As USC celebrates the 40th anniversary of the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Weekly will run in each issue through the end of the year items highlighting key moments in the history of the institution.

Right, donor Kenneth T. Norris Jr. (left) and Denman Hammond, founding director of the center, display the first architechtural model of the new facility in a late 1970s file photo.

In 1970, a task force was formed to establish a cancer center at USC. Forty years ago this month, National Cancer Institute Director Frank J. Rauscher Jr. announced the USC Comprehensive Cancer Center as one of eight organizations recognized as comprehensive cancer centers to bring results of research as rapidly as possible to the greatest number of people.