John E. Price Eminent Scholar Chair in Cancer Research

This fund supports an eminent scholar chair devoted to cancer research, teaching and patient care in the College of Medicine. Born in 1892, John E. Price, Sr., spent his childhood on the small cotton farm his father had homesteaded in North Florida. When he was almost 17, Price decided he didn’t want to work in the cotton fields all his life. He borrowed some money from his father and opened a small general store. When it didn’t make a profit after two years he sold it and bought another store which made a profit after a year. Price held on to it and began investing land.

From that modest beginning, Price grew to become a business wizard, adept at turning real estate purchases into multimillion-dollar coups. He also became one of Florida’s greatest philanthropists, founding the John E. and Aliese Price Foundation to support religious, education and charitable organizations, naming it for him and his wife, who were married in 1925.

Except for a few years in the Army in France during World War I, Price spent his life buying, holding and selling land. By the 1940s, he was a wealthy man. Price built a bridge north of Jacksonville and another eleven miles out of Pensacola. He built bridges and railroads all over Florida.

Price, who passed away in 1985 at age 93, viewed cancer as a serious hindrance to his family, having lost his wife and her brother to the disease. Aliese passed away in 1976 at age 69.

John and Aliese had one son, John “Jack” Price, Jr., who at one time served as Chairman of the Price Foundation. Jack served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and the U.S. Army in the Korean War. He attended Dartmouth College and graduated from the University of South Carolina with a degree in civil engineering. Jack was responsible for the construction of many of the oil wells in Collier County, FL. He was a longtime supporter of the Junior Deputy League in Collier County and served on the Big Cypress Basin Board. He passed away in March 2007.