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AMERI CANCER AlN SOCIETY NEWS SERVICE ~I 219 EASI 42nd STREET NEw YORK, N. Y. 10017 (2121 B67•3700 Hrii,uJ06105 FOR RELEASE AFTER 11:00 A.M., WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1972: NEW YORK, NEW YORK: -- A man who•made a career of using the power of mass communications to help save thousands of lives from cancer, Clifton R. Read, former Vice President for Public Information of the American Cancer Society, was honored on his retirement at the Soc iety's Annual Meeting here today. For example, when Read started at the Society as publicity director in 1936, uterine cancer was killing more American women than any other form of the diaease. Read helped educate women to the importance of the Pap test for the early diagnosis of a common form of uterine cancer that is highly curable if caught early. Today, the death rate has been cut in half. But, it was a tremendous job in public relations just to introduce a word like "uterine" into the mass media. Read went on to an even more difficult battle -- the fight against cigarette smoking. At the time of his retirement, Read was Senior Editor and Consultant on Tobacco and Cancer and managed the 1967 World Conference on Smoking and Health. Until 1968 he headed the ACS Depart- mernt of Public Information, He also served as Chairman of the Public Education Committee of the International Union Against Cancer, head- quartered in Geneva, Switzerland. - ~ ~ - more

h WUO31 06 At the Board Meeting today, Read was giyen a Distinguished Service Award hailing him as a "pioneer in health communications," who made the control;of cancer the "driving force of his career." The award was presented at the Board Meeting, Wednesday morning in the Waldorf- Astoria. ACS volunteers from all parts of the nation were present. Read was born in Minnesota,;educated at Princeton, and resides ~ in New York City and Cornwall Bridge, Connecticut. Before joining the ACS, he worked as a writer for the National Broadcasting Co., was Program Director of Radio Station WEVD, and Publicity Director for the American Civil Liberties Union. Serving as ACS Publicity Director from 1936 to 1941 he returned to the non-profit, voluntary agency in 1948 and became head of Public Education and Information in 1952. He was with the Society during its time of greatest growth. During the Second World War, Read was Regional Director of the New York Office of War Information and later served with the Psycholo- gical Warfare Branch, AFHQ in the Mediterranean Theater and established the U.S. Information Service in Yugoslavia. The Reads have two children and two grandchildren. ~ # ~ ~ ~