Cancer researcher, bioethicist dies at 90

Cancer researcher Van R. Potter, the Hilldale Professor Emeritus of Oncology, died Thursday, Sept. 6. He was 90.

Potter developed the concept of combination drug therapy to treat cancer. He did graduate work under Conrad Elvehjem and was advisor to Nobel Prize-winning cell biologist Günter Blobel while he studied oncology here.

Potter was instrumental in helping build the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research at UW–Madison. His research in biochemistry and oncology included liver regeneration studies and pioneering work in the treatment of liver cancer, and innovations in chemotherapy that are now common practice in cancer treatment.

Not many people pick up a new field at 72, but Potter turned his attention primarily to bioethics at that point in his life. “For centuries, the subject of human values has been regarded as beyond the realm of science, the exclusive property of theologians and secular philosophers,” wrote Potter in a 1994 essay for The Scientist. “Now we must assert not only that scientists have transcendant values, too, but also that the values embedded in the scientific ethos need to be integrated with those of religion and philosophy in order to facilitate political processes beneficial to the global environment’s health.”

Potter was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He had 395 scholarly publications to his credit.

Potter was still active in academia at the time of his death. Most recently, he was one of five new fellows inducted this summer in the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters.

Potter earned a B.S. at South Dakota State University in chemistry and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees at UW–Madison in biochemistry.

Potter wrote a “Global Bioethics Final Message” that was recently posted to his Web site.

“He wrote this shortly before his passing and wanted very much to have it available to everyone,” says Lisa Potter, a granddaughter.

Potter’s family is in the process of scheduling a memorial service to be held in Madison Wednesday, Nov. 7. More information about the service will be posted to Potter’s Web site.