex grew to almost 1 million square feet of treatment and research space.

In addition to holding many leadership positions at Johna Hopkins, Marty played a significant leadership role on the national level.

He served as president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in 1991-92 and as chairman of the Oncology Drug Advisory Committee of the Food and Drug Administration. He was former chairman of the Board of Scientific Counselors to the NCI's Intramural Division of Clinical Sciences at the National Cancer Institute and a member of its executive committee.

Marty also held many editorial responsibilities, including serving as associate editor of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, editor of Current Opinion in oncology, and as one of four editors of a comprehensive textbook in oncology, Clinical Oncology.

We, the Class of 1959 of J.W. Cooper High School, want to pay our sincerest respects to Marty's wife, Diane, and his two daughters, Elisa and Jennifer.

We are truly honored to have known your husband and father. There is no doubt that he made a difference in this world.

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