A traveler passing through Columbia, Mo., along Interstate 70 could not miss seeing a seven-story building which originally had horizontal stripes that many thought resembled a chocolate layer cake. This building was the Ellis Fischel Missouri State Cancer Hospital.
Who was Ellis Fischel and why was the hospital named after him? Ellis Fischel, MD, was born in 1883 in St. Louis. His father was Dr. Washington Fischel, a prominent internist. In 1904, the year of the St. Louis World’s Fair, he married Marguerite Kauffman. They had two children, one of whom was paralyzed from birth. Marguerite composed music and wrote a book, The Spastic Child, which went through three editions.
Dr. Fischel came from a family that was well-to-do and civic-minded. His sister Edna Gellhorn was involved in many causes. She was a founder of the League of Women Voters and was a leader in the women’s suffragist movement. Her daughter Martha Gellhorn was the only female journalist who landed on the Normandy coast on D-Day of World War II. She accomplished this feat by hiding in a bathroom. She was also the third wife of the author Ernest Hemingway.
The Fischels were part of group of socially conscious, philanthropic prominent citizens of St. Louis. They felt a responsibility to care for the poor, the sick, and oppressed. It is likely that this cultural background inspired Ellis Fischel to establish a free cancer hospital for the indigent citizens of Missouri.
Ellis Fischel (pronounced Fish-ELL) enrolled at Harvard University in 1900. He played on the university’s baseball team. He was a classmate of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the thirty-second president of the United States. He graduated from Washington University School of Medicine, completed a two-year internship at St. Louis City Hospital, and then studied abroad.
Dr. Fischel became a surgeon and eventually rose to become associate professor of clinical surgery at Washington University. Early in his career, Dr. Fischel taught anesthesia, fractures, and plastic surgery. After he began treating cancer at a charity hospital in St. Louis he wrote, “Chance led to the surgical service at a charity cancer hospital-service which has given me the greatest individual satisfaction and stimulation to greater endeavor.”
He treated cancer in every part of the body including the brain. He was among the first physicians to use radium as treatment against cancer. During his 25 years in private practice, Dr. Fischel cared for 1,208 cancer patients, 519 of which reached the milestone of surviving five or more years. He cared for countless more charity patients—perhaps as many as 10,000. He taught at both Saint Louis University and Washington University.
Founding the Hospital
As a member of the Missouri Medical Association’s Cancer Committee, Dr. Fischel persuaded the American Cancer Society to conduct a statewide cancer survey. The results showed that many poor Missourians were in need of cancer care.
Armed with this survey and with his experience in caring for cancer patients, Dr. Fischel asked elected officials to support his plan to build a state cancer hospital. The plan was approved and construction began in 1938. Ellis Fischel was named the first chair of Missouri’s Cancer Commission. The hospital would be the first cancer center west of the Mississippi.
Dr. Fischel did not live to see the completion of the hospital. Tragically he died in an automobile accident in Useful, Mo. He was on his way to a Cancer Commission meeting. He was 53 years old.
The new hospital was to be named after Missouri Gov. Lloyd C. Stark. But Stark insisted on naming the state hospital for Ellis Fischel. Stark told a reporter, “I will appreciate very much your mentioning the fact that after Dr. Fischel’s death I asked that the name be changed from mine to his because, in my opinion there never would have been a state cancer hospital except for Dr. Fischel’s untiring efforts.”
The 1930s marked a different era. In this day and age of bloated political egos, a magnanimous gesture like Gov. Stark’s would be very unlikely.
The Ellis Fischel State Cancer Hospital was gradually integrated into the University of Missouri Medical Center. In 2013, it officially moved to a new facility on the main campus and became the Ellis Fischel Cancer Center.
Ellis Fischel Missouri State Cancer Hospital (above) as it appeared shortly after opening in 1940. In the 1970s, the exterior was recolored and a large addition made (below).
Ellis Fischel wrote how he personally felt about his life: “The greatest interest in life, as I have found it, is my daily contact with my fellow man, both in health and disease. The greatest rewards come through what we personally mean to a few obscure individuals. The greatest thrill is from public recognition of work well done.”
To learn more about Ellis Fischel, MD, view a short video on the MU website at bit.ly/fischel-history.
Footnotes
Arthur H. Gale, MD, is a Missouri Medicine Contributing Editor. He is a retired Internal Medicine physician in St. Louis. He recently received the Missouri Medicine Distinguished Editorial Service Award.
Reprinted with permission from St. Louis Metropolitan Medicine.
Reprinted with permission from St. Louis Metropolitan Medicine.
References
- 1.Ellis Fischel Cancer Center History. MU Health Care website. https://www.muhealth.org/locations/ellis-fischel-cancer-center/ellis-fischel-history.
- 2.Keyes, Edward Lawrence, MD. Ellis Fischel MD, 1883–1938, St. Louis Surgeon, Pioneer-Warrior Against Cancer, A Biography. Prepared for The Memorabilia Committee of the Jewish Hospital of St. Louis and the Jewish Historical Committee of the Women’s Division of the Jewish Federation of St. Louis.
- 3.Baker Burton H, MD, Rolinda Baker. Ellis Fischel, Dedicated Missourian. Missouri Medicine. 1974 Jan; [Google Scholar]
- 4.Historic Missourians, Edna Fischel Gellhorn. The State Historical Society of Missouri; https://shsmo.org/historicmissourians/name/g/gellhorn. [Google Scholar]