Guide to the R. Lee Clark Papers

Manuscript Collection No. 70 Part 5: Series IX-XIV

Biographical Note

Randolph Lee Clark was born July 2, 1906 to Randolph Lee Clark, Sr., teacher and president of several Texas colleges including Texas Christian University, and Leni Leoti Sypert, musician and teacher. As the son and grandson of college presidents, he lived with role models whose optimistic outlook and ideals nurtured his untiring ability to work toward the goal of containing and possibly curing cancer. After his father’s death, he preferred to be known as R. Lee Clark.

Dr. Clark’s early medical career as Chief Resident at the American Hospital in Paris and as a Fellow at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota laid the foundation for concepts that became the cornerstone of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. His military service enabled him to meet surgeons and physicians from throughout the United States and to exchange ideas and plans for postwar institutions. He was appointed Director of Surgical Research for the U.S. Army (Air) Medical Corps as well as Consultant to the Air Surgeon General. Clark’s successes were recognized by the Regents of the University of Texas and in 1946 he was asked to develop what would become the nation’s first cancer hospital within a university system.

In Houston, he started work with 22 employees in the house and stables cum carriage-house of a donated family estate. The stables housed research laboratories for biochemistry and biology. Dr. Clark located surplus Army barracks, had them moved to the estate grounds, and converted them to a clinic. During this time, employees, including some ex-military associates, were recruited to expand M.D. Anderson Hospital. A story then circulating told of one employee asking another if he had noticed how ‘vague’ Dr. Clark was when discussing salaries, benefits, laboratory space, and other necessities. The second employee replied, “Oh, no, ‘vague’ is much too precise a word.”

Lee Clark had vision, energy, and the ability to inspire the generosity of major businessmen in Houston and citizens throughout Texas. The M.D. Anderson Foundation was also a benefactor. At that time, the Texas Medical Center was expanding and M.D. Anderson Hospital became one of its cornerstones. Dr. Clark collaborated with city, state, and eventually national and international leaders in medicine whose intent was to consider the problem of “incurable” cancer patients and to find a solution.

Clark married Bertha Margaret Davis, MD, an anesthesiologist from Asheville, North Carolina, on June 11, 1932. They had two children, Randolph Lee and Rabia Lynn. Lee Clark died May 3, 1994.

For more information, please consult:

Cancer Bulletin 31, no.2 (1979) : special edition.

“Contemporaries: Randolph Lee Clark, M.D.” Modern Medicine Publications, 30 Oct. 1972, 35-37.

The First Twenty Years, of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute. Houston, TX: U.T. M.D. Anderson Hosptial and Tumor Institute, 1964.

LeMaistre, Charles A, MD. “R. Lee Clark in memoriam.” Cancer, 74, no. 4 (1994) : 1513-15.

Macon, N. Don. Clark and the Anderson: a personal profile. Houston, TX: Texas Medical Center, 1976.

“M.D. Anderson’s R. Lee Clark.” Mayo Alumnus, April 1969, 14-15.

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Scope and Contents

Lee Clark’s personal papers, Series I, contain financial documents, family correspondence from relatives throughout Texas, lists of purchases including various cars, information on houses and repairs, ideas for his ranch and considerations about other land purchases.

Lee Clark received his M.D. from the Medical School of Virginia. He served as Chief Resident at the American Hospital in Paris, France and was a Fellow at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Before coming to M.D. Anderson, Dr. Clark was Director of Surgical Research within the United States Air Force at Randolph Field, San Antonio, Texas. Drafts of Clark’s Surgical History of the Army Air Forces are located in Series II.

Dr. R. Lee Clark collected papers from many sources, envisioning the historical importance, not only of his personal papers, but of items related to University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, the Texas Medical Center, various University of Texas medical schools, and many national and international cancer organizations. A series of historical papers, in addition to folders labeled “Inactive”, “to 1956”, or “to 1959”, provide witness to the early growth of M.D. Anderson Hospital and Houston’s medical community. Dr. Clark also kept the minutes of many meetings of the University of Texas Board of Regents, as he was dependent on funding from the state to furnish resources necessary for M.D. Anderson Hospital. Newspaper clippings document Clark’s leadership at M.D. Anderson and the growth of cancer treatment and care, both within the state of Texas and throughout the world. He was Directing Medical Editor of the Medical Arts Publishing Foundation that published The Heart Bulletin, The Cancer Bulletin, The Psychiatric Bulletin, and Medical Record and Annals, as well as co-editor of The Book of Health and The Year Book of Cancer.

Dr. Clark held positions of authority in a number of national and international organizations. Correspondence and meeting minutes show that he was a dynamic force in the formation of several branches of the Union International Contre le Cancer, notably the Committee for International Collaborative Activities and the Association of American Cancer Institutes. UICC was a world-wide effort to more successfully track and treat the causes of cancer. The American Cancer Society also benefited from Clark’s vision and energy, as did the Cancer Committee of the American College of Surgeons. Meeting minutes from several committees document activities within those organizations. He served on the boards of directors of the Damon Runyon/Walter Winchell and Hogg Foundations. After retirement from M.D. Anderson, he served as a consultant for Robert Douglass Associates, assisting with site visits and forward planning for cancer hospitals.

Photographs of M.D. Anderson Hospital buildings, colleagues, and many organizational meetings are held in Series XIII, as well as in other parts of the collection.

Memorabilia and realia, as well as a series on professional travel, attest to the scope of Dr. Clark’s career.

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Restrictions

Restrictions on Access

Materials in this collection do not circulate. Some documents may be restricted for patient confidentiality. Please contact Associate Director or Archivist for further information: mcgovern@library.tmc.edu

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Separated Material

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

John P. McGovern Historical Collections and Research Center, Houston Academy of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Library

Acquisition Information

This collection was donated by R. Lee Clark, MD to the HAM-TMC Library by Deed of Gift, Dec. 13, 1987.

Processing Information

The first part of the collection was received in 1988. The papers were stored in several locations, as well as rearranged by several administrative assistants at different times, accounting for the mixed order of the final collection. Parts of the collection were received at different times during 1988-89. Processing completed 2005.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

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