Chapter 04: Changes Under Charles A. LeMaistre, MD
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Description
Ms. Hale begins this chapter by explaining that when Dr. LeMaistre assumed MD Anderson’s presidency, she stayed on with Dr. Clark until 1981 before transferring to the president’s office. She notes changes to the office under Dr. LeMaistre, who was a more distant administrator than Dr. Clark, with activities more focused on MD Anderson. She offers observations about Dr. LeMaistre and observes that Dr. LeMaistre “brought us together like a family” as well as greatly increasing fundraising.
Identifier
HaleJ_01_20180419_C04
Publication Date
4-19-2018
City
Houston, Texas
Interview Session
Topics Covered
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center - Building the Institution; Overview; Portraits; MD Anderson Culture; Working Environment; Professional Practice; The Professional at Work; Fundraising, Philanthropy, Donations, Volunteers; Building/Transforming the Institution; Growth and/or Change
Transcript
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
So tell me about the transition to Dr. LeMaistre.
JoAnne Hale:
I stayed with Dr. Clark. Dr. LeMaistre came onboard in ’78, I think, and Dr. Clark became president emeritus. I stayed with Dr. Clark, and Dr. LeMaistre came and he had—I helped recommend people for him, assistants. We were all secretaries but you know, that later became assistants. Anyway, I recommended Micha, she was working for Dr. Hickey at the time.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Micha’s last name?
JoAnne Hale:
[00:028:09] Micha [Larson] Gregory. That wasn’t her last name then, it was Larson. Anyway, she went to work for him and of course, he brought Judy Johns [Watson] with him, from Austin, Dr. LeMaistre did, and that was his associate vice president I guess. They changed titles all the time. Then they hired other people in their office. So, I stayed with [Dr. Clark] for a long time, until ’81, and then Dr. LeMaistre said, “If you’re going to come, you’ve got to come now.” So that’s when I went, and I think Dr. Clark, at that point, I think he gave up his office and he had an office over at Medical Arts and kind of worked with that, and just worked with his writings. He did some consulting, he did quite a bit of consulting. I don’t know when Dr. Clark had his stroke. But [the transition] was fairly smooth. When I went to Dr. LeMaistre, basically all I did was handle his schedule, which at the time that I went there, his structure was a little different. Judy, she was the person, you didn’t interact with him, everything went through her. So I would schedule an appointment and then I would get all the material together and I would give it to her, and then she would brief him. The appointment book stayed on her desk, so every time I had a call for an appointment, I’d have to go get it. Well, I quickly learned that they were making appointments every 15 to 20 minutes, and people were just sitting and waiting, because you can’t have a meeting in 15 or 20 minutes. Eventually, I said, “I’ve got to have it at my desk,” and so we did that, I put the things together, still went through her. In fact, pretty much, most things went through her until she retired, but not at that point, because then I started just—I did his travel, and so I would brief him at night, toward the end of his tenure. I kind of liked research, and particularly with Dr. Mendelsohn, but with Dr. LeMaistre… Dr. LeMaistre didn’t do any international travel. He was [with the] American Cancer Society, he did a lot of in country. Most of his was related to MD Anderson; raising funds and so forth, like that. The transition wasn’t too bad, Dr. Clark was very good. When I left, I told him, I said, “My allegiance now is to Dr. LeMaistre, don’t make me have to choose between the two of you,” and he was real good, he was real good. He didn’t push me to do things for him.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
What kind of things were you concerned you might get into a conflict over?
JoAnne Hale:
I don’t know, programs, I think, you know he needs to put this person in charge of this program. I just didn’t know what he was going to ask me to do. At the same time, when I worked for Dr. Clark, the Board of Regents would meet, I can’t remember now, I don’t think it was monthly, I think it was quarterly. I don’t remember how often they met, but every Board of Regents decision that affected MD Anderson, I kept a card file on. So, that card file, he wanted to keep and I said, “No, it’s got to come with me.” Because that’s the history, you know, and I don’t know where, I’m sure they’ve got it here somewhere.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Well, the library received the presidential papers, so I’m sure it’s here in the archives someplace.
JoAnne Hale:
And then they also—I had later on, did it all electronically. So that sort of type thing that I was concerned about.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
But it sounded like it was smooth.
JoAnne Hale:
Yeah, it was pretty smooth. Dr. LeMaistre liked Dr. Clark, they’d worked together for years.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
So tell me about your impressions of Dr. LeMaistre. It sounds like you had a little bit more of a distant connection with him.
