website watertownhistory.org
ebook History of Watertown,
Wisconsin
1900 - 1994
Woodard Lasker was a leading advocate of medical research for major
diseases including cancer, heart disease and AIDS. She, along with her husband, the late Albert
Lasker, founded the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation which in turn established
the Albert Lasker Medical Research Awards, one of the most prestigious in the
field of science.
Throughout her life, Mary Lasker fought
to encourage funding for medical research for cancer, heart disease, stroke,
mental illness, blindness, cerebral palsy, arthritis, osteoporosis, growth disorders, and AIDS. She served on numerous public health advisory
boards. Especially passionate about the fight against cancer, she led the
reorganization and growth of the American Cancer Society and established its
research program; advocated more aggressive applied cancer research, including
chemotherapy; and became the driving force behind the National Cancer Act,
which launched the national “war on cancer” in 1971. As a result of her work, she became one of
the most influential laywoman in medical research in the 20th century.
____________________________________________________________________________________
1900
-- -- MARY WOODARD BIO
Mary Lasker
was born in Watertown on Nov. 30, 1900, daughter of Frank Elwin and Sara
Johnson Woodard. Her father was a
prominent Watertown resident and served as president of the former Bank of
Watertown, now known as M&I Bank of
Watertown. Her mother was a civic leader
whose activism instilled in Mary a lifelong interest in urban
beautification. The family home stands
today at 400 N. Washington St., Watertown.
Mary
Woodard attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison and graduated cum laude
in 1923 from Radcliffe College. She then
studied briefly at Oxford, settling in New York City, where she worked as an
art dealer and began to build an impressive art collection of her own. During the Great Depression, she also
launched a successful dress pattern company.
In
1940, Mary Woodard married advertising mogul Albert Davis Lasker who led the world-renowned firm of Lord
& Thomas. Committed to promoting his
wife's passion for medical research, Albert Lasker sold the advertising firm,
and in 1942 the Laskers created the Albert and Mary
Lasker Foundation to advance medical research into the major causes of
disability and death.
Skillfully coordinating the support of the media, medical experts, U.S.
presidents, Congress, and other funders, Mary Lasker built a powerful lobby for
medical research, especially directed at the expansion of the National
Institutes of Health to include research centers concentrating on specific
diseases.
1942
-- -- LASKER FOUNDATION FOUNDED
The New York City-based Lasker Foundation
was founded by Woodard Lasker and her husband in 1942 to increase widespread
support for research by creating awareness of the public benefits of medical
science. The annual Lasker Awards are
the centerpiece of the foundation's activities.
More than 300 Lasker Awards have been presented since the program's
inception in 1945. Seventy-six Lasker
laureates have later received the Nobel Prize, including 28 in the last two
decades. The foundation is widely
credited with inspiring U.S. presidents and Congress to greatly expand federal
funding for medical research, particularly through the National Institutes of
Health.
1944
06 19 SECRETARY, NATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR MENTAL HYGIENE
1957
01 20 ADLAI STEVENSON
RUMOR
Washington and New York circles were buzzing today with
reports that Adlai Stevenson, twice Democratic candidate for the Presidency,
and former governor of Illinois, and Mrs. Mary Woodard Lasker are to be married
in the spring. Rumors to that effect
have been heard for some time, but yesterday the Washington columnist, Drew
Pearson, in a report from Washington brought the rumor into the open. Mrs. Lasker is the former Mary Woodard of
Watertown, daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Frank E. Woodard [son of Marshall Woodard]. Her father was for many years president of
the Bank of Watertown. The Woodard family home was at 400 North
Washington Street. Mrs. Lasker is the
widow of A. D. Lasker, a leading advertising agency executive and patron of the
arts and philanthropist. She resides in
New York. WDT
06 08 LADY
PHILANTHROPIST / New Yorker article
We've just had a talk with Mrs. Mary Lasker, who gave
the city all those tulips and daffodils that came up this spring in the middle
of Park Avenue between Fiftieth and Seventy-second Streets. The daffodils and
the tulips have died, but Mrs. Lasker, whom we visited in a beautiful beige
office she occupies in the Chrysler Building, is flourishing. "I'm an avid
lover of flowers and greenery," she said, "and so was my mother
before me.
I was born in Watertown, Wisconsin, where the
Watertown goose comes from - no connection, you understand - and where Mother
helped found two of the town's three parks. Mother was Mrs. Sara J. Woodard. .
. . .
Just before I married my late husband, Albert D.
