Smith, Dr. Clifford C. 1925-2011
SMITH, RUSSELL, HARRIS, LAWTON, JOHNSON, SIMMS
Posted By: Connie Ellis (email)
Date: 6/27/2011 at 17:41:13
SOURCE: Garrity Funeral Home obituary May 12, 2011
Contributor: Connie Ellis (Not related)Dr. Clifford C. Smith, MD, age 85, of Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin passed away Wednesday, May 11, 2011 at the Prairie du Chien, Memorial Hospital. Funeral services will be Monday, May 16 at 11:00 a.m. at the MFL Mar-Mac McGregor Center Gymnasium in McGregor, Iowa with Rev. William Gentry officiating. The American Legion Post 108 of McGregor will accord military rites following the services.Interment will be in the Garden of Memories, Waterloo, Iowa on Tuesday, May 17 at 10:30 a.m.
Doc was born July 30, 1925, the only son, and first of four children to his parents, Clifford Clay and Lee (Russell) Smith. He graduated from East High School and completed one year of college before he entered the U.S. Army Air Corp. Dr. Smith, known to many as "Doc", was widely respected for his compassion as a rural physician for over 40 years. It is a little known fact, however, that Dr. Smith was a member of the famed Tuskegee Airmen. He entered the Army in 1943 and initially drove a 2-1/2 ton truck called a "deuce and a half". The young soldier learned that Black men were being trained as pilots and submitted an application for flight school. More than a year had passed without having received word from the flight school, when Smith happened to find himself in the adjutant's office where he knew the applications were filed. He found his application at the bottom of the pile and moved it to the top. Shortly afterward, he received notice of acceptance to flight school, and in 1945, joined the ranks of other African American cadets being trained to become World War II pilots. Although Smith's favorite plane was the B-25 Mitchell bomber aircraft, he was assigned the Steerman biplane. In only three months Smith mastered the Steerman, and qualified to fly the AT-6 and multi-engine aircrafts. Tha achievement earned the young pilot his notoriety among the ranks as the "90-day wonder" in the Class of '46.
Dr.Smith returned to civilian life as a student at the University of Iowa. Following graduation, he attended Meharry Medical College in Nashville, interned in Binghamton, New York and became the first African American medical resident at the Veteran's Administration hospital in Iowa City. He began private practice with his mother-in-law, Dr. Laura B. Harris, in Jersey City, New Jersey, where he became the first African American emergency room director at the Jersey City Medical Center. Nearly five years later, the young doctor with his wife and two children moved from Jersey City to McGregor, Iowa. Dr. Smith chose this area to establish his practice at the McGregor Hospital. A year later, he moved his office to 626 Main Street in McGregor.
His courage never wavered, even when his initial years were lean. His practice flourished. When fire razed the modest two-story house that Dr. Smith converted into his first clinic, a new clinic was built in 1979 on adjacent property that, in the winter of 1967, he had transformed into a community ice-skating rink. Dr. Smith's patients were devoted to him, not only because he was a gifted internist, but because of his great compassion. Dr. Smith would accept bartering in exchange for patient care when a patient could not afford to pay. He was known to accept items he didn't necessarily need in order to allow the patient to feel satisfied about his debt.
For the first twenty-five years of his 41 year career in Iowa and Wisconsin, Dr. Smith practiced independently as an internal and family medicine physician. He also served for a number of years as the Medical Examiner for Clayton County, Iowa. In 1987 Smith began his affiliation with Gundersen Lutheran of LaCrosse, Wisconsin and continued to served the communities of Northeast Iowa and Southwest Wisconsin until his retirement in 2003. Dr. Smith was a member of Prairie du Chien Memorial Hospital's active medical staff for 36 years serving on committees such as safety, credentials, utilization review, quality assurance, and as Chief of Staff. For several years following his retirement, Dr. Smith served as Medical Director of Prairie Maison Nursing Home in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin.
In 1998, Dr. Smith was named the National Rural Health Practitioner of the Year. He was presented the University of Iowa Alumni Award in 2005.
Dr. Smith was preceded in death by his parents, and a sister, Yvonne Simms.
He is survived by his wife, Pat of Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, 2 children from his first marriage to Jacquelyn H. (Harris) Smith, Shelley Smith of Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin and Clay (Rosalyn) Smith of Port Jefferson Station, New York; 4 grandchildren, and 2 sisters, Betty (Billy) Lawton of Washington D.C. and Deanna Smith-Johnson of Tacoma Park, Maryland and their families; 1 brother-in-law and a number of nieces and nephews.
Note: Dr. Smith came by his compassion for people from his parents. His father owned a diner in Waterloo, Iowa and there are many stories about him giving free meals to people who were down on their luck, loaning them a few dollars to get them gas, clothing, etc. Mr. Smith was a man of meagre means himself. In an interview with Mr. Smith, he said that he loaned out a lot of money in his lifetime and he always told the person to pay him back when they could. He said he did not remember anyone who did not pay him back -- although he did remember that sometimes it took many years for them to give him back the owed money. Mr. Smith said, "It was just the Lord's way and he was only doing what the Lord wanted him to do."
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