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Become a member and receive career-enhancing benefits
Our top priority is providing value to members. Your Member Services team is here to ensure you maximize your ACS member benefits, participate in College activities, and engage with your ACS colleagues. It's all here.
Become a member and receive career-enhancing benefits
Our top priority is providing value to members. Your Member Services team is here to ensure you maximize your ACS member benefits, participate in College activities, and engage with your ACS colleagues. It's all here.
Dr. Leffall Jr’s ACS Presidential Portrait. Photo Courtesy of the ACS Archives.
Born in May 1930, Dr. Leffall grew up just outside Tallahassee, FL in the small town of Quincy. His parents, both teachers, instilled in him a love of learning. He graduated valedictorian from high school at 15 years old, and summa cum laude in 1948 from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College—now Florida A&M University, Tallahassee. Dr Leffall’s first exposure to a physician was his godmother’s husband, the only black physician in Quincy. Although the family friend encouraged him to consider a medical career, the experience Dr. Leffall said most influenced his decision to pursue the path toward becoming a physician happened when he was nine years old and came across an injured bird. He placed the bird’s broken wing in a splint he fashioned out of tongue depressors from the physician’s office and nursed the creature back to health.[i]
Dr. Leffall started medical school at the Howard University College of Medicine, Washington, DC, at 18 years old and graduated first in his class. He completed his surgical training at Freedmen’s Hospital, now Howard University Hospital, in 1957. As a medical student and resident, he encountered several mentors who would shape his view of the world and of surgery, including Charles R. Drew, MD, FACS, known for his research in blood and plasma transfusion and blood banking; Montague Cobb, MD, professor of anatomy; Burke Syphax, MD, FACS, a surgical oncologist and Dr. Drew’s successor as surgery program director; and Jack White, MD, FACS, who would encourage Dr. Leffall to complete surgical oncology training at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (1957–1959), New York, NY. He specialized in colon and rectal, breast, and head and neck cancers. He served as chief of general surgery at the US Army Hospital, Munich, Germany (1960−1961). Upon his return to the US, Dr. Leffall joined the Howard faculty as an assistant professor and became chairman, department of surgery, only eight years later, a position he held for 25 years. He was named the Charles R. Drew Professor in 1992, occupying the first endowed chair in the history of Howard’s department of surgery.[ii]
Dr. Leffall Jr speaking at the 1988 Clinical Congress in Chicago, IL. Photo Courtesy of the ACS Archives.
Dr. Leffall was the first African American to serve as President of the American College of Surgeons (ACS), the American Cancer Society, the Society of Surgical Oncology, the Society of Surgical Chairs, and several other professional organizations. In addition to serving as ACS President (1995−1996), Dr. Leffall served in several other leadership roles within the organization. He was Secretary (1983−1992) and a member of the following committees: the Advisory Committee on Nominations of the Board of Regents (1996−1999); the Communications Committee (1983−1987); the Committee on Development (1992−2004); and the Honors Committee (1994−1995). He also served as Vice-Chair of the Committee on Medical Motion Pictures (1983−1984), was a senior member of the Committee on Video-Based Education (1980−1990) and served as a consultant to the Health Policy and Reimbursement Committee (1986−1992). He was also President of the Metropolitan Washington DC Chapter (1978−1979).[iii]
Dr. Leffall was a tireless supporter of the ACS Foundation, chairing the Fellows Leadership Society, the Foundation’s major gift society, and securing generous contributions from a private charitable foundation to fund ACS educational programs. He and his wife, Ruth, established a significant planned gift through the ACS Foundation as members of the Mayne Heritage Society. For their leadership in philanthropy and service to the medical community, Dr. and Mrs. Leffall received the ACS Distinguished Philanthropist Award in 1998.[iv] Their philanthropic efforts extended beyond the College. In 1997, Dr. Leffall, his wife, and his sister established the Martha J. and LaSalle D. Leffall, Sr., Endowed Scholarship Fund and Endowed Professorship in Science at Florida A&M. Dr. Leffall also provided financial support for the LaSalle D. Leffall, Jr., Surgical Society, established in 1995 to provide funding for student and resident research.
Dr. Leffall Jr with the Great Mace during Convocation Procession at the 1995 Clinical Congress, New Orleans, LA. Photo courtesy of the ACS Archives.
Dr. Leffall’s great passion was ensuring that cancer patients of all races and creeds had access to quality care. As president of the American Cancer Society (1979), he focused attention on the increasing incidence and mortality of cancer among black Americans, creating an innovative program to address cancer disparities among ethnic populations. He created an innovative program to promote early diagnosis and other preventive measures to reduce the higher rates of lung, stomach, pancreatic, and esophagus cancer among black men and uterine cancer among black women, the first program of its type in the nation.
Cancer hospitals across the nation have recognized Dr. Leffall’s contributions to patient care. In 1987, the MD Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute, Houston, TX, and Intercultural Cancer Council established The Biennial LaSalle D. Leffall, Jr., Award for surgeons who have had a significant impact on cancer prevention, treatment, and education in minority and economically disadvantaged communities. Two years later, the citizens of Quincy named a street, a path, and the surgical wing of Gadsden Memorial Hospital after him.
Thanks in a large part to Dr. Leffall, today, health care disparities are a significant field of study and a major priority for cancer programs around the world. During his 65 years in medicine, survival rates and quality of life for cancer patients overall progressed. His hope was to eliminate the disease altogether. “With ongoing basic and clinical research, we will continue to make progress that could eventually lead to a universal cure for cancer. When that happens, I’ll applaud from Heaven.”[v]
