Charlene Drew Jarvis (CDJ) and Ernest Jarvis (EJ)

(CDJ): He is referred to as the father of blood banking, but during the Second World War, the Red Cross denied the right of African Americans to give blood, which meant that Dr. Drew couldn’t himself have been a donor.

When they changed that policy, it led to the segregation of blood. But he said, ’There is no scientific reason.’ And further than that, he said, ‘You need the blood. We are at war.’I think Dr. Drew would call himself a determined teacher and surgeon. And if that took taking a stand, that’s what he did.

(EJ): When you were a kid growing up, how much did you know about the work your father was doing?

CDJ: I must say that I didn’t know a lot about what my father was doing until he died. I was eight years old. And my mother felt that it was better that we not be at the service, so I was at school that day.

When the funeral procession left, it went by my school and I saw the cars going by. And the cars went by, and they went by. And I was simply astounded that there were so many people who revered him.

When he died, he was 45 years old and it is an enormous thing to think about, even now, to have done so much in such a little bit of time. You know, I think I call him Dr. Drew because it is honorific. A man of the ages is not someone who is called daddy.

[laughs]

And that drive for excellence was something that all of us felt. Whether it was his children, whether it was a nurse, whether it was the physicians in the hospital.

EJ: You know, Mom, I will carry these conversations on to my children who will then carry these conversations on to theirs. They will all know that Dr. Drew blazed a path for them.