Tom Clancy Professorship in Ophthalmology

TOM CLANCY, who lived on the Chesapeake Bay, is one of the best-selling authors of his generation. His first book, The Hunt for Red October, was published by the Naval Institute Press, which had never before published fiction. The book was an astounding success, and Mr. Clancy has since written many more internationally best-selling novels. He has funded two professorships at Johns Hopkins. One supports the important cancer research of a leader in the field of pediatric oncology, and the second and most recent professorship recognizes the excellence of medical and patient care in the treatment of vision loss, from which Mr. Clancy himself benefited. Mr. Clancy died in 2013.

 

CHAIRHOLDER TO BE NAMED

Kyle Haydock Professorship in Oncology

As a six year old confined to his hospital bed because of cancer, KYLE HAYDOCK’s favorite writer was Tom Clancy. Kyle’s grandfather wrote a fan letter on Kyle’s behalf to Mr. Clancy, and Mr. Clancy wrote back. The two visited, went to Disney World together (the photograph shows them at Disney World), and became close friends before Kyle’s untimely death two years later of sarcoma. “Kyle,” wrote Mr. Clancy in an essay included in the book Fighting Chance, “was my little buddy–not a distant abstraction at all, a real kid my son’s age, bright and funny and perceptive.” Mr. Clancy calls cancer a war: “The children fight back as victims who want to live normal lives in the face of this most sinister and cruelest of maladies…Meanwhile, all around them the best minds and tools the medical profession has evolved are marshaled like an army to fight the war.” This professorship will support the important cancer research of a leader in the field of pediatric oncology.