Charles Richard Drew

3 Pages 752 Words

Dr. Charles Richard Drew
1904-1950

The man for whom Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles is named, was a brilliant black physician, famous for his pioneering work in blood preservation. Born in Washington, D.C. on June 3, 1904, his life ended in an automobile accident just two months before his 46th birthday. The intervening years were crowded with achievements, learning and sharing his knowledge to benefit mankind. In 1926, he received a Bachelor of Arts from Amherst University in Massachusetts, where his athletic prowess in track and football earned him the Mossman trophy as the man who contributed to athletics for four years.
Dr. Drew was a professor of both chemistry and biology and served as coach at Morgan State College in Baltimore before entering McGill University School of Medicine, Montreal, Quebec. As a medical student, he became an Alpha Omega Alpha Scholar and won the J. Francis Fellowship, based on a competitive examination given annually to the top five students in the graduating class. In 1933, he received his M.D. and Master of Surgery (C.M.). Dr. Drew served as an Instructor in Pathology and as an Assistant in Surgery at Howard University in 1936. He was made a Professor of Surgery and Chief Surgeon for Freedman’s Hospital.
Awarded a two-year Rockerfeller Fellowship in surgery in 1938, Dr. Drew began postgraduate work and earned his Doctor of Science in Surgery degree at Columbia University. Here he worked on blood research with Dr. John Scudder and Dr. E.H.L. Corwin and developed a process where blood plasma could be processed and preserved. The goal was to ship blood plasma to distant places to be used for transfusions in saving lives. His doctoral thesis, “Banked Blood: A Study in Blood Preservation” was based his exhaustive study of blood preservation techniques. It was while he was engaged in research at Columbia’s Presbyterian Hospital that his ultimate de...