April 28, 2000

BIRMINGHAM, AL — Dr. John J. Rinehart has been named the first holder of the Martha Ann and David L. May Endowed Chair in Cancer Research at the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center. The University of Alabama Board of Trustees made the appointment this month.

The endowment was created by a $1 million donation from Martha Ann May Klaus in honor of her late husband, who was a patient at UAB’s cancer center and received treatment there for prostate cancer. He died in 1995 at the age of 66. They were prominent business and community leaders in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

The new endowed chair is intended to support research that will lead to a better understanding of the causes of cancer as well as new and improved treatments for the disease, particularly breast and prostate cancer.

Rinehart joined UAB last year as professor of medicine in the division of hematology-oncology, and associate director for clinical research in the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center.

A graduate of the medical school at Ohio State University who completed residency training at the University of Chicago, he has risen up the academic medical career ladder at Ohio State, Texas A&M, and the Cleveland Clinic.