From 1956 to 1996, Lawrence conducted both clinical and research activity at Memorial-Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center of Cornell Medical College.[8]
...Walter personally mentored many Black surgical oncologists, fighting the good fight to diversify our workforce, which back then was much more homogeneous than it is today... Living in the former capital of the Confederacy, Walter witnessed racism on a daily basis. When the Southern Surgical Association declined to admit his friend Dr. LaSalle Leffall, because he was Black, and the American Medical Association refused to intervene on Leffall's behalf, Walter resigned from both groups. Instead, he became a member of the Society of Black Academic Surgeons.[5]
Robert Winn wrote, "The real mark Dr. Lawrence leaves behind is his mission to help those less fortunate than us and to ensure that some do not bear the burden of health and cancer burden. And he never rested on this mission. Until last year, he was using his platform to speak on behalf of the least heard voices, ensuring that everyone has access to affordable, world-class healthcare."[2]
Harry D. Bear wrote, "...he may be the only person admitted to the membership of the Southern Surgical Society twice. He resigned from this group when they would not admit an African American candidate; he was later re-admitted to the Southern after that black candidate had achieved membership some years later. This is a typical example of his sense of what is right. That is just one area where he has been a valued source of advice over the years."[8]
Academic positions
In 1966, Lawrence became Vice-Chair of Surgery and Chair of the first academic Division of Surgical Oncology in the United States at the Medical College of Virginia. There he was also appointed Director of the NCI-accredited Massey Cancer Center, Medical College of Virginia, at the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) campus from 1974 to 1990.[2][9][10] He served on the VCU School of Medicine Admissions Committee where his primary focus was also on medical school teaching. Later, the teaching portion of his career consisted entirely of medical student teaching at Hunter Holmes McGuire Veterans Administration Medical Center.[11]
Selected publications
According to Bear, "Lawrence's bibliography includes more than 260 papers on a wide variety of topics, as well as half a dozen books, and 35 book chapters."[8]
Books
Lawrence Jr., W.; Neifeld, J. P.; Terz, J. J. (December 6, 2012). Manual of Soft-Tissue Tumor Surgery. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN978-1-4612-5556-7.
Lawrence, W; Gehan, E A; Hays, D M; Beltangady, M; Maurer, H M (January 1, 1987). "Prognostic significance of staging factors of the UICC staging system in childhood rhabdomyosarcoma: a report from the Intergroup Rhabdomyosarcoma Study (IRS-II)". Journal of Clinical Oncology. 5 (1): 46–54. doi:10.1200/JCO.1987.5.1.46. ISSN0732-183X. PMID3543238.
1998 Beckstrand Cancer Foundation National Cancer Fighter of the Year, for "a lifetime of outstanding leadership and achievements in the war against cancer".[15]
1999 President's Medal of the American Cancer Society[8]
