The William M. Christopherson Society was founded in March 1974 to honor Dr. Christopherson and to foster advancement of general and oncologic pathology.
In 1948, he was appointed to the medical school faculty at the University of Louisville. He became Professor & Chairman of the Department of Pathology (1956-1974) and was named Distinguished Professor in 1979.
One of the pivotal points in Dr Christopherson's career was his appointment as a James Ewing Fellow in Pathology at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Institute in New York City (1949 to 1950). "Dr. Chris:' as he was affectionately known, contributed landmark cytologic and epidemiologic studies of precancerous lesions of the uterine cervix as well as experimental cervical carcinogenesis in animal models. His efforts proved invaluable in determining the impact of cytologic screening, the Pap test, on the detection of cervical cancer. He was known world wide for his identification of alveolar soft-part sarcoma, which is known as the Christopherson tumor in Europe. His pioneering contributions in the field of gynecologic pathology, especially cervical cytopathology, brought global recognition to him personally and to the University of Louisville Pathology Department.
