The Charles C. Edwards Page

Edwards was a Trustee of the American Health Foundation during August and September of 1976. He was Senior Vice President of Research and Scientific Affairs at Becton Dickinson & Co. [labware]. Becton-Dickinson funded workplace anti-smoking programs in the 1980s. Raymond Troubh and Gerald Edelman of General American Investors were directors of the company.

"...After teaching surgery (1957-62), maintaining a private practice (1956-61) and serving in several capacities at the American Medical Association (1962-67), Edwards was appointed Commissioner of the United States Food and Drug Administration in December of 1969.... In April of 1973, Edwards was appointed to the position of Assistant Secretary for Health of the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare under Caspar Weinberger.... In 1975 he resigned as assistant secretary to accept a position as senior vice president of Becton, Dickinson and Co., a world-leading manufacturer of medical supplies and equipment. In 1977 Edwards was appointed president and chief executive officer of The Scripps Research Institute (Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation). He also served as president of the National Health Council in 1977." (The Charles Edwards Papers, University of California San Diego.) He was CEO of The Scripps Research Institute until 1991, and CEO of the Scripps Institute of Medicine from 1991 to 1995.

"After three years of leading the F.D.A., Dr. Edwards was promoted in March 1973 to assistant secretary of health in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, making him, in effect, the medical czar of the Nixon administration. He supervised the Public Health Service, the surgeon general, the National Institutes of Health and the F.D.A. At H.E.W., as it was commonly known, he gave greater independence to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and folded the semi-autonomous National Institute of Mental Health into the National Institutes of Health." He was president and chief executive of the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation, predecessor of the Scripps Research Institute, eventually the Scripps Institutions of Medicine and Science, until 1993. "Charles Cornell Edwards was born on Sept. 16, 1923, in Overton, Neb., and grew up in Kearney, Neb., where his father was a country doctor. He attended Princeton before transferring to the University of Colorado, where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees. After a medical internship in Minneapolis, he worked at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn." Mrs. Edwards was Sue Cowles Kruidenier. (Dr. Charles C. Edwards, Influential F.D.A. Commissioner, Dies at 87. By Douglas Martin. New York Times, Aug. 28, 2011.) Susan Cowles Kruidenier was a granddaughter of Gardner Cowles Sr.

Edwards was a consultant to the Public Health Service while on the faculty of Georgetown University Hospital in 1961. In 1967 he was vice-president for health and scientific affairs of management firm Booz, Allen & Hamilton in Chicago. As Assistant Secretary for Health from 1973 to 1975, "Edwards reorganized some components of the Public Health Service, such as giving greater standing to the Centers for Disease Control, and he aroused the ire of his former colleagues at the AMA when he proposed major reforms in national health care" [the probable reason for his acceptability to the Lasker gang -cast].

Edwards and Surgeon General Jesse Steinfeld were advisors to the Panel on Chemicals and Health of the President's Science Advisory Committee. Its members included Lawrence H. Tribe, the infamous Harvard law professor. Edward E. David was Chairman of the President's Science Advisory Committee, and his future fellow Washington Advisory Group member and Lasker Founation director James B. Wyngaarden was a member.

"WASHINGTON REPORT: Only top-drawer MD to survive the President Nixon executive shuffle is FDA Cm'r Charles C. Edwards, MD, & there is considerable speculation that he may be tapped to succeed Merlin K. Duval, MD, as HEW Ass't Sec'y for Health. Dr. Edwards, a one-time executive of the American Medical Assn, has been an active FDA chief & has not been afraid to challenge & block the desires of the medical profession & the pharmaceutical industry. For that reason, he has been controversial but not, apparently, to the detriment of his stature within the Administration." (Medical News Report 1973 Jan 8;5(1). Ken David, editor; FJL Blasingame, publisher.) Includes news of other Nixon administration officials, including Robert Q. Marston, Surgeon General Jesse L. Steinfeld, (future RAND Trustee) Frank Carlucci, and (future AHF Trustee) John Twiname. And, "James R. Kimmey, MD, Executive Director of American Public Health Assn, has resigned to join staff of Wisconsin Gov. Patrick J. Lucey as special ass't for health policy."

