Charles A. LeMaistre was born in 1924 in Lockhart, Alabama. He received his bachelor of arts degree from the University of Alabama and earned his medical degree from Cornell University Medical College. He took his residency at New York Hospital and Cornell, where he completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in infectious diseases and later was an assistant professor of medicine. Dr. LeMaistre served as chairman of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health at Emory University School of Medicine. After several years as a professor of internal medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, he was named associate dean. He later became vice chancellor for health affairs. Dr. LeMaistre was elected chancellor of the University of Texas System and served in that capacity until he was named president of M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. Dr. LeMaistre and his wife Joyce have two sons and two daughters.