Ihde a big name with cancer research

Dr. Daniel C. Ihde was a medical scientist that was nationally important in cancer research.

He died Dec. 9, 2004, after a long illness.

Ihde was a private person but his attitude towards life added knowledge to the medical field changing the face of medical history while extending the lives of millions of people.

Dr. Mary South of Portales knew Ihde when they attended the National Institute of Health together. She said Ihde touched the lives of all those that have and will have cancer but some of his research went further than that.

“His work applies to every person in the world,not just cancer patients,” South said. “It changed the basic knowledge of medicine about every disease and every well person,” she said.

Daniel Carlyle Ihde was born in Parsons, Kan., on July 10, 1943, to Martha and Ira C. Ihde. He grew up in Portales and graduated from Eastern New Mexico University in 1964 with a degree in mathematics. While attending ENMU, he worked as a reporter at the Portales News-Tribune.

He married Mary Katherine Nanninga in 1968 and received his medical degree from Stanford University Medical School in 1969. Ihde served 21 years at the National Cancer Institute from 1973 to 1994. He served as Director of the Division of Hematology and Oncology at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Mary. He also served as editor in chief for the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

He received many awards honoring his work including the Stanford Medical Alumni Research Award, the U.S. Public Health Service Commendation Medal, the National Institutes of Health Merit Award and the Bristol-Meyers Squibb Award for Excellence in Lung Cancer Research.

During his research, Ihde collaborated with a team of medical scientists to determine the primary cause and effects of small-cell lung cancer. He was listed as being one of the country’s top cancer doctors for women in the March 1999 issue of Good Housekeeping. He published more than 100 articles in a variety of medical journals and chapters for medical textbooks.

Martha Ihde, Dr. Ihde’s mother, said she could never have asked for a better son. According to Martha, she asked her son what he wanted to do with his life before he entered college, he told her that he wanted to enter the field of medicine because he wanted to be helpful to others.”

“He found his place in life,” she said. “He was real happy doing what he was doing and because of that, he helped make a lot of breakthroughs."