Born in 1912 in a small Ohio coal-mining town, Arthur G. James graduated from St. Clairsville High School in 1930 as co-valedictorian and enrolled at The Ohio State University, where he earned his medical degree in 1937. He completed a medical internship at the University of Chicago, a surgical internship at Duke University and a three-year surgical residency at Ohio State. In 1940, during his surgical residency at Ohio State, he married Mildred Cameron, who would later be a partner in his efforts to establish a cancer hospital in central Ohio.
After completing his Ohio State surgical residency in 1942, he began a fellowship at Memorial Hospital in New York City, which at the time was one of the nation's few cancer hospitals. In 1947, he joined the medical faculty at Ohio State and from 1972 - 1973 also served as the national president for The American Cancer Society.
Remembering his fellowship experience at Memorial Hospital, Dr. James envisioned the benefits that a cancer hospital would bring to central Ohio. Many obstacles dampened but never deterred his dream, which began to take shape in 1981 when the Ohio General Assembly granted Ohio State $40 million to build a cancer hospital; the University contributed another $14 million. Ground was broken in 1984 and three years later the Ohio State University Board of Trustees named the hospital in honor of Dr. James. The hospital opened in July 1990. Dr. James died in 2001.
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