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JACOB FURTH 167 JACOB FURTH September 20, 1896-July 23, 1979 BY SIDNEY WEINHOUSE AND JOHN J. FURTH THE TWENTIETH CENTURY has witnessed the phenomenal growth of medical science, and cancer research in particular has advanced from a field of descriptive anatomy to a flourishing, sophisticated biological discipline, pregnant with insights directed toward understanding and control of one of humankind's misfortunes. One of the leaders who helped to transform cancer research to a true scientific endeavor was Jacob Furth. In a career of fifty-seven years he contributed to diverse fields of cancer biology and experimental pathology. He was responsible for major advances in immunology, leukemia and radiation, and viral carcinogenesis. His pioneering work on hormonal effects in tumor development added new dimensions to our understanding of how tumors proliferate. Jacob Furth was born in the city of Miscolcz, then part of the Austro- Hungarian Empire, in 1896. His father, Jonas, had seven children, four of whom died as infants. Jacob was the next to the youngest. His mother, Jetti Sussman, died when he was three. His father remarried Roza Farkas, and they had four more children. Roza was a simple woman and a devoted mother to both her children and her stepchildren. Jacob was particularly close to one brother, Lajos, with whom he played soccer and chess. Lajos came to the
JACOB FURTH 168 United States in 1941, and they remained close until his death in 1969. Jetti's children were all talented. One sister, Margit, wrote first-rate novels and poetry (in Hungarian). Jacob pondered whether to go into medicine or law. He chose medicine over law because, as he put it, "Lawyers can be hired to prove not only the right, but also that the wrong was right."1 This was at the outbreak of World War I; after his first year, having been captured in the first major battle in which his unit was engaged, Jacob spent three years in Russian military prisons. He returned to Hungary as part of a prisoner exchange and completed his medical training in 1921. His experiences as a prisoner during the turmoil of the Bolshevik Revolution, which extended into Hungary on his return, have been recounted by Murray Angevine.2 It was in Prague that Jacob met Olga Berthauer, a medical student at the Czech University, while he was attending the German University. She was to come to the United States a year after Jacob. The immigration authorities were reluctant to let her stay (as a single woman). However, they were married the next day, and, upon presentation of the marriage certificate, the immigration authorities relented. She was to be collaborator, colleague, homemaker, and confidant for over fifty years. Although maintaining a career, first as a pediatrician and later in school health, Olga's devotion to Jacob was complete. Without hesitation she gave up good jobs when he moved. She was good at her vocation, always able to get a good job in the new city (except Boston, for Massachusetts would not license a graduate of a foreign medical school). Her last job was with the School Health Department of New York City, a position she held until the mandatory retirement age of eighty. She died April 21, 1988.
