Canyon Creek Schoolhouse Laboratory 100^th Anniversary

Then came the beginning of Spencer’s more modern experience as a Public Health Service officer. After leaving the Canyon Creek Schoolhouse laboratory to return to Washington, D.C., in 1928, Spencer continued his medical bacteriology research at the Hygienic Laboratory, which became the National Institutes of Health in 1930. In 1937, President Franklin Roosevelt signed the act creating the National Cancer Institute. Dr. Carl Voegtlin became director of the new institute and appointed Spencer his assistant director; Voegtlin was neither a physician nor a career Public Health Service officer. Spencer, who had no training in cancer research, accepted the assignment and requested a laboratory to conduct research.

Spencer became director of the National Cancer Institute in 1943, when Voegtlin retired, but stepped down himself in 1947, having served during the difficult years of World War II. Spencer was the consummate Public Health Service officer, not an administrator; he left just in time to miss the next era of the Public Health Service: the era of Big Science.

Dr. Roscoe Roy Spencer poses at his desk, May 10, 1928. Note the candlestick-style telephone connected to a large telephone box. Spencer came across as unassuming and pleasant but, as evidenced by his socks, he was secretly bold, giving the first dose of Rocky Mountain spotted fever vaccine to himself to test its safety and efficacy in humans.