Mary Lasker

Mary Lasker, president of the Lasker Foundation, fostered medical advancements in several major fields by providing research grants to innovative physicians and persuading the government to follow suit.

Through the Lasker Foundation and citizens’ groups such as the Citizens Committee for the Conquest of Cancer, Lasker lobbied legislators to provide funds for medical research on life-threatening diseases. She also worked to persuade U.S. Congress to increase appropriations for the National Institutes of Health and to set up additional research centers concentrating on specific diseases, including the heart, lung and blood institutes.

In addition to her duties at the Foundation, Lasker served as chair of the American Cancer Society; president of the United Cerebral Palsy Research and Educational Foundation; chair of the National Health Education Committee; and director of the National Committee for Mental Hygiene.

A dedicated humanitarian, Lasker also lent her support to beautification projects in both New York and Washington, donating thousands of flowers, shrubs and trees. Among her distinguished awards and decorations were the Alfred Sloan Award of the American Cancer Society; the John H. Finley Medal from City College of New York, the U.S. Medal of Freedom; and the Gold Heart from the American Heart Association.

Lasker died in 1994.

BLACKWELL RECIPIENTS

• February 3, 2021
  Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

• January 22, 2015
  Dr. Janet L. Yellen

• November 10, 2013
  The Most Reverend Doctor Katharine Jefferts Schori

• October 27, 2011
  Eunice Kennedy Shriver

• April 23, 2009
  Rabbi Sally J. Priesand

• April 24, 2008
  Dr. Wangari Maathai Sc.D.'94, P '94, P '96

• April 27, 2007
  Dr. Priscilla A. Schaffer '64, Sc.D. '94

• September 7, 2004
  Bishop Barbara Clementine Harris

• September 9, 2003
  Loretta C. Ford

• September 4, 2001
  Madeleine K. Albright

• May 15, 1998
  Billie Jean King

• February 10, 1996
  Wilma Mankiller

• September 23, 1993
  Barbara Jordan

• September 27, 1991
  Margaret Chase Smith

• February 22, 1991
  Dr. Antonia C. Novello

• February 19, 1988
  Barbara Aronstein Black

• October 9, 1985
  Cicely Saunders

• March 8, 1985
  Sandra Day O’Connor

• February 11, 1984
  Hannah Holborn Gray

• February 26, 1982
  Agnes George de Mille

• February 15, 1980
  Mary Douglas Leakey

• September 30, 1977
  Mary S. Calderone

• October 3, 1975
  Antonia Brico

• Janurary 23, 1974
  Frances Keller Harding

• May 28, 1973
  Judith Graham Pool

• June 8, 1972
  Marian Anderson

• April 10, 1972
  Mary Lasker

• June 13, 1971
  Mina Rees

• June 14, 1970
  Helen Brooke Taussig

• June 15, 1969
  Georgiana Sibley

• June 16, 1968
  Constance Baker Motley

• September 8, 1967
  Catharine Macfarlane

• July 10, 1966
  Fe del Mundo

• June 13, 1965
  Annette LeMeitour-Kaplun

• June 14, 1964
  Margaret Mead

• June 9, 1963
  Marty Mann

• June 10, 1962
  Frances Perkins

• June 18,1961
  Leona Baumgartner

• June 12, 1960
  Miki Sawada

• June 14, 1959
  Elisabeth Luce Moore

• September 27, 1958
  Gwendolyn Grant Mellon