Charles Dillard 2017
Charles Dillard, 1976
Dr. Dillard grew up in Walnut Hills in the 1940’s-50’s, attending Frederick Douglass School and Walnut Hills High School. He followed his father into medicine and returned to Walnut Hills in the late 1960’s to set up his practice. Dr. Dillard was in the Air Force and continued in the Reserves for 24 years, retiring as a General — one of the first Black