Charles Drew: Black American Medical Pioneer
Charles Drew was born in 1904 in Washington D.C.'s foggy bottom area.  Charlie was the son of Nora and Richard Drew.  Both parents had a high school education.  His father was a carpet layer.  He was the eldest of 5 children.  As a boy he organized 10 of his friends into a business.  He and his friends sold over 2000 papers per day. As a teenager Charlie attended the famous Dunbar High school in Washington D.C.   During high school he was an excellent athlete earning 4 varsity letters.  He was voted the best overall athlete in both his junior and senior years.

He was awarded a partial athletic scholarship to Amherst University in 1922.  In order to make ends meet he had to wait tables.  He excelled in sports.  Unfortunately, he grades suffered during his first two years.  It is unclear why he really started to study but he did.  He made a 100% on his chemistry final exam.  Now professors knew Charles Drew as an athlete and a student.  Football Coach McLaughry called Charlie the best football player that he ever coached. 

Charlie, outstanding Amherst backfield.

Following graduation in 1926, Charles Drew wandered thru the next several years.  He coached football at Morgan State College while also working as an instructor in Biology and Chemistry, two subjects he excelled in at Amherst.  Sometime during the next 2 years Charlie decided that he wanted to be a physician.  Why he chose medicine is not known..  He did know Calvin Coolidge's son from Amherst.  His classmate died of an infected heel blister. While at Morgan State Mr. Drew was hospitalized for infected athletic spike injuries to his wrist and thigh.  

With the money that Charles Drew saved while at Morgan State he applied to medical school.  He was accepted to McGill University Medical School in Montreal, Canada.  He did extremely well in medical school and graduated in 1933 with an MD degree and a CM (Maters of Surgery).  

Post-doctoral training -

• 1933-1934  Intern, pathology, Montreal General Hospital
• 1934-1935  Resident, Internal Medicine, Montreal General Hospital
• 1935-1936  Instructor in Pathology, Howard University, Washington D.C.
• 1936-1937  Resident in Surgery, Howard University and Freedman's Hospital, Washington D.C.
• 1937-1938  Instructor in Surgery and Assistant Surgeon, Howard University and Freedman's Hospital, Washington D.C.
• 1938-1940  General Education Board Fellow in Surgery, Columbia University, and Resident in Surgery, Presbyterian, New York City

While at Columbia University, Dr. Drew had the pleasure of working with the famous Dr. Allen O. Whipple.  Dr Drew also worked with Dr. John Scutter.  Together they worked on shock and banked blood.  His doctorate dissertation was entitled, "Banked Blood."  

Portrait of Dr. Charles Drew, painted by Betsy Graves Rayneau. This portrait now hangs at the American Red Cross Headquarters in Washington, DC.

In 1941, Dr. John Beattie, Dr. Drew's anatomy professor from McGill,  was now the director of the research laboratories for the Royal College of Surgeons.  He asked his former pupil, Dr. Charles Drew for an enormous amount of plasma to help save English soldiers. In February of 1941 Dr. Drew was appointed director of the first American Red Cross Blood Bank.  Dr. Drew developed methods for separating the red bloods from the plasma and storing the products.  Several New York hospitals to part in the "Plasma for Britain Project." The model for this project is familiar to all of us who have ever given blood in the US.  The Red Cross volunteer model was first used in the "Plasma for Britain Project."  Dr. Drew did collect and deliver thousands of unit of plasma to Britain.  

Some authors have suggested that Dr. Drew left the American Red Cross because of the Armed Forces insistence on separating blood by race.  Although Dr. Drew was only at the Red Cross for nine months his impact is still felt today.  Hundreds of thousands of people benefit from banked blood even today.  

Following his resignation from the Red Cross, Dr. Drew returned to Howard University as professor and chairman of the department of surgery.  During the next 9 years Dr. Drew trained physicians, residents and medical students.  He stressed academic excellence.  

Dr. Charles Drew died in a automobile crash on April 1, 1950.  He and several colleagues were on their way to a conference in Tuskegee, Al.  He was driving and he lost control of the vehicle.  Although there were three other physicians in the vehicle none were seriously injured except for Dr. Drew during the rollover crash.  Dr. Drew was taken to Alamance General Hospital.  He sustained a closed head injury, a crush injury to the chest and severe soft tissue injuries to his extremities.  The physicians were unable to save Dr. Drew.  Rumors that Dr. Drew was denied life saving blood transfusions, because he was Black, make great headlines but have ever been substantiated.  Dr. Drew's student, Dr. Charles Mason Quick went to Alamance General Hospital shortly after the crash and he concluded that Dr. Drew received the best of care.  Dr. Drew was survived by his wife and four children.

Dr. Drew was a pioneer in surgery, surgical training, and surgical research.  He published more than a dozen papers before his death.  He is the definition of an academic surgeon.

Photo of Charles Drew (far left), Director of the Red Cross Blood Bank.