JoAnne Hale:
At first, yeah. At first we just weren’t, we weren’t allowed, you know, to have any connection with him. But Micha is just, she’s not that kind of person. She’s outgoing and everything, and so she kind of, I think she did his telephoning and worked with his patients, so she had a little bit more where she was with him. When I started going in and going over his trial with him and things like that, then you started getting this little personal relationship with him. One of the things that Judy did, she was what they called associate director or vice president, I can’t remember what her title was, but she was the one that everything kind of went through. She didn’t use the email, so whenever she had an email, she would write it out, we would type it, and then send it under her name. So, budget wise, I would do the budget, it would go to her, and then she would look at it and she would go over it with Dr. LeMaistre. One time, I made a comment to Dr. LeMaistre about the budget and I got called on the carpet, and they said he doesn’t know that much about the budget type stuff.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Was this the institutional budget, for the whole institute?
JoAnne Hale:
Well, back then, we [did not run] on a zero-based [system] and everything, and so you know, if they overspent on an M&O, they would just give him more money. You would ask Joe Boyd to give you more money. Well, my comment was, why can’t they live within their budget and he said they need to, and so apparently he said something to her and I got in trouble for it. Also, the scheduling of his appointments were very strict. I didn’t schedule anything after four and if I didn’t have the necessary material from whoever wanted the meeting, and what the topic was, if I didn’t have it, then I was—because I couldn’t brief him if I didn’t have the material. If I didn’t have that by noon, I had the authority to cancel the meeting. I do remember one time, with Dr. [Robert] Bast’s [oral history interview] office, I just didn’t get it and I kept asking his assistant, the gentleman who worked for him, and they just, they didn’t even give me the topic or anything, and it was with the Welch Foundation. So, when I didn’t get it, I just said we’re going to have to reschedule it. Well, I didn’t set it up with the Welch Foundation, I thought it was just with Dr. Bast, and all the people from the Welch Foundation board were ready for this conference call, I guess it was, and so Dr. Bast thought I had canceled it and I hadn’t. Dr. LeMaistre had told me he said, “I knew what it was about,” and I said well you know, “I didn’t know that.” So, that changed when Mendelsohn came. Just things like that.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Right, right. Well, and it seems, I assume the reason that information had to be acquired before the meeting, was that so the president’s time is used well, he goes into a meeting fully aware.
JoAnne Hale:
Yeah, he needs to be fully aware of what’s going on. He was easygoing and things like that, but it was more of a controlled access to him. Dr. Mendelsohn and I just talked back and forth and worked together, whereas this one, you had to go through her.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Interesting. So what were some of the high moments during—when you were in his office?
JoAnne Hale:
Well one of the biggest things that I think that Dr. LeMaistre did for the institution was he brought us together as a family. Dr. Clark… Before, the researchers weren’t really kind of included. Dr. LeMaistre was instrumental in the PRS, getting the PRS funds, parts of that to go to the researchers, because without their research, the clinicians couldn’t do a lot. But he would get out and visit the people, that’s when they started doing the T-shirts. So you’d see one of your fellow employees out at a grocery store, you know, you got to know each other. So he kind of pulled the institution together as a family.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Because it was growing pretty fast at this point.
JoAnne Hale:
Yes, it was, it was.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
So, something had to be done, to kind of recreate that small feeling.
JoAnne Hale:
The biggest thing for Dr. LeMaistre was philanthropy. He was very good at going out and like I say, raising funds. He did not do any scientific papers, speeches and stuff like that. Most of his was telling what we did at Anderson. He reviewed some of the research, so he was aware of some of the research, but not as detailed as Dr. Clark and Dr. Mendelsohn, to know what type of research, you know. He would take the research doctors with him, for them to answer kind of questions. That’s when the Living Legends thing started, those programs. The Development Office completely exploded under him, and then he also brought the Clinical Cancer Prevention, Dr. [Bernard] Levin [oral history interview]. That department was started under him. He was very instrumental in that. And of course, after I retired, I went back to work for him. He came onboard and we wrote a book. It’s not come out yet, because we kept adding to it. But that’s the biggest things there.
Recommended Citation
Hale, JoAnne H. and Rosolowski, Tacey A. PhD, "Chapter 04: Changes Under Charles A. LeMaistre, MD" (2018). Interview Chapters. 971.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewchapters/971
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