Pancreatic Cancer

Archbishop Spalding football coach Mike Whittles plans to be on hand Saturday night at Ellie's Place in Millersville for a fundraiser for pancreatic cancer research. The event will kick off at 7 p.m. and will feature door prizes, a silent auction and a 50-50 raffle. Ellie's will also contribute 10 percent of its profits for the night. All proceeds will benefit the Mike Whittles Johns Hopkins Pancreatic Cancer Foundation. Whittles is approaching a year as a survivor of stage four pancreatic cancer and continues to undergo chemotherapy.

Dr. Constance A. "Connie" Griffin, an internationally known pancreatic cancer researcher who led the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center's Cytogenetics Core and was director of the Pathology Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory, died Jan. 8 of pancreatic cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The Ruxton resident was 60. "The irony is that Connie passed away from the very disease that she studied," said Dr. Ralph H. Hruban, director of the Sol Goldman Pancreatic Cancer Research Center at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

The public is invited to attend a memorial service Jan. 17 for WBAL's Ron Smith, Baltimore radio's longtime "Voice of Reason," who died of pancreatic cancer Dec. 19. The service, to be held at Goucher College's Kraushaar Auditorium, will include testimonials from WBAL-TV sports anchor Gerry Sandusky, news anchor Stan Stovall, financial analyst Jonathan Murray and political analyst Blair Lee IV. Also speaking will be WBAL Vice President and General...

Ron Smith, who came to Baltimore 38 years ago as a weekend TV anchorman but found his greatest success on radio as WBAL's "Voice of Reason," died Monday night of pancreatic cancer at his home in Shrewsbury, Pa.. He was 70. Mr. Smith spent more than 26 years on WBAL's airwaves, most of it in the afternoon drive-time period until a move to mornings last year, passionately talking politics from a conservative point of view. But it is not his politics for which he will likely be remembered as much as the informed conversation he helped create on Baltimore radio — and the way he publicly shared his final days with listeners of WBAL and readers of The Baltimore Sun. On Nov. 28, after continuing on-air for more than two months despite having been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer that had metastasized throughout his body, Mr. Smith signed off at the 50,000-watt news-talk station for the last time in his signature straightforward, no-nonsense, radio style.

Ravens coach John Harbaugh said after the team's 24-10 victory over the Cleveland Browns today that he was giving the game ball to WBAL radio broadcaster Ron Smith, who retired last week as he is battling pancreatic cancer. Harbaugh said Smith spoke to the team Friday before it left for Cleveland. Smith announced on-air last week that he is in home hospice and will no longer be appearing on air. "The decision has been made by me to stop appearing on the radio show," Smith said just before the start of his show, which begins at 9 a.m., according to The Sun's Z on TV blog . "I'm retiring," Smith said, according to the blog.

Ron Smith went on WBAL radio Thursday, just as he has for the past 27 years. But the conservative talk-show host, who was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, opened his show telling listeners — with characteristic bluntness — that he was abandoning his chemotherapy treatments. Instead, Smith will remain on the air while undergoing palliative care designed to make what time he has left as comfortable as possible. And then he simply went on with the show. "That's the way I've conducted my career," Smith, 69, said Thursday from his home in southern York County, Pa., where he's been doing most of his broadcasting work since announcing his inoperable Stage 4 cancer diagnosis on Oct. 17. "I have never been one to hide anything.

The announcement summoning the Archbishop Spalding football team to the school chapel early on a February morning last winter baffled the Cavaliers. What could be so important in the off-season? Wide receiver Richard Gablemen and some of his teammates thought they would finally get their championship rings after winning the MIAA B Conference title the previous fall. Center Matt Wicklein and a few others figured they must be in trouble, but they couldn't figure out why. The news was bad, far worse than anyone imagined.

Ron Smith's recent column concerning his cancer diagnosis was perhaps his most powerful ("Death, I do not fear you; I am just not ready to go," Oct. 21). When I read his doctor's quote, "Fate has something else in store for you," I immediately thought it wasn't the pancreatic cancer. I believe God granted a 20-plus year extension of his life so that he might have a positive impact on the lives of others. From the outpouring of love, it is evident that he has used that time well.

This is not an obituary for Ron Smith ("WBAL's Smith reveals he has pancreatic cancer," Oct. 18), but after hearing Les Kingsolving gush about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his show this week I once again recognized Mr. Smith's contribution to talk radio discourse. His is one of the few voices of on-air dissent against America's all-but-unconditional support for Israel. A rare bird, indeed, especially among conservatives like himself. I'd like to say he's doing some good in this regard.

About 20 years ago, I went to a urologist for a prostate exam and PSA test. When the blood work was in, he said the levels were virtually nil, and then he said something I've never forgotten: "Fate has something else in store for you. " I have ever since wondered from time to time what that something would turn out to be - and now I know. A week ago, as many of you know, I was diagnosed with inoperable, stage four pancreatic cancer. It's inoperable but treatable with chemotherapy.