Lasker, in 1940, he gave his Lake Forest estate to the University of Chicago;
its chrysanthemum gardens ten acres were developed by the University, and I
arranged for seeds from there to be grown in Parks Department greenhouses and
nurseries here, and for plantings to be made, in memory of my mother, in
Central Park at a Hundred and Second Street, as well as in four other park
areas in New York. The city has renewed them ever since. In the fall of 1955, I
persuaded the Parks Department to let me contribute tulip bulbs for planting in
front of the Public Library and the Metropolitan Museum, and on four blocks of
Park Avenue- Fiftieth to Fifty-second, and Seventieth to Seventy-second. . . .
.
Mrs. Lasker is
helping expand medical research through the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation,
which she and her husband, an advertising man who was part owner of the Chicago
Cubs, established in 1942. She has run
it since his death, five years ago; it gives annual awards to physicians and
scientists for medical research and to writers who have done outstanding work
in medical journalism. . . . .
Link to article: www.watertownhistory.org/Archived_Digital_Reference_Files/LaskerArticle_06_08_1957.pdf
1962
05 03 PRESIDENT’S COMMITTEE
ON EMPLOYMENT OF THE HANDICAPPED
WASHINGTON - Mrs. Albert D. Lasker, a native of
Watertown, Wis., where she was born Mary Woodard, was named Tuesday to receive the
distinguished service award of the president’s committee on employment of the
handicapped. Mrs. Lasker, who now lives
in New York, was described by the committee as one of the world’s leaders in
the battle to eradicate disease and disability, and one of the nation’s most
active champions of rehabilitation and employment of the handicapped. WDT
1965
04 08 SPIRIT OF ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
A former Watertown woman, Mrs. Mary Woodard Lasker, is
one of three women who will receive Spirit of Achievement Awards on April 13 at
the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York.
Mrs. Lasker, widow of Albert D. Lasker and a member of Mrs. Lyndon B.
Johnson's Committee for a More Beautiful Capital, recently donated 10,300
azalea plants to the city of Washington.
The plantings will border Pennsylvania Avenue from the foot of Capital Hill
to within a block of the White House.
Mrs. Lasker pioneered New York City’s Salute to Seasons, a project for
the beautification, through flowers, trees and lighting, of that
metropolis. Her broad range of interests
and activities all lead toward the goal of human betterment. WDT
1966
07 27 APPOINTED TO NATIONAL ADVISORY COUNCIL
Mrs. Mary Woodard Lasker of New York, a native of
Watertown, president of the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation, has been
appointed to a four-year term on the national advisory council of the National
Institute of General Medical Sciences.
As a member of the council. Mrs. Lasker will review and make
recommendations on the award of research grants, fellowships and research
training grants supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences,
one of the nine Nation-Institutes of Health.
This institute supports research in the sciences basic to medicine and
biology and in certain clinical areas not within the responsibility of the
other institutes. WDT
1969 PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM
In 1969, President Lyndon Johnson
awarded Mary Lasker the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest
civilian honor. In 1987 the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives authorized
President George Bush to strike a special gold medal in her honor "in
recognition of her humanitarian contributions in the areas of medical research
and education, urban beautification and the fine arts.
She was the recipient of numerous honors and recognition, including the
Radcliffe Achievement Award, the college's highest honor. In 1987 she received an honorary doctor of
humanities degree from Harvard University, and in 1989 the Harvard School of
Public Health established the Mary Woodard Lasker professorship of health
sciences.
She was
recipient of more than 60 awards and medals including the Albert Schweitzer
Gold Medal for Humanitarian Philanthropy from Johns Hopkins University in 1992.
1980s PINK TULIP NAMED FOR MARY WOODARD
LASKER
In addition to her advocacy of health
care research and funding, she is remembered as a prominent patron of urban
beautification. She supported projects in
New York and Washington, D.C., that included planting hundreds of thousands of
trees and flowers, many of which she personally donated. As a tribute to Mary Lasker's work, a pink
tulip was named for her during the 1980s.
04 26 SPECIAL GOLD MEDAL AWARDED
Mrs.
Albert Lasker, a native of Watertown, and one of the greatest private
benefactors in this country, has been awarded a special Gold Medal by the
United States Congress for her humanitarian contributions in the areas of
medical research and education, urban beautification and the fine arts. Although the
former Mary Woodard left Watertown many years ago for New York City, she is
still well remembered by longtime residents of this city. Her work and financial contributions to
humanity are so great that Congress was moved to give her this high honor. Mrs. Lasker has also received numerous other
honors in the past, and in 1969 she was presented with the Medal of Freedom,
the highest civilian honor bestowed by the United States government. She was
presented with that award by then President Richard Nixon.
