A Bit Of History

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Columbus Has Been Fighting Cancer for More Than 50 Years

Long before The James became one of the largest cancer hospitals in the country, Ohio State’s cancer program began with a group of researchers and a fairly audacious idea: Columbus could become a national center for cancer science.

By 1971, more than 100 investigators from seven Ohio State colleges had joined the effort. Two years later, they created a formal Cancer Research Center, and in 1976, the National Cancer Institute named Ohio State one of only 18 comprehensive cancer centers in the United States.

What followed was not simply the construction of a hospital. It was decades of discoveries that changed how certain cancers are understood, diagnosed and treated.

During the 1980s, Ohio State researchers helped develop pentostatin, a drug that produced complete remission in more than 90% of patients with hairy cell leukemia. The disease went from being largely untreatable to one patients could regularly survive while maintaining fairly normal lives.

In 1990, the original James Cancer Hospital opened with 17 patients on its first day. It was named for Dr. Arthur G. James, a surgical oncologist who had spent nearly 40 years pushing for a dedicated cancer hospital in Central Ohio.

From there, the breakthroughs accelerated. Ohio State researchers helped prove that combining chemotherapy and radiation improved survival for advanced head and neck cancer. They contributed to research showing tamoxifen could reduce breast cancer cases among high-risk women by 45%, making it the first drug known to prevent, rather than simply treat, breast cancer. Their leukemia research helped doctors identify genetic markers, tailor treatments and move some patients from a median survival of nine months to cure rates around 50%.

Ohio State scientists also played a major role in the development and testing of ibrutinib, one of the first targeted treatments for chronic lymphocytic leukemia. The drug attacks a protein cancer cells need to survive, offering patients an alternative to traditional chemotherapy.

In 2014, the current James opened. At 1.1 million square feet with 356 beds, it became the third-largest cancer hospital in the country, placing researchers, physicians and patients inside one enormous system designed to move discoveries from the laboratory into treatment faster.

The remarkable part of this history is not just the size of the building or the number of studies. It is how much of modern cancer care has been influenced by work done here in Columbus.

The James did not appear overnight, fully formed beside Ohio Stadium. It grew from a century of persistence, thousands of researchers and one doctor who believed Central Ohio deserved a hospital dedicated entirely to cancer.

Today, people travel to Columbus searching for answers that may not exist anywhere else yet. That is a heavy responsibility, but it is also one of this city’s greatest contributions to the world.

Scarlet Letter Trivia

Question: Which popular digital image format was created by a Columbus-based company in 1987?
A. JPEG
B. PNG
C. GIF
D. TIFF

Hear Them Before Everyone Else Does

Music Columbus is bringing back The Unheard, a free, all-ages showcase built to give emerging musicians something more valuable than exposure alone: paid stage time, professional photography and a full performance video they can use to promote their work.

Since launching in 2021, the series has featured more than 180 performers at respected Columbus venues, helping local artists build an audience while giving the rest of us a chance to discover them early.

This year, nine artists were selected from 93 applicants for three showcase nights across the summer and fall.

The lineups are officially here. Learn the names now, then act impressed when everyone else catches up.

Jerrie Mock Flew Around the World and Brought Columbus With Her

In 1964, a 38-year-old mother of three from Bexley climbed into a small, single-engine airplane at Port Columbus Airport and set out to do something no woman had ever accomplished.

Fly around the world alone.

Geraldine “Jerrie” Mock was not a celebrity pilot backed by a massive aviation company. She had about 750 hours of flight experience, a newly earned instrument rating and a modified 1953 Cessna 180 named the Spirit of Columbus. She called the plane “Charlie,” after the final letter in its registration number, N1538C.

On March 19, 1964, Mock took off from Columbus and headed east carrying maps, survival equipment, extra fuel and the expectations of everyone who believed long-distance aviation still belonged almost entirely to men.

Over the next 29 days, 11 hours and 59 minutes, she flew 23,103 miles across the Atlantic, through North Africa and the Middle East, over Asia and across the Pacific. She battled thunderstorms, equipment problems, icing, exhaustion and long stretches of open water with only one engine keeping her in the sky.

The trip also required navigating the expectations placed on women in 1964. Mock often flew in slacks but changed into a skirt and jacket before landing in certain countries, presenting herself as both a serious pilot and the socially acceptable version of a woman adventurer that officials expected to meet.

She landed back at Port Columbus on April 17, greeted by a crowd celebrating the first woman to complete a solo flight around the world.

Mock had not simply finished the journey. She had broken a barrier Amelia Earhart had famously pursued but never completed.

President Lyndon B. Johnson later presented Mock with the Federal Aviation Administration’s Exceptional Service Decoration at the White House. She continued flying and set several additional aviation records between 1964 and 1969. She also became the first woman and first American to receive the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale’s Louis Blériot Silver Medal.

The Spirit of Columbus now hangs inside the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, suspended above visitors as one of the most historically significant small aircraft ever flown.

Her story should be as familiar in Ohio as those of the Wright brothers, John Glenn or Neil Armstrong. Yet Mock spent decades receiving far less attention than her achievement deserved.

Maybe that is because she did not look like the era’s idea of a daring explorer. She looked like a suburban Ohio mother who decided she wanted to see the world and happened to have the skill, nerve and stubbornness to fly herself around it.

She named her airplane the Spirit of Columbus, but the name eventually came to describe her just as well.

Quietly ambitious. Technically gifted. Slightly underestimated.

Then suddenly, unmistakably, historic.

Boys And Girls Clup Teams up with Jimmy Johns

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Ohio celebrates being selected as one of only three organizations nationwide to receive a $15,000 grant from the Jimmy John’s Foundation. Through a nomination by local Jimmy John’s franchise partner Brad Caulley, Owner/Operator of Three Amigos Venture Inc., the grant recognizes the Club’s impact on young people across

Central Ohio and supports its mission to help youth achieve success in school, careers, and in life. Beyond this generous support, Brad has been a valued partner with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Ohio’s work, specifically in the Life & Workforce Readiness effort. He has welcomed teens into his Columbus and Newark locations, offering them hands-on experience to learn about restaurant operations and management. This opportunity has also allowed Club kids to enjoy the meals they prepare. Brad’s personal story of overcoming adversity has enabled him to uniquely identify with youth, inspire them in their futures, and show them that their circumstances don’t define their potential.

This grant will allow the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Ohio to continue important programs and resources that support academic, social, emotional, and leadership development of young people within our community. The $15,000 check was presented to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Ohio on July 7, 2026 at The Champion Companies Milo-Grogan Clubhouse.

Trivia Answer: C. GIF. Steve Wilhite and his team developed the GIF at CompuServe, a pioneering online-services company headquartered in Central Ohio.