Edwards was a member of the Harvard Overseers Committee to Visit the Harvard Medical School and School of Dental Medicine in 1976. Other committee members included Chairman Dr. John H. Knowles, President of the Rockefeller Foundation; Vice-Chairman Maurice Lazarus of Federated Department Stores; William T. Golden, Corporate Director and Trustee; Mrs. Eppie Lederer, aka "Ann Landers;" and Dr. Emanuel M. Papper, Vice President for Medical Affairs and Dean of the School of Medicine of the University of Miami, who was a correspondent of Florence Mahoney between 1961 and 1970. Outgoing dean Robert Ebert is pictured on the cover with his successor, Dr. Daniel C. Tosteson, and page 16 notes Julius Richmond leaving the faculty to serve as Assistant Secretary for Health and Surgeon General. (The Harvard Medical School Dean's Report, 1976.)

Edwards was on the National Advisory Council of the Addiction Research Foundation, founded by Avram Goldstein in 1974 "to discover the physiological causes of Narcotics and Tobacco Addiction" [sic]. Actually, Golstein's past experience was in narcotics and the facility did not have a nicotine lab. But Goldstein expected the tobacco industry to give him the $400,000 he said he needed to create one, and then to fund his endeavor to portray smoking as the same as heroin addiction. Other members of the National Advisory Council included Mrs. Douglas [sic] Cater [elsewhere identified as Libby Cater, the name of Douglass Cater's wife); Sen. Alan Cranston; two-time Assistant Secretary for Health Philip R. Lee; Art Linkletter; Mrs. Florence Mahoney; Mrs. Nan Tucker McEvoy, former Presidential appointee to UNESCO and heir of the San Francisco Chronicle. Directors included Martin E. Packard, Corporate Vice President of Varian Associates and a former trustee of the San Francisco Foundation (founded by Lasker Foundation director Daniel Koshland Jr.); and Wilbur Watkins, former Executive Administrator of the Palo Alto Medical Clinic, founded by Lee's father.

"Reagan's 16-member health policy advisory group includes includes two former asst. sectys. for health - Theodore Cooper, recently named Upjohn exec VP, and Charles Edwards, Scripps Medical Institute president. Others include former Pharmaceutical Mf'rs. Assn. president Joseph Stelter; James Cavanaugh, Allergan senior VP for science and planning; Alain Enthoven, Stanford public and private management prof; former AMA Legislative Council chairman William Felch, and American Pharmaceutical Assn. board chairman Mary Runge. Chairman of the Reagan group is William Walsh, president and medical director of the People-to-People Foundation (Project Hope). Edwards is also a former Becton-Dickinson senior VP for medical affairs and research; Enthoven is a former president of Litton Medical Products, and Cooper will assume his Upjohn post Oct. 1 after completing his tenure as Cornell medical dean. Cavanaugh is a former deputy asst. secty. for health and served the Ford Administration as White House deputy chief of staff. Cooper is a former director of the Natl. Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and Edwards served as FDA commissioner. Other members of the Reagan health team are Rita Campbell, Hoover Institution senior fellow; Isaac Ehrlich, SUNY (Buffalo) economics prof; Clark Havighurst, Duke law prof; Helen Jameson, asst. administrator, Rochester (Minn.) Methodist Hospital; Cotton Lindsay, Emory economics prof; Wade Mountz, president, Norton-Children's Hospitals, Louisville, Ky.; Lee Shelton, health services, Health 1st, Atlanta, and Robert Shira, Tufts senior VP." (Research Notes. The Blue Sheet, Aug. 20, 1980; and: GOP Creates Health Policy Advisory Panel. By Mary Jane Fisher. The National Underwriter Aug. 23, 1980.)

Edwards is a favorite quote source for opponents of FDA regulation: "FDA has long acknowledged that it does not have jurisdiction over tobacco absent health claims. In fact, the FDA has argued that position in court and before Congress. As early as 1972, FDA Commissioner Charles Edwards testified: '[T]he regulation of cigarettes is to be the domain of Congress. No statement relating to smoking and health can be regulated on cigarettes except the warning prescribed by Congress.'"

