Young gives up reins
at cancer center

By Tom Waring
Times Staff Writer

For Dr. Robert C. Young, the decision was all about timing.
Young, who announced last week he was stepping down as president of Fox Chase Cancer Center, explained that the facility applies for a federal grant every five years. He wanted a successor in place to plan for the next submission, in 2009.
In addition, the executive pointed to the ambitious $1 billion project to build research and outpatient treatment facilities on 20 acres of adjacent Burholme Park.
"It’s time for the center to have a new leader," Young said. "I’m sixty-seven. I’m healthy and energetic, but we need someone here fifteen to twenty years to see it through. Mike Seiden is forty-eight. That’s perfect."
The Fox Chase Cancer Center board of directors selected Dr. Michael V. Seiden to replace Young. He leads the gynecologic cancer program at Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and is chief of the clinical research unit at Massachusetts General Hospital’s division of cancer medicine.
Seiden is expected to start on June 1.
Meanwhile, Young — whose interests include photography, gardening and long-distance running — said that he doesn’t want any rocking chairs as going-away gifts.
"I’m not retiring," he said. "I’m stepping down from this job."
After too many seven-day weeks with multiple monthly trips to Harrisburg and Washington, D.C., Young is eager to slow down.
"I’m interested in a full-time job that is only five days a week," he said.
Where will he go after he leaves Fox Chase?
"I don’t know that I am going to leave," he said.
That’s right, Young thinks there could be a place for him at the cancer center. That decision will be made by Seiden.
One thing is for sure. Young will make himself scarce at the beginning of his successor’s reign to remove any doubts about who will be in charge.
"Mike Seiden will be running the place, not me," he said.
Young is a native of Columbus, Ohio, and received a degree in zoology in 1960 from Ohio State University. He’s hoping his alma mater will win the NCAA men’s basketball championship.
Board-certified in internal medicine, hematology and oncology, he spent 20 years working for the National Cancer Institute, serving as chief of its medicine branch and associate director of its cancer centers and community oncology program.
Young arrived at Fox Chase, one of six free-standing comprehensive cancer centers in the country, in December 1988.
At the time, the cancer center saw 1,200 patients a year. In 2006, the center saw about 6,500 new patients. By 2015, it will treat an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 patients.
Fox Chase’s annual total revenue and support has increased from $75 million in fiscal year 1988 to $300 million in fiscal year 2006. And it’s raised $57.5 million as part of a $100 million fund-raising campaign.
Young described Fox Chase as a special place with special people.
"I love this place," he said. "It’s a great institution and is growing. I was privileged to work here for eighteen years."
A Chestnut Hill resident who is married with two children and five grandkids, Young first signaled his intention to leave last September.
By November, he and other leaders at the cancer center provided the board of directors with a list of about two dozen potential replacements from across the country. Ten of those candidates, including Seiden, indicated that they would be interested in the post.
Young, who had no say in the ultimate hiring, is pleased with the board’s decision.
"I’m extremely happy," he said. "He has a lot of experience. He has a knack of pulling together scientists and physicians to focus and work on a particular problem."
Bill Avery, the retired chairman and CEO of Crown Cork & Seal who chairs the board of directors, hopes Young will continue to have a role at Fox Chase.
The center’s Cancer Prevention Pavilion will be named in Young’s honor. Also, board member Margot Wallace Keith and her husband Robert will endow a $1.5 million chair in his honor to stimulate research leading to treatments and diagnostic and prevention techniques.
Young said those decisions by the board were "flattering" and "overwhelming."
"Bob Young’s vision of working toward a future free of cancer for our children and grandchildren gave him the commitment and drive to bring cancer prevention research to the forefront," Avery said.
Young has been particularly busy in the last few years plotting the future of the campus.
The cancer center plans to build a research pavilion and a parking garage on its site. The project has the support of civic groups in Burholme and Fox Chase and City Councilman Brian O’Neill, and has been given the OK by the Zoning Board of Adjustment.
The $70 million initiative would create 400 jobs but is being delayed by a lawsuit by two individuals who claim the center did not adequately present its plans before seeking approval.
Young said it’s been "frustrating" that the center can’t build on its own grounds, adding that the delay is causing construction costs to rise.
"More importantly, it’s a hardship on patients," he said. "They want to concentrate on getting better, and we want to concentrate on getting them better."
Young is also hoping for a quick resolution on Fox Chase’s proposed expansion into Burholme Park. The Fairmount Park Commission has agreed to lease about one-third of the 60-acre park.
The center wants to build research and outpatient treatment facilities, but park activists argue that a will granted the land to the people of the city of Philadelphia forever.
Young counters that the cash-strapped park commission will use some of the money from the lease to improve the park.
There are at least a few things preventing the center from moving forward. One is a traffic study, though Young thinks an agreement is near.
The other is a requirement that Fox Chase purchase and preserve park land elsewhere to make up for the ground it will build on in Burholme Park. That’s easier said than done in a concrete jungle like Philadelphia, but Young thinks there could be a compromise that would allow the center to buy land as it becomes available.
Finally, City Council would have to sign off on the deal, and Orphans Court would have to transfer the land.
In Young’s opinion, most of the center’s neighbors support the plan, and for good reason.
There would be 24-hour security and plenty of lighting in the areas of expansion. The buildings would be constructed in a way to create a campus-like setting. The park’s recreation area would grow because of the removal of the golf driving range. And, thousands of temporary and permanent jobs would be created.
Young is intent on growing at the current site, noting that no comprehensive cancer center in the nation has multiple locations.
It’s important, he said, for scientists to interact face-to-face with doctors.
"We’re not just delivering care. It’s how we can deliver care better," he said. "Some people say, ‘Move to Milwaukee’ or ‘Go to Chester County.’ But a third of our employees live here. We care for a lot of patients in this neighborhood. We want to continue to do that."
When Young leaves as president in two months, those two projects will likely remain unresolved. Looking ahead, though, he sounds interested in making sure the plans come off the drawing board and become reality.
"You always want to have everything done, but it’s never done," he said.
"But my hunch is Mike Seiden will want us to continue ’til the finish." ••
Reporter Tom Waring can be reached at 215-354-3034 or twaring@phillynews.com