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Great Lives from History: American Women

Jane Cooke Wright

by Janet Ober Berman, Micah L. Issitt

Scientist and physician

Wright revolutionized the field of chemotherapy. Her research on chemotherapy agents and their administration continued to be used in clinical practice decades later. She also became the highest-ranking African-American woman at a medical institution when she was appointed associate dean at New York Medical College.

Born: November 30, 1919

Died: February 19, 2013

Area of Achievement: Education, medicine, science and technology

Early Life

Jane Cooke Wright was born in 1919 to Louis Tompkins Wright, a prominent surgeon who also specialized in venereal disease and cancer research, and Corrine Cooke, an elementary school teacher. Wright was the eldest of two daughters. Her father instilled in her a strong sense of political and social activism, given his own struggles to overcome racial barriers.

Wright completed secondary schooling at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York City. She was awarded a scholarship to Smith College in 1942. She initially took an interest in nonmedical subjects, including art and physics, but eventually decided on a medical career. Wright obtained a full scholarship to New York Medical College and graduated third in her class with honors in 1945. She interned at Bellevue Hospital and completed her residency at Harlem Hospital.

Life's Work

Upon completion of residency, Wright accepted a position as a physician with the New York City Public Schools in 1949. After only six months, Wright left the school district for full-time work at Harlem Hospital. She joined her father at the Harlem Hospital Cancer Research Foundation, which he had established. There, Wright focused on clinical trials for chemotherapy, which was considered experimental and not generally accepted as a treatment for cancer at the time. Wright's work concentrated on possible chemotherapeutic agents for treating leukemia as well as breast, skin, and other cancers. Wright studied drug interactions, techniques for administering chemotherapy, and each agent's effect on a tumor. She also documented patients' reactions to chemotherapy drugs. She was the first chemotherapy researcher to assert that chemotherapeutic agents had to be administered in a specific order, over time, rather than all at once. After her father's death, Wright followed in his footsteps and became the foundation's director at only thirty-three years of age.

Similar to her trailblazing father, Wright created a foundation of her own, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, in 1964. That year, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed her to the Commission on Heart Disease, Cancer, and Stroke. This commission was influential in creating a national network of treatment centers for the diseases, a concept that came to be considered integral to medical practice and research.

Since 1955, Wright had been an associate professor of surgical research at New York University Medical Center and director of cancer chemotherapy research. In 1967, she became a professor of surgery at New York Medical College and was appointed the college's associate dean. She was the first African-American woman to hold such a position at a medical program in the United States. Wright held the post from 1967 to 1975. During this time, she also was the first woman elected president of the New York Cancer Society. Wright remained at New York Medical College for the remainder of her career. In addition to her research responsibilities, she taught physicians the techniques of chemotherapy and how to conduct research in the field.

Wright won numerous awards, including the Albert Einstein College of Medicine Spirit of Achievement Award (1965), the Hadassah Myrtle Wreath award (1967), the Smith College Medal (1968), the American Association for Cancer Research Award (1975), and the Otelia Cromwell Award (1981). She also published more than 130 journal articles on cancer research and chemotherapy and was dubbed the “Mother of Chemotherapy.” Wright served on delegations that taught the principles of cancer research worldwide. She retired in 1987 after forty years of research.

In 1947, Wright married David Dallas Jones, Jr., an attorney specializing in advocacy for affirmative action. The couple had two daughters, Jane and Alison. Wright's work and personal papers were compiled into a collection housed at Smith College in 2006. Wright died in February of 2013, age 93, at her home in Guttenberg, New Jersey. She was survived by two daughters, Alison and Barbara.

Significance

Wright's groundbreaking research in the field of chemotherapy cannot be overstated. Although it came to be combined with other modes of treatment such as radiation, chemotherapy remains a key component of cancer treatment. Her visionary work regarding the order of agent administration and variety of patient responses continued to be used clinically and studied many decades later. She held prominent positions, created national organizations, and become a role model both nationally and internationally throughout her career.

Citation Types

Type

Format

MLA 9th

Ober Berman, Janet, and Micah L. Issitt. "Jane Cooke Wright." Great Lives from History: American Women, edited by Mary K. Trigg, Salem Press, 2016. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=GLHW_0523.

APA 7th

Ober Berman, J., & Issitt, M. L. (2016). Jane Cooke Wright. In M. K. Trigg (Ed.), Great Lives from History: American Women. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.

CMOS 17th

Ober Berman, Janet and Issitt, Micah L. "Jane Cooke Wright." Edited by Mary K. Trigg. Great Lives from History: American Women. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2016. Accessed September 17, 2025. online.salempress.com.

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