 | Dr. Charles F. McKhann |
Dr. Charles Fremont McKhann, professor emeritus of surgery at the School of Medicine, died of prostate cancer on Nov. 14 at his home in North Haven.
McKhann was a leading investigator in the field of tumor immunology and surgical oncology. Later in his career, he also became an outspoken advocate for legalizing physician-assisted suicide.
Born in Boston in 1930, McKhann graduated from Harvard College in 1951 and the University of Pennsylvania Medical School in 1955. He did his residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital and was on the faculty of Harvard Medical School and the University of Minnesota Medical School, where he was primarily involved in cancer research. He was a Macy Foundation Fellow at the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research in Lausanne, Switzerland, and a Special Research Fellow at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.
He came to Yale in 1980 as professor of surgery and was executive director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center 1981-1990 and vice chair of the Department of Surgery 1991-1993. He retired in 2001.
At Yale, his work was in clinical surgery, mostly with breast cancer patients. He pursued his great interest in bioethics and founded the Committee for the Study of End-of-Life Issues. During the last few years of his life, he talked to first-year medical students about his own illness and his thoughts about dying, encouraging them to ask questions which he answered very frankly.
The author of many papers and abstracts, McKhann wrote two books, "The Facts about Cancer," a guide for patients, family and friends; and "A Time to Die -- The Place for Physician Assistance."
He served on many scientific advisory committees including the General Motors Cancer Research Foundation Kettering Award Assembly, and was on the editorial boards of numerous publications.
He loved the outdoors and was an enthusiastic mountain climber, skier, hiker and white water canoeist.
He is survived by his wife Rhona, three children and two grandchildren. A memorial service will be held at Yale in the spring.
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