​In a message to volunteer leaders on June 6, Interim CEO Dr. Wayne A. I. Frederick shared, 

I am writing with the news that Harmon J. Eyre, MD, 84, a retired American Cancer Society chief medical officer and former volunteer leader who devoted much of his professional and personal life to our organization, passed away peacefully last weekend, surrounded by family.

Dr. Eyre served as chief medical officer and executive vice president for research and cancer control science for the American Cancer Society for 15 years, retiring from the organization in 2008. Before joining the ACS team as an executive leader, he volunteered for more than two decades, including serving as the ACS national volunteer president in 1988.
 
During his tenure, Dr. Eyre guided efforts to enhance and focus ACS' groundbreaking research program, upgrade the organization's advocacy capacity, and concentrate community cancer control efforts where they would be most effective. He was instrumental in developing the organization's efforts to decrease smoking, improve diet, detect cancer at the earliest stage, and provide the critical support cancer patients need.

He worked closely with former ACS CEO Dr. John Seffrin and the ACS, Inc., Board to establish priorities for the organization in the 90s and early 2000s, which resulted in core programs and the ACS 2015 challenge goals to the nation – essentially the first enterprise-wide ACS strategic plan.

Dr. Eyre was also instrumental in the formation of the National Dialogue on Cancer, which later became C-Change, bringing together the private, public, and nonprofit sectors to collaborate against cancer.

He led a transformation of the ACS research team, shifting its focus to better support early-career investigators, strengthen epidemiology and surveillance efforts, and establish the ACS Behavioral Research Center. Dr. Eyre also created what was then the cancer control science department in 2002.

Dr. Eyre's tenure as CMO followed a successful academic career as a medical oncologist at the University of Utah, where he served as associate chairman of Internal Medicine and deputy director of the Huntsman Cancer Institute. It was in his early days at the University of Utah in 1971 that Dr. Eyre first became involved with ACS, while he oversaw clinical cancer trials and cancer research. He later went on to become the medical representative to the ACS National Board from the former Utah Division, eventually becoming the ACS national volunteer president in 1988.

When he retired, Dr. Seffrin noted Dr. Eyre was:" An extraordinary clinician and visionary leader who has the rare gift of being able to apply his clinical vision to everyday practice in cancer control and research."

Dr. Eyre was known for his legacy of service to others. In his own retirement remarks to the organization, he noted, “As a medical doctor, I had the opportunity to serve hundreds of patients. As an educator, I extended my reach to help make a difference for potentially thousands more. But it is through my work with the American Cancer Society that I have made the most significant and rewarding difference imaginable. The Society's work affects people in every community in this country – and now around the world. And I have been privileged to be a part of that."

We at ACS were fortunate to have such a leader.

I know you will join me in keeping Dr. Eyre's family in your thoughts during this time.