Lung Cancer

RICHARD BEN CRAMER, an iconic journalist and author who won a Pulitzer Prize at the Inquirer for his vivid overseas reporting, died Monday evening in Baltimore after a battle with lung cancer. He was 62. Cramer, who'd been living on Maryland's Eastern Shore and had been working on a book about New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez in recent years, died at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, according to his close friend James McBride. Cramer's death was confirmed by family members to other news organizations late Monday.

Richard Ben Cramer, 62, a Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent for The Inquirer who became a best-selling author, died Monday, Jan. 7, of lung cancer at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. Mr. Cramer, of Chestertown, Md., wrote What It Takes: The Way to the White House about the 1988 presidential campaign. It has been hailed as one of the greatest books about electoral politics in America. He also wrote the widely acclaimed Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life, published in 2000.

Ralph Viguers Sr., 86, of Paoli, who spent 34 years raising public awareness about the ill effects of smoking and air pollution on health, died of pancreatic cancer Thursday, Nov. 15, at his home. Mr. Viguers was born in Narberth and graduated in 1944 from Lower Merion High School, where he was a member of the school's Pennsylvania state championship basketball teams in 1942 and 1943. He joined the Army in 1945 and was stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C. He was discharged with the rank of corporal.

Lung cancer takes more lives than any other cancer. This year it will kill an estimated 160,340 Americans, more than breast, colon, and prostate cancers combined. Yet while lung cancer remains largely a death sentence - just 15.9 percent of those diagnosed are alive five years later - the federal government funds far less research on the disease than on other common cancers. The discrepancy is starkest when death rates are taken into account. In 2011, the two federal agencies providing most of the research money funded breast cancer research at a rate of $21,641 per death while spending $1,489 per lung cancer death.

Marcia Donnelly, 76, of Glen Mills, died of lung cancer Friday, Oct. 19, at her home. Mrs. Donnelly was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer four weeks before her death, but during that time she remained optimistic. "She was always able to squeeze a rainbow from every storm," said her elder daughter, Deborah Urie of Annapolis, Md. A graduate of Pottstown High School, Mrs. Donnelly earned a bachelor of science degree in biology from Immaculata College in 1958. A year later, she was awarded a scholarship from the Arthritis Foundation, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a master's degree in physical therapy.

From today through Oct. 17, Philly.com and The Inquirer will mark breast cancer awareness month by publishing a profile a day of transformative moments reported by patients. The series culminates in a special Philly.com/health Inquirer section on Oct. 18, and can be viewed at www.philly.com/breastcancer . "My little Sister, Debbi, was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer when she was 29 years old and pregnant," said Traci Walters of Texas. "They induced labor about a month early because the tumor was growing so fast because she was pregnant.

  Harry E. Hill, 57, of Phoenixville, captain of the Greater Overbrook String Band from 1991 to 1996 and from 2000 to 2001, died of lung cancer on Saturday, Sept. 29, at the Seasons Hospice at Phoenixville Hospital. Born in Norristown, Mr. Hill graduated from Bishop Kenrick High School there in 1972 and had worked as an equipment operator for PennDot in Chester County since 2004. In the 1980s and 1990s, he drove a milk delivery truck for what is now Clover Farms in Reading.

Nick A. Pico, 70, of Richboro, a longtime member and business agent of Teamsters Local 107 and a tireless pursuer of self-improvement, died of lung cancer on Thursday, Sept. 20, at St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne. The Philadelphia native joined the 5,000-member Teamsters local in 1964 at the age of 22 and began his career as a truck driver at Transcon. In the 1980s, he was elected chief shop steward at Transcon in Philadelphia, said Jackie Hopkins, Mr. Pico's secretary when he was serving as the Teamsters business agent.

Jadranka Fischer, 65, of Devon, who worked to increase awareness of the war in her native Croatia during the 1990s and raised money to support about 10 Croatian children orphaned during the war, died of lung cancer Tuesday, Sept. 11, at Paoli Hospital. Mrs. Fischer was the wife of Raoul Fischer, a retired marketing executive with Unisys Corp. in Blue Bell. In 1992, an exhibition of photographs from the Croatian war organized by Mrs. Fischer was displayed in Washington and Philadelphia, her husband said.