By Judy Clabes
NKyTribune editor
The NKY community will get another opportunity to celebrate the life of — and show its appreciation to — Dr. Julia E.H. Carter, founder of the Wood Hudson Cancer Research Laboratory, based in Newport.
Dr. Carter dedicated her life to finding a cure for cancer which plagued her own family and to training aspiring young researchers in the skills needed for careers in cancer research. She died in May after a brief illness. She was 80.
A quiet, unassuming women, and a brilliant intellectual, she was relentless in her pursuit.
Her sons, Percy and Sidney Carter, are holding a Celebration of Life on Sunday, 1-4 p.m. at St. Barbara Church’s Sterling Hall (4042 Turkeyfoot Road, Erlanger). There will be light refreshments. Remarks will take place from 2-3 p.m.
Carter grew up in New Jersey and Connecticut and studied at Wellesley College where she earned a bachelor’s degree in philsophy with a minor in chemistry. Her interest in cancer research began with summer research internships at the Cancer Research Institute of New England Deaconess Hospital. For three years after graduation, she worked full time at the Cancer Research Institute. She later earned her Master’s degree and Ph.D. in Physiology at Rutgers University and then completed post-doctoral training at Rutgers under the Director of The Bureau of Biological Research.
In the late 1970s, Dr. Julia Carter and her husband, Dr. Harry Carter, Dr. Larry Douglass and Mr. Sidney Wood founded the Wood Hudson Cancer Research Laboratory in 1981 as a not-for-profit laboratory dedicated to cancer research in Cleveland.
In 1984 the Lab moved to Covington and then in 1990 to Newport, where it has thrived and continues today.
Wood Hudson’s website outlines its mission and purposes, and says: “Our programs and activities center on cancer research. Our research leads to new knowledge about cancer and solutions to the cancer problem. Our Biospecimen Repository facility is central to our ability to conduct research that validates targets for cancer therapy, and develops approaches to cancer diagnosis and prognosis. We have over 2 million human tissue cancer non-cancer specimens, representing over 65,000 cancer patients from Northern Kentucky and the Greater Cincinnati area. The Biospecimen Repository allows for the extension of research collaboration with other hospitals and universities, as well as pharmaceutical companies. We are studying biologic factors important in breast, colon, gastric, ovarian cancers and malignant melanomas, and are consequently potential targets for new cancer treatments.”
Dr. Carter served as Principal Investigator on five U.S. EPA funded cooperative research agreements as well as on research agreements with five pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.
She was a devoted mother and grandmother, who always made time to celebrate special occasions and holidays with her family. With her grandchildren, she enjoyed playing a variety of board games and card games, and was a spirited, if understated, competitor.
Carter was preceded in death by her parents, Percy W. Hudson and Julia E. Wood Hudson, and her husband of 32 years, Dr. Harry W. Carter.
She is survived by her sons and daughters-in-law, Percy (Laura) Carter and Sidney (Zoe) Carter; and her grandchildren, Harry, Isabelle, Samuel, Caleb, and Jasper.