1994
04
26 DEATH
OF MARY WOODARD LASKER
Mary Woodard Lasker, Watertown native
and philanthropist in the field of medical research, died Monday at her home in
Greenwich, Conn. Woodard Lasker, who was
93, died of heart failure, according to her nephew, James Woodard Fordyce of
Greenwich. For over half a century,
Woodard Lasker was a leading force in funding medical research against the
nation’s most deadly diseases. Her
philanthropic efforts to promote medical research and education were well known
throughout the United States. She and
her husband, the late Albert D. Lasker, created the Albert and Mary Lasker
Foundation and established the Albert Lasker Medical Research Awards as one of
science’s most prestigious awards.
2009
Mary Woodard Lasker Stamp
2009
02 25 MARY WOODARD LASKER STAMP
The late Mary Woodard Lasker, a
Watertown native and a philanthropist in the field of medical research, will be
immortalized on a U.S. postage stamp.
The United States Postal Service announced that it will release a Mary
Lasker stamp on May 14 as part of its "Distinguished Americans"
series. Created by Mark Summers, the stamp artwork
is based on an undated, black and white photograph. Summers is noted for his scratchboard
technique, a style distinguished by a dense network of lines etched with
exquisite precision.
Release
of the stamp coincides with a renewed federal commitment to biomedical
research, including additional funding for the National Institutes of Health,
which Mary Lasker helped build.
State Senator Scott Fitzgerald, 13th Senate District and Watertown Mayor Ron Krueger
04
20 The late Mary Woodard Lasker, a Watertown native and a philanthropist in
the field of medical research, will soon be honored on a 78-cent postage stamp
as part of the United States Postal Service’s “Distinguished Americans” series. A first-day-of-sale ceremony will be held at
her childhood home at 400 N. Washington St. on May 15 starting at 10:30
a.m. Lasker, who passed away in 1994,
was a philanthropist, a political strategist and an ardent advocate of medical
research for major diseases. Lasker
persuaded the nation’s leaders to adopt dramatic increases in public funding
for biomedical research and her efforts helped make cancer research a national
priority. She was born on Nov. 30, 1900,
in Watertown, daughter of Frank Elwin Woodard, a banker, and Sara
Johnson Woodard, a homemaker. Her mother
engaged in civic causes, campaigning for the establishment of public parks and
instilling in Lasker a lifelong interest in urban beautification.
05 15 MARY WOODARD
LASKER STAMP CEREMONY
Friday, May 15, 2009.
Watertown, Wis.
“First-day” ceremonies are popular events with stamp collectors. At the typical ceremony, the subject of the
new stamp is discussed by speakers familiar with the person, place or event;
dignitaries speak briefly; the stamp design is revealed; and those attending
the event have an opportunity to obtain a first-day cancel. For this stamp, the U.S. Postal Service plans
a nationwide release of the new 78c stamp without an official first-day
ceremony. That gives us a chance to hold
an unofficial ceremony in Mary Woodard Lasker’s hometown, Watertown, Wis.
Coincidentally, the day of release is the day before “Planting Day” in
Watertown, when resident volunteers help beautify the city with plantings in
downtown planters. Mary Lasker, besides
the philanthropic work for which she is being honored, supported urban
beautification on a grand scale in New York City and Washington, D.C.
The Wisconsin Federation of Stamp Clubs is a confederation of 30 clubs
representing hundreds of stamp collectors across the state of Wisconsin.
With the cooperation and support of Watertown residents, we are planning
a mid-morning ceremony that will draw attention to the city and its
attractions, help mobilize cooperation in the volunteer planting effort,
generate pride in the city’s history, and create awareness of the hobby of
stamp collecting. Among the speakers
will be William Jannke, Randy Roeseler, and the local
post master. The ceremony will be
held on the front lawn of the Marshall
Woodard home on N. Washington Street where Mary Lasker was born and grew
up. In the event of inclement weather
the meeting will take place at the new city storage building on S. Second
Street.
The WFSC will prepare a “cacheted cover”
(illustrated envelope) appropriate to the Lasker stamp and design a pictorial
cancel for use by the USPS. The WFSC
also will arrange for displays of other Wisconsin-related stamps (including the
one for Carl Schurz, another former resident of Watertown), promotional
material for the city and nearby stamp clubs, stamp-collecting kits for youth, and other material.
