Every year our Society salutes members with at least 20 years of service to our Society with the ASCO Statesman Award. This year’s 20 awardees, who will be honored at the Annual Meeting, are listed on the ASCO Connection website.

This is a truly great group and just reading their names reminds me how much our Society benefits from its volunteers. They include academics, government employees, leaders of sister societies, and community practitioners. They hail from the United States as well as abroad. They represent the several specialties that make up our Society. They reveal the great strength we draw from our inherent diversity.

I’ve worked with many of them over the years, both at ASCO and in my other job, and collectively they represent what makes our Society so special. Ours is a Society that relies on “sweat equity” to an amazing degree. It is not just the time these volunteers put in: it is their intelligence and their passion. Collectively these ASCO Statesman have had an enormous impact on ASCO, but an even greater impact on our larger society through their good works. I know that I have made great use of their talents this year.

I wouldn’t even know how to start describing all of them to you, as blogs (I was told when I began blogging) are not supposed to go on and on. But I will mention one by name. Dan Haller has served as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Clinical Oncology for the past decade, and will be stepping down in the near future. During his tenure, the JCO has steadily increased in its impact factor (the scientific publishing world’s measure of a journal’s importance), in size, and in reach. Dan has been a constant in the life of our organization, known equally for his great managerial ability, his broad scientific understanding, and his absolute integrity. He is a true “ASCO Statesman.” As are they all.