Opinion: The ironic origin story behind Sloan Kettering
Sloan Kettering is one of the world’s leading cancer centers. It was founded by two men who created and sold leaded gasoline — a destructive, carcinogenic poison.
In the spring of 1945, Alfred P. Sloan, the former CEO of General Motors, made what seemed like a magnanimous gesture. He donated $4 million to a modest research center on the east side of Manhattan and, in doing so, planted the seeds of what would eventually become one of the world’s premier cancer research institutions. By his side was Charles Kettering, a celebrated inventor and longtime friend, whom Sloan had convinced not only to donate additional money but also to help lead the new facility.
Their goal was ambitious. They wanted to revolutionize medical research by borrowing methods from their work in the booming automobile industry of the 1920s and ’30s — things like rigorous experimentation and a relentless focus on results. In many ways, they resembled the tech titans of the 21st century, people like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, whose wealth and success sometimes overshadows the dark sides of the industries that made them rich.