Edwards criticized the FDA again in 1995: "In testimony (4/95) before the Senate Commission on Labor and Human Resources, Charles Edwards, MD -- FDA Commissioner from 1969 to 1973 and chair of the Advisory Committee on the Food and Drug Administration in 1990 and 1991 -- criticized the agency for spending valuable resources investigating tobacco while it is unable to perform the important functions that are within its authority. Criticizing FDA management, Dr. Edwards said: 'The FDA's paternalistic tendency in recent years is, in my opinion more than bad policy. It is bad management. It diverts limited resources from key tasks and drug and medical device approvals.' In response to a question from Nancy Kassebaum, Dr. Edwards directly criticized Kessler's crusade against tobacco products: 'I feel very strongly about this, that you cannot regulate human behavior. This is really an issue for the Surgeon General.' He added, 'I think issues like this divert the resources of the Agency -- enormous resources of the Agency.'" (Tobacco Institute Briefing Book. The Food and Drug Administration and Tobacco Regulation, Jan. 1995.)

Edwards and his ilk give the anti-smokers a passive, defensive, stationary target to attack. What really needs to be exposed and denounced is the systematic, tax-funded conspiracy to manufacture defamations against smokers and tobacco, of which Edwards surely has direct knowledge, due to his service on the National Advisory Council of the Addiction Research Foundation!

Molecular Biosystems

Edwards was a director of Molecular Biosystems Inc. in 2000, a firm with large investments by the State of Wisconsin Investment Board (19.37%) and Mallinckrodt Group Inc. (7.00%).

Edwards is on the Board of Directors of Materia Inc.

Opsion Medical

Edwards is on the Medical Advisory Board of Opsion Medical. Fellow advisors include former Sen. Bill Bradley (D-NY from 1978-97), who is Chairman of the Advisory Board of McKinsey & Company's Institute for Management of Nonprofits; and from 1997-99 was an advisor to JP Morgan & Co. and an "essayist" for CBS evening news. Margaret Heldring, Bradley's Director of Health Policy in his 2000 presidential campaign, is another advisor.

National Coalition on Health Care

Edwards is a supporter of the National Coalition on Health Care. The NCHC is an umbrella group that breaks the mold of K Street lobbyists by being located on G Street instead. Former Rep. Paul G. Rogers is co-chair with the former governor of Iowa. Members of the board of directors include Rogers; Frank Carlucci of the Carlyle Group, also on the board of the Rand Corporation; and William Novelli, chairman of the board and former president of the ACS & RWJF-funded Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, who is now Executive Director and President of the AARP. Individual supporters include Robert N. Butler; former AHF Trustee Edmund D. Pellegrino; former Enron and ImClone director John Mendelsohn; Roz Lasker's "Medicine and Public Health" crony, M. David Low; University of Michigan Vice President for Health Gilbert S. Omenn; former Surgeon General Louis Sullivan; and Laurance Rockefeller.

Scripps Research Institute

Edwards was President and a Trustee of the Scripps Research Institute. Fellow trustees included Mrs. William McCormick Blair Jr., Vice President of the Lasker Foundation; John R. Seffrin, CEO of the American Cancer Society; and former Rep. Paul G. Rogers, who was elected chairman in 1994. (Link died http://www.scripps.edu/intro/trustees.html)

Mrs. Edwards' Family, the Cowleses

Gardner Cowles

Gardner Cowles (1861-1946) was an investment banker who purchased the Des Moines Register and Leader in 1903, and the Tribune in 1908. In 1932, he was a director in the Reconstruction Finance Corporation under President Herbert Hoover. The Cowles empire purchased the Minneapolis Star in 1935, the Journal in 1939, and the Tribune in 1941. They introduced LOOK magazine in 1937. He was born in Oskaloosa, Iowa, where his father was a Methodist minister. He attended William Penn College and Grinnell College, and graduated from Iowa Wesleyan College in 1882. In 1884, he married Flora Call of Algona, and went into the banking business with his father-in-law. He left three daughters, Mrs. David S. Kruidenier of Des Moines, Mrs. James D. LeCron of Berkeley, Cal., and Mrs. Bertha Quarton of Cedar Rapids, Ia., and three sons, John Cowles, president of the Minneapolis Star-Journal and Tribune; Gardner Cowles Jr., president of the Des Moines Register and Tribune, Look magazine and the Cowles Broadcasting Company, and Russell Cowles, a painter in New York. (Gardner Cowles, Sr. Cowles Family Publishing Legacy, Drake University; Gardner Cowles, Publisher, 85, Dies. New York Times, Mar. 1, 1946.)

