Gustafson, inspiration for Jimmy Fund, dies

BOSTON – Einar Gustafson, whose battle with cancer when he was a young baseball fan more than a half-century ago inspired the organization known as The Jimmy Fund, has died. He was 65.

Gustafson suffered a stroke and died Sunday afternoon at a hospital in Caribou, Maine, a statement from the Jimmy Fund said.

Dr. Edward J. Benz, president of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, which the fund supports, said: “His story is the story of our nation’s war on cancer and over the past five decades, tens of thousands of people have rallied against cancer in his name. We certainly pledge to continue that fight.”

The official charity of the Boston Red Sox since 1953, The Jimmy Fund has raised more than $160 million.

The New Sweden native contracted a rare form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1948 when he was 12 years old. He was one of the earliest patients to be treated with chemotherapy.

Dr. Sidney Farber, who established the Children’s Cancer Research Foundation and was a pioneer in modern chemotherapy, gave Gustafson the name “Jimmy” to protect his identity and named his foundation The Jimmy Fund.

Gustafson was chosen to talk baseball with famed broadcaster Ralph Edwards and sing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” with the Boston Braves on Edwards’ national radio program in 1948. Baseball stars like Warren Spahn and Eddie Stanky befriended him.

The publicity started the outpouring of donations for cancer research and was the beginning of The Jimmy Fund.

“It was just a little bubble that mushroomed,” Gustafson once said.

His identity was a mystery until 1998 when his sister sent a letter with her annual donation to The Jimmy Fund, saying that he was alive and well. He worked various jobs in Maine, including driving trucks, and had three daughters and six grandchildren.

Stan Thomas, who owns Stan’s Grocery at Madawaska Lake just north of Stockholm, went to high school with Gustafson. He remembered his classmate Monday as a quiet man, not one to talk a lot about himself.

“He was the tallest in our class,” Thomas remembered. “No one even knew he was the original Jimmy.”

Calling Gustafson’s death “a great loss,” U.S. Rep. John Baldacci said Monday that he had participated with Gustafson and his wife at several cancer research fund-raising events.

“He was a great inspiration to the drive for cancer research and the cure for cancer,” Baldacci said. “… We certainly will miss him.”

Gustafson didn’t talk about his illness that led to his fame. “You didn’t talk about that years ago,” said Thomas

After his identity was revealed in 1998, he acted as an unofficial ambassador for the fund and was named honorary chairman in November 1999.

“Einar made a big difference 50 years ago and continued to make a big difference over the past three years,” said Dr. David Nathan, the president emeritus of Dana-Farber. “We are very grateful that he came forward and that we had the privilege of working with him again. We will all miss him deeply.”

In 1998, Gustafson recalled his fellow patients from a half-century earlier who did not get well, such as David, a boy with blue eyes and blond ringlets and beautiful parents “right out of the movies.” Einar and David often talked as they lay beside each other. Then David, too, was gone. “The doctors one day pulled the curtain around him, and, jeez, you wouldn’t know what happened. I remember his mother and father crying. Of course millions of parents have been left crying,” he said, with his voice trailing off. But he said he was amazed at how far cancer treatment for children has come.

“Before they were just looking into a cardboard tube that was all black,” he said. “They were chipping and chipping away at the tunnel. Now, by God, there’s light in that tunnel.”

Funeral services are scheduled for 11 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 24 at the New Sweden Covenant Church. He is survived by his wife, Gloria, three daughters, and two sisters.

Plans for memorial services in Boston are pending, according to an official at Mockler Funeral Home in Caribou, which handled the arrangements.

On the Net: http://www.jimmyfund.org