With Fred Hutch from the very start

When Bill Hutchinson, MD, launched the Pacific Northwest Research Foundation (PNRF) in 1956, it was to give practicing physicians space and support to pursue answers “to all of mankind’s unsolved infirmities.” Eight years later, when his adored younger brother, Fred Hutchinson, died of cancer, he narrowed his personal focus to a single unsolved infirmity — the one that had cut his brother’s life tragically short.

David Lycette, a young attorney with deep Seattle roots and a strong sense of civic responsibility, played a pivotal role in helping Bill Hutchinson realize his ambition. A PNRF board member, Lycette drafted the legal documents to establish Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and joined the fledgling organization’s inaugural board of directors in 1975.

As a volunteer leader, including a stint as board chair, he helped lead Fred Hutch through every major transition in its first 30 years — all in his spare time.

His wife, Deborah Lycette, also an attorney, was with him 100%. In the early days, the couple hosted frequent dinners in the basement of Fred Hutch’s original building — preceded by lab tours led by passionate, articulate researchers — to introduce the organization to Seattle’s business and civic leaders.

Guests were impressed.

“Fred Hutch was a scrappy little Pacific Northwest outpost filled with tremendous scientists who were also tremendous human beings, and there was so much collaboration and collegiality,” recalled Deborah Lycette.

When other people learned what was happening in the building on First Hill, support for Fred Hutch snowballed.

For example:

• Flexible support over the past five decades has driven discovery by making it possible for Fred Hutch to increase the number of faculty members and expand the organization’s range of expertise. Today, more than 250 faculty members work across seven scientific divisions.
• Over the years, support from the Lycettes and others has steadily expanded Shared Resources to encompass more than two dozen highly specialized teams and tools — from antibody technology to cellular imaging and genetics to bioinformatics — that are pivotal to breakthroughs across every field of study.
• Unrestricted gifts in the early 2000s contributed to visionary investments in a burgeoning data science infrastructure. As data science has become ever-more integral to every facet of research, these early investments positioned Fred Hutch to leverage new and emerging technologies — like cloud computing and artificial intelligence — that are yielding revolutionary advances in our understanding of cancer and infectious disease.

In the past few decades, the Lycettes have stood by family and friends with cancer, experiences that have only deepened their trust in the organization. When David Lycette’s brother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, he said, “I was blown away by the kindness, thoroughness and empathy [of his care team]. It showed us that our gifts were going to the right place.”

The Lycettes are proud of their connection to Fred Hutch’s history, but today they are more interested in its future. They’re both excited about the organization’s current leadership, its growth trajectory and the researchers and clinicians who are accelerating ever-more personalized and effective strategies to prevent and treat the infirmity that inspired Bill Hutchinson’s quest.

“My hope,” said David Lycette, “is with a greater depth of researchers and the use of AI and other technologies, we’ll have success in understanding and overcoming more cancers.”