Support for Research Is a Class Act

Micki Cantor, MA ’09, lived for eight years following her diagnosis with ovarian cancer in 2003. She was 71 when she died.

During her lifetime, she was a lyric soprano with perfect pitch, a teacher, an ad executive, an archaeological scholar, a wife, a mother, and a grandmother. In death, she was the catalyst for an outpouring of support for cancer research.

In his 2015 memoir of their life together, her husband, Edward H. Cantor, YC ’61, JD, described the medical journey that followed her cancer diagnosis and the personal goals that Micki set and reached during her remaining time. She traveled to Tanzania and Israel, went back to graduate school, and, in her final year of life, completed her master’s degree at Yale.

“Micki was building her legacy and preserving a sense of continuity,” Ed Cantor wrote in Remember Me: Living with Cancer: A Story of Life, Love and Courage. “That was very important to her.”

Her story, and others like hers, also inspired hundreds of her husband’s college classmates to support Yale scientists striving for a better understanding of cancer, and, ultimately, its eradication.

Most of her care took place at Yale, where Ed graduated from college in 1961. He earned a law degree at Columbia, then returned to Connecticut with the ambition of being a country lawyer. He also had a penchant for community involvement and service. He established his own law firm, presided over the boards of Gaylord Hospital, Temple Emanuel, and the Yale Club of New Haven, and was a trustee of the Hopkins School.

As Micki neared the final months of her illness, Ed juggled many roles: primary caregiver, manager of the household, advocate, navigator of the healthcare system, and chief communicator with physicians, nurses, family, and friends. He was also an officer of the Class of 1961 and a leader in planning its milestone 50th reunion, which would take place just a month before Micki’s death. In a conversation that spring with Ed and Micki, their friend Vincent E. Teti, YC ’61, proposed a class initiative to raise money for cancer research. As reunion gift chair for the class, Teti was an enthusiastic promoter of the cause.

The response was phenomenal. Within a few months, class members had contributed $200,000 to the effort. That fund was named the Cantor-Smith Research Fund, in honor of Ed Cantor and DeForest W. “Frosty” Smith, YC ’61, who had by then served their class as co-chairs for 20 years. The fund began with contributions from more than 100 class members. In addition, class members contributed to Yale Cancer Center (YCC) for the purchase of research equipment.

“It’s done a tremendous amount of good and will have a huge impact helping patients over time,” says Eric P. Winer, YC ’78, MD ’83, director of YCC and president and physician-in-chief of Smilow Cancer Hospital. “By fueling bold, high-risk science and attracting exceptional talent, it will have a transformative effect on how we can detect, treat, and ultimately eradicate cancer.”

The Cantor-Smith Research Endowment was in place at YCC, but it was not utilized for the first five years. In 2016, classmate John P. de Neufville, YC ’61, PhD, approached Cantor and offered to augment the fund by adding his own gift of $200,000, with the stipulation that it be renamed to recognize the entire class. His suggestion was rapidly accepted.

Cantor and de Neufville shared a similar experience: Both of their wives had succumbed to cancer. Together, they became the founders of the Yale College Class of 1961 Cancer Endowment. Participation soared even further. Now, 10 years later, the fund has grown from $400,000 to over $3.5 million. Along the way, it has awarded more than $900,000 in research grants to young scientists at YCC.

Cantor sees no lessening of enthusiasm for this effort among the class. In honor of the class’s 65th reunion in May of this year, members committed to an additional $850,000. Many have decided to include the fund in their estate plans.

Cantor, whose older brother, Fredric, YC ’58, MD ’62, is a long-time alumni leader and donor to Yale School of Medicine, attributes this success to the unusually close bonds that developed among the class members and their practice of holding mini reunions every year or so, sometimes twice a year. In the Zoom era, they meet as often as monthly, with invited speakers discussing topics as varied as “The Young Michelangelo” and “Black Holes and Why They Matter.”

“When the fund started, we had already built a nucleus of people who felt connected,” Cantor says. “As time went on, more and more got excited and became donors.”

Ed and Micki forged an immediate bond when they met in 1971. Like Ed, Micki was born in Connecticut but was uprooted to Oak Ridge, Tenn., and Schenectady, N.Y., as her father pursued a career as a nuclear engineer.

She met Ed while both were working on the campaign of a New Haven mayoral candidate. They fell in love and married four months later. When their son, David, went off to college, Micki returned to work, eventually becoming the executive in charge of ad sales for a local cable television franchise. She retired at age 57, and Ed followed at 58.

For five wonderful years before Micki’s diagnosis, they embarked on a new phase of life, auditing courses at Yale, traveling, and spending as much time as they could with their young grandchildren, who lived nearby. Micki had always been drawn to ancient history and archeology. As an auditing student, she was encouraged by her professors to enroll in a degree program, which she did in 2001. It gave her great satisfaction to finish her master’s degree in May 2011, less than two months before her death on July 7 of that year.

Ed said it pleased Micki to know that the cancer research fund was being established and that it would help others. As the gifts from classmates arrived by the dozens—114 in all during those months leading up to the 50th reunion—Ed kept her informed. “I reported each gift to Micki, and this was a source of inspiration to her,” he says.

This philanthropy has also inspired cancer researchers at Yale, 19 of whom have received grants over the past decade. “It’s a sort of a ‘Who’s Who’ list in YCC,” says Winer. One of the earlier recipients was Katerina Politi, PhD, now a YCC deputy director and lung cancer expert. Another is Melinda Irwin, PhD, MPH, also a YCC deputy director and associate dean at Yale School of Public Health, and an expert on exercise and cancer. The grants fill important gaps in funding.

“It’s enough money that it covers most of the cost of a research technician or postdoctoral fellow, and that can really make a big difference in the career of a faculty member,” says Winer. “They’re really an amazing class and such good people. The endowment has been and will continue to be a huge asset to the cancer research conducted at Yale. Of course, our ultimate goal is to eliminate cancer, but much work remains.”