Dear Editor:

A memorial fund has been established at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, honoring the late Dolph Honicker. The Honicker family became closely related to the cancer center in 1973 when Linda Honicker was found to have myelogenous leukemia, a deadly type of cancer, arising in the bone marrow. The Honickers lived in Nashville, Tenn., at that time, and their medical oncologist in Nashville advised that Linda, age 19, be referred to this rising cancer center in Seattle where Dr. E. Donnall Thomas was conducting basic and clinical studies on developing methods of bone marrow transplantation.

Linda traveled to Seattle and joined a group of patients with a similar type of cancer who would be given the opportunity of possible cure of their leukemia by a combination of chemotherapy, intense total-body X-radiation therapy, followed by bone marrow transplantation. For Linda, this was a lifesaving event, and she remains well and free of cancer, living now in Katy, Texas.

The other patients in that group were not so fortunate. But Dr. Thomas continued his studies, and in 1990 was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine for his research in developing safe and effective bone marrow transplantation.

Mr. Dolph Honicker was the news editor at the Nashville Tennessean. Upon his retirement, Dolph and his wife, Jeanine, moved to LaGrange, hometown of Jeanine and the location of LaGrange Daily News, the newspaper at which Dolph had his earliest experience in newspaper work, as the sports editor, during brief vacations from his attendance at Auburn University.

In a distinguished career in newspaper writing and editing, Dolph was greatly appreciated for his humor and his exceptional ability in writing and editing.

In the last months of his life, Dolph suffered from a number of illnesses involving exquisite pain, and finally sepsis from which he was not able to recover. He dedicated his body to a medical school. And his family, recognizing the great potential of cancer research to develop more effective methods of cancer treatment, such as saved their of Dolph Honicker do so by making contributions to the Dolph Honicker Memorial Cancer Fund at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. Dr. Thomas, now age 90, and retired, still has close relations with this center, and remains in contact with the Honicker Family.

Donations may be sent to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, 1100 Fairview Ave., P.O. Box 19024, Seattle, WA 98109-1024

John Thomas West, M.D.

Hickory Drive, LaGrange