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Founder of Arizona Cancer Center dies

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Daily Wildcat Sydney E. Salmon, a UA scientist and the founding director of the Arizona Cancer Center

Sydney E. Salmon, a UA scientist and the founding director of the Arizona Cancer Center, died early yesterday morning. He was 63.

The University of Arizona Regents professor of medicine battled pancreatic cancer for the past three years while continuing to research the disease after stepping down as director last year.

Ardie Delforge, Senior Clinical Nurse Manager at the center, began working alongside Salmon 21 years ago and served as one of his nurses during the past two months.

"He was a true clinician, even when he battled with his own cancer - he was committed to being a caregiver and seeing his patient," she said. "The one thing you have to know about Dr. Salmon is how he was the most brilliant (at the center) and had total humility because he was so sure of himself."

Delforge said Salmon was a true scientist who believed that science was going to lead to a cancer cure.

"He wanted to win," she said. "He wanted to win the battle and show research was the answer."

Delforge had nothing but praise for a man whose words were highly regarded at the center.

"He could just enter a room and command respect," she said.

A Tucson native, Salmon went to Mansfield Junior High and Tucson High School before graduating from UA with a philosophy degree in 1958. He attended the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and did his residency in New York. After a string of moves, he found himself back at the UA in 1972.

"He was always proud he could come back to where he grew up," Delforge said.

Delforge said her care for her former colleague was done willingly and it was "just understood."

"It was a privilege to take care of such a fine man," she said.

Delforge said even in recent months, Salmon rarely complained and allowed his caregivers to help him.

"He was always considerate, gracious, had the ability to be in control," she said.

Robert Dorr, professor and director of pharmacology at the Arizona Canter Center, was a pharmacy student at the UA who worked under Salmon as a graduate student and later became his co-worker.

Salmon was the only cancer doctor when he came to the medical school in 1972, and made the center what it is today, Dorr said.

"He wasn't part of it (Arizona Cancer Center) - he was it," he said.

The center, established in 1976, was first housed on the sixth floor of the University Medical Center before moving to about ten double-wide trailers sandwiched together.

In 1989, the center's structure was erected from donations and a small grant from the National Cancer Institute. No state money was used. Today the twin buildings - the Leon F. Levy and the Sydney E. Salmon - stand side by side.

"Syd was a very strong leader, to many of us in the center he was a friend" Dorr said. "It's like losing a father." He added that Salmon, the center's "top dog" was very well liked.

Ray Nagel, deputy director of the Arizona Cancer Center and professor of pathology, worked with Salmon for 20 years.

"I think the thing unique about him was his dedication to UA," he said. "He always put the university first."

Nagel said Salmon's disease was hard to treat.

"He developed one of the worst cancers one can have," he said. "Pancreatic cancer was one of the most deadliest and hardest to treat - that was ironic."

"This community has been blessed to have a man such as Syd Salmon among us, and I am personally blessed to have had the honor of knowing him," UA President Likins said in an email statement yesterday. "Few men leave behind them so much to be remembered, and our memories will be filled with his gifts to this community and to the people of the world."

Salmon is survived by his wife, Joan; five children and three grandchildren.

Irene Hsiao can be reached at Irene.Hsiao@wildcat.arizona.edu.