Ravenel family tradition of providing health care to children in the Triad, Pediatricians in Greensboro Guilford County NC, Medical trailblazers
Ravenel family tradition of providing health care to children in the Triad, Pediatricians in Greensboro Guilford County NC, Medical trailblazers
From the Greensboro News & Record.
“THE RAVENEL MEN CONTINUE THEIR FAMILY'S TRADITION OF PROVIDING HEALTH CARE TO CHILDREN IN THE TRIAD. FAMILY PRACTICE
Growing up, Samuel Ravenel couldn't escape the question: Are you going to be a pediatrician, too?
Young Samuel shook his head: No,I don't think so.
When Ravenel's father, DuBose Ravenel, was growing up, he too was constantly asked: Are you going to be a pediatrician, too?
And DuBose Ravenel would say: No, I don't think so.
But life, like a frolicking child, can take funny turns.
In August, Samuel Ravenel will join his father, DuBose Ravenel, at Cornerstone Pediatrics in High Point, beginning the third generation of physicans in the Ravenel family who minister to Triad children.
In pediatrics, Samuel Ravenel says, "there's a lot of optimism and looking forward ... You have this clean slate to start with.
Reflecting on his own medical career, DuBose Ravenel says: "(Children are) like a brand-new slate. I loved it from day one - the interaction with children, the optimism of being a pediatrician, the fun things children say and do."
Their sentiments echo that of Dr. Sam Ravenel - Samuel Ravenel's grandfather and DuBose Ravenel's father - who as Greensboro's first pediatrician in 1925 once said: "Babies cast a spell on you, and you are bound to them like Prometheus to the rock. They do funny things to people."
For 80 years, one name has been synonymous with pediatrics for many Triad parents: Ravenel.
Drs. Sam and DuBose Ravenel, each in their own way, have been medical trailblazers. Now a new generation takes his place at his father's side - and in his grandfather's shadow.
"People have (viewed) my granddad and dad with a lot of high regard," Samuel Ravenel says. "It's a little intimidating at times to live up to the family name."
It was Dr. Sam Ravenel who nursed Greensboro through the polio epidemics, who cared for thousands of babies at the Children's Home Society and who taught local doctors how to recognize Rocky Mountain spotted fever.
And it was Sam Ravenel - self-proclaimed "mother's pacifier" - who once heard from a distraught parent whose child had bitten the tail off a salamander. After making sure the child wasn't ill from eating the tail, Ravenel said, "Well, heck, if you won't call the Humane Society, I won't either."“
