History: Donald C. Lawrence, physicist who developed cancer treatment

["Michael P. Grissom" <mpg1@coastside.net>]

radsafe'ers,

The following item was in the January 17, 2001 issue
of the San Jose Mercury News:

----------

            Donald C. Lawrence

         physicist who developed
             cancer treatment

             By Michael Cronk
               Mercury News

A memorial service has been held for Donald
C. Lawrence, a retired nuclear and health
physicist who in the 1960s developed a patented
cancer treatment involving the implanting of
tiny radioactive seeds around tumors.

Mr. Lawrence, 69, of Mountain View, died Dec[ember]
28 [, 2000] of an aortic aneurysm.

"He was always on a quest to find something out
or to try something new in the world, and he never
lost his thirst for knowledge," said Linda Bates,
one of his four daughters. "Mounds of varied
magazines and journals lay waiting to be read, and
they continue to arrive by the mail-box-full."

A native of Spokane, Wash[ington, USA], Mr.
Lawrence came to the Bay Area with his wife and
four daughters in 1961 and took a job managing the
health physics department at Hazelton Nuclear Science
Corp[oration] in Palo Alto [, California, USA]. While
there, he intitiated a new program in cancer therapy
in which tiny radioactive seeds -- emitting a constant
but low level of radiation -- were used to destroy
cancer cells.

The first patient treated with Mr. Lawrence's Iodine-125
seeds encapsulated in titanium was at the Memorial Sloan
Kettering Hospital in New York in 1965, said his daughter.
In 1968, he founded Lawrence Soft Ray Corp[oration] on
Evelyn Avenue in Mountain View to produce and market
his radiation seeds. Mr. Lawrence sold the company in
1978 to 3M Corp[oration].

He earned his bachelor's degree from the University of
Washington and received a fellowship in health physics at
Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies. In 1958, he
received a master's degree in nuclear engineering from
the University of Washington.

Mr. Lawrence, who was divorced in 1966, pursued a myriad
of interests. He was a licensed pilot, certified scuba
diver, avid ballroom dancer, and he traveled extensively
in his recreational vehicle. His travels around the
Western United States in his RV "was just one more way
for him to meet new people and make the world smaller,"
said Bates.

Mr. Lawrence was a member of the American Nuclear Society,
Health Physics Society, the Radiation Technology Advisory
Committee, the Elks, and the Tau Beta Pi Chapter at the
University of Washington.

At 6 feet 7, Mr. Lawrence "was a big man with a big heart,"
said Mrs. Bates. "And he loved gadgets and tricky things
that made him think."

[Article was accompanied with a side-bar showing a photo
and additional personal details/final services.]
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