Watch the Watertown Daily Times for
more information as it becomes available.
05 20 Editor, Daily Times:
On Friday the city played host to a U.S. Postal event honoring the late
Mary Woodard Lasker, a Watertown native born in 1900. The event was coordinated by local postal
officials, along with the Main Street Program and the Watertown Area Chamber of
Commerce.
We wish to acknowledge the following groups or persons who helped to make
the event a success. Often, their help
is behind the scenes and is not noticed by the general public.
Thank you to the local park and rec department (Jon Steber, Jeff Doyle)
for delivering benches, to the street department (Rick Schultz) for preparing a
backup site in case of inclement weather, to Pederson Funeral Homes for use of
chairs, to Glenn’s Market and Catering for use of tables.
Thank you to Craft Castle (Leah Reese), ISB Community Bank, Hafemeister
Funeral Home (Rich Nienow) and the Main Street Program (Palmer Draeger) for use
of canopies, and to Palmer Draeger for delivering floral arrangements to help
brighten the grounds. Thank you to Jim
Huhn of Best Sound Service for the discounted lease of a sound system.
Thank you to the Jonathon and Melissa Lampe family for hosting the event on the grounds of their home, the former residence of the Woodard family. The setting lent itself very well to the occasion. Thank you to Jean Kwapil for the gift of several dozen pink tulip shaped cookies for the reception. Thank you to Maurice Wozniak of the Federation of Wisconsin Stamp Collectors for presenting a wonderful display of stamp collecting.
We also would like to thank participants in the event. Thank you to Mayor Krueger, Bill Jannke and
Maurice Wozniak for their presentations which helped to enrich the ceremony.
Special thanks to the honor guard supplied from the Pitterle-Beaudoin
Post 189 of Watertown. Their elegant,
crisp presentation of the colors helped to get the event off to a terrific
start. We appreciated their willingness
to break away from other duties to help us with this event.
Watertown has had two stamps created in honor of former citizens. It is rare for a community to have even one
stamp created — much less two. It is a unique experience for everyone involved. The last
commemorative stamp ceremony in Watertown was in 1983. We certainly hope that if the situation
avails itself again in the future, the people of Watertown will rise to the
occasion and celebrate the honor.
Jeff Hoffman,
Watertown postmaster
Susan Dascenzo, manager,
Watertown Main Street Program
Randy Roeseler,
executive director, Watertown Area Chamber of Commerce
2022
-- -- Angel in Mink: The Story of Mary Lasker's Crusade, eBook
-- -- Angel in Mink, review article
2024
09 195 2024
LASKER CLINICAL MEDICAL RESEARCH AWARD
THE OZEMPIC FAMILY OF DRUGS
This year’s prestigious Lasker medical awards recognize a trio of scientists without whom Ozempic and other blockbuster weight-loss drugs might not exist.
Mary Woodard was born in Watertown on Nov. 30, 1900, daughter of Frank Elwin and Sara Johnson Woodard. In 1940, Mary Woodard married advertising mogul Albert Davis Lasker who led the world-renowned firm of Lord & Thomas.
Committed to promoting his wife's passion for medical research, Albert Lasker sold the advertising firm, and in 1942 the Laskers created the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation to advance medical research into the major causes of disability and death.
Cross References:
CATALYST FOR THE NATIONAL CANCER ACT: MARY WOODARD LASKER, by Langley Grace Wallace / Copyright 2016,
The Concord Review
Alice Woodard, sister of Mary
Columbia University reference set
Lasker is the second person from
Watertown to be honored with a postage stamp.
On June 3, 1983, a stamp honoring Carl Schurz
was released.
Contribution received: "Mary Woodard was born in Watertown, Wisconsin, in 1900" (p. 108). The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, by Siddhartha Mukherjee. Mukherjee's book won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 2011 (http://www.pulitzer.org/winners/siddhartha-mukherjee ).
As it turns out, Woodard Lasker is a central figure in The Emperor, as noted early in the book. On pages xvii-xviii it is noted:
"Two characters stand at the epicenter of this story . . . The first is Sidney Farber, the father of modern chemotherapy, who accidentally discovers a powerful anti-cancer chemical in a vitamin analogue and begins to dream of a universal cure for cancer. The second is Mary Lasker, the Manhattan socialite of legendary social and political energy, who joins Farber in his decades-long journey."
2022: Angel in Mink: The Story of Mary Lasker's Crusade, eBook
2023: “The Prize That Remade Medical Research”, Autumn 2023 City Journal article
History of Watertown, Wisconsin