Mrs. Cowles was a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ambrose A. Call, who were among the founders of Algona, Iowa. She graduated from Northwestern University in 1884 and studied painting at the Chicago Art Institute. The Gardner Cowles Foundation gave more than $1.5 million to Iowa colleges and charitable institutions. (Mrs. G. Cowles Sr. Succombs in Iowa. New York Times, Mar. 24, 1950.) Mrs. Cowles Left $304,035 Estate.)

John Cowles, Harvard 1920

John Cowles (1898-1983) graduated from Phillips Exeter in 1917 and Harvard in 1920. He was "the first undergraduate to serve simultaneously as an editor of the Crimson, the Lampoon and the Advocate - the student newspaper, humor magazine and literary magazine." He joined The Register and Tribune as a reporter in 1921. He was a director of the Ford Foundation in 1950, and a trustee or director of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the American Assembly, the Minneapolis Society of Fine Arts, the Minneapolis Foundation, General Mills, General Electric Co., Equitable Life Insurance of Iowa, the Gardner and Florence Call Cowles Foundation, the board of overseers of Harvard University, Phillips Exeter Academy, Carleton College and Drake University. was chairman of the board of The Des Moines Register and Tribune Company from 1945 to 1970. He was president of The Minneapolis Star and Tribune Company, and predecessor companies, from 1935 to 1968 and chairman from 1968 to 1973. Mrs. John Cowles (Elizabeth Morley Bates) was a founder of the Maternal Health League, which later became Planned Parenthood, in Iowa. (John Cowles. By Herb Strentz. Cowles Family Publishing Legacy, Drake University.) John Cowles was an usher at the marriage of Thomas Stilwell Lamont, son of Thomas W. Lamont, and Elinor Branscomb Miner. (Thomas S. Lamont Weds Miss Miner. New York Times, Apr. 15, 1923.) He was a member of President Eisenhower's Arden House group in 1953.

John Cowles' daughter, Mrs. Morley Cowles Gale, married Arthur A. Ballantine Jr., a member of The Minneapolis Tribune staff. His father was a member of Root, Clark, Buckner & Ballantine. (Mrs. M.C. Gale Bride of A.A. Ballantine Jr. New York Times, Jul. 27, 1947.) He graduated from Milton Academy and then Harvard in 1936, where he was editor of The Crimson. He received his law degree from Yale in 1939, and joined Sullivan & Cromwell in New York. He was named assistant to Nelson Rockefeller while Rockefeller was head of Inter-American Affairs in the State Department for two years.Then, he was a lieutenant in the Navy in World War II. He joined the Minneapolis Star and Tribune in 1946. Mr. and Mrs. Ballantine moved to Durango, Col. in 1952 and merged two newspapers to make the Durango Herald, of which he was editor and publisher for 23 years. He was a member of the Overseers Committee to Visit Harvard from 1956 to 1962, and a director of the Harvard Alumni Association from 1961-64. (Durango publisher's memorial services Tuesday. Greeley Daily Tribune, Nov. 17, 1975.)

Gardner Cowles Jr., Harvard 1925

Gardner Cowles, Jr. (Mike) was the youngest. He graduated from Phillips Exeter, where he was editor of the Exonian, and from Harvard in 1925, where he was editor and president of The Crimson. He joined the family newspapers in Iowa. George Gallup, who was then a teacher at Drake University, did readership surveys for The Register and Trubune, which led to the use of more photographs. He was an assistant director of the Office of War Information for a year. He and his brother John were supporters of Wendell Willkie. Gardner Cowles Jr. moved to New York City after World War II. He was president of the Register and Tribune from 1943 to 1971 and chairman of the board from 1971 to 1973. "He served on the Columbia University Advisory Board on Pulitzer Prizes and the boards of directors of R.H Macy and Company, The New York Times Co., United Air Lines, UAL Inc., Kemperco Inc., Bankers Life Company, First National Bank of Miami, and the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the Magazine Publishers Association, and the National Association of Broadcasters." David Kruidenier succeeded him as president of The Register and Tribune Company. The Des Moines Register was sold to Gannett in 1982. David Kruidenier's nephew, Charles Edwards [Jr.] became its publisher.

"NEWSPAPERS OWNED, including Cowles family holdings during his life: Des Moines (Iowa) Register (1903- 1985) Des Moines Tribune (1908-1982); Minneapolis (Minnesota) Star (1935- 1982); Minneapolis Tribune (1941- 1982 ); Minneapolis Star-Tribune (1982-Present); San Juan (Puerto Rico) Star (1959-1970); Gainemille (Florida) Sun (1962-1971); Lukeland (Florida) Ledger (1963- 1971); Rapid City (South Dakota) Journal (1964- 1990); Great Falls (Montana) Tribune (1965- 1990) Suffolk (Long Island, N.Y.) Sun (1966-1969); Palatka (Florida) Daily News (1969- 1971); Leesburg (Florida)-Daily Commercial (1969-1971); Jackson (Tennessee) Sun (1972- 1985); Waukesha (Wisconsin) Freeman (1978-1983)." (Gardner Cowles, Jr. (Mike). By Herb Strentz, Drake University.)

Fifteen writers resigned from the OWI in 1943, charging that it was impossible for them to tell the "full truth" and that "domestic activities of the OWI were controlled by 'high-pressure promoters who prefer slick salesmanship to honest information.'" They criticized Gardner Cowles Jr., head of domestic operations, and his two main assistants, James Allen and William B. Lewis, "but especially Mr. Lewis." (Writers Who Quit OWI Charge It Bars 'Full Truth' For 'Ballyhoo.' By Lewis Wood. New York Times, Apr. 16, 1943.) Lewis was later Vice Board Chairman of the American Cancer Society.

The third Mrs. Gardner Cowles Jr. was Fleur Fenton, December 1946-November 1955. Mr. and Mrs. Gardner Cowles were patrons of the New York City Cancer Committee of the American Cancer Society Inc. (Fete Will Display Fashions of 1901. New York Times, Oct. 14, 1951; Benefit April 30 Aids Cancer Fund. New York Times, Mar. 11, 1953.)

The fourth Mrs. Gardner Cowles Jr. was Jan Hochstraser (also known as Jan Streate Cox), from May 1956 until his death. She was formerly married to James M. Cox Jr., vice president of The Miami News. (Mrs. Jan H. Cox Wed to Gardner Cowles. New York Times, May 2, 1956.) Mrs. Gardner Cowles was a patron of the annual Trifles and Treasures Thrift Shop luncheon and fashion shows for Memorial Cancer Center. (Fete May 23 to Aid Cancer Center. New York Times, May 5, 1957; Cancer Unit Fete Today. New York Times, Feb. 4, 1958; Aiding Cancer Fete May 19. New York Times, Feb. 12, 1958; Patronesses Named for Fete Aiding Cancer Center Feb. 16. New York Times, Jan. 24, 1960; Party Aids Society of Cancer Center. New York Times, May 17, 1960; Sloan-Kettering to Raise Funds At May 14 Fete. New York Times, Feb. 25, 1962; Sloan-Kettering To Be Assisted At Fete Monday. New York Times, May 9, 1962; Elite of Racing Meet in Waldorf At Belmont Ball. New York Times, Jun. 8, 1963; Waldorf Benefit Set For Sloan-Kettering. New York Times, Jan. 21, 1964; Cocktail Dance on May 13 to Aid Cancer Center. New York Times, May 2, 1965; Fashions Lunch Feb. 3 to Assist Sloan-Kettering. New York Times, Jan. 16, 1966; May 18 Dinner At Plaza to Help Sloan-Kettering. New York Times, Apr. 7, 1966; Fashions Lunch Feb. 2 to Benefit Cancer Patients. New York Times, Jan. 22, 1967; Sloan-Kettering Center to Gain. New York Times, Aug. 30, 1967; Dinner Dance at Plaza Will Assist Cancer Center. New York Times, May 4, 1968; Dinner Is Held At Plaza to Aid Cancer Center. New York Times, May 16, 1968.) Mr. and Mrs. Gardner Cowles attended the Heart of America Ball for the New York Heart Association. (Heart of America Ball Held To Aid Research Program. New York Times, May 1, 1963.) Mr. and Mrs. Gardner Cowles were among 100 of the closest friends of Mrs. Albert D. Lasker, who were invited to a dinner dance at her townhouse in honor of Gerald Van Der Kemp, chief curator of Versailles. (Mrs. Lasker Is Hostess to 100 At Fete for Versailles Curator. New York Times, Dec. 5, 1970.)

cast 04-01-12