In 1941, Texas State Cancer Hospital, now known as the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, was established by the Texas State Legislature. The following year, the hospital was renamed M. D. Anderson Hospital for Cancer Research of The University of Texas to honor support from the MD Anderson Foundation.

Monroe Dunaway (MD) Anderson came from a banking family and in 1904, his older brother Frank and Frank’s brother-in-law, Will Clayton, decided to establish a partnership to engage in buying and selling cotton. They needed more capital and invited Monroe to become a partner, establishing the Anderson, Clayton and Co., with its principal office in Oklahoma City, a new city in Oklahoma Territory where cotton grew bountifully.

The company prospered, and Monroe became wealthy through a combination of good management, good fortune, and the capable efforts of himself and his energetic associates. Anderson, Clayton and Co. came to be the world’s largest merchant of the world’s most popular commodity; for nearly a century it was known as “King Cotton.”

In the mid-1930s, MD Anderson and Will Clayton owned more than half the corporation’s stock. The death of either, if resulting in a large estate tax, might have made it necessary to liquidate the company. Partly for this reason, in 1936,  MD Anderson created the charitable foundation that bears his name and funded it with about $300,000.

This foundation was destined to receive $19,000,000 more after Monroe’s death in 1939. The charter of the MD Anderson Foundation did not specify precisely how its money should be used, but the trustees leaned strongly in the direction of health care.

Soon after taking possession of the estate from its executors, the trustees noted that the 1941 Texas Legislature had authorized The University of Texas to establish a hospital for cancer research and treatment somewhere in the state. No location was specified, but $500,000 was appropriated for the purpose.

The Anderson Foundation agreed to match this sum if the hospital would be built in Houston and named for its benefactor. A site was offered in the new Texas Medical Center, another creation of the Anderson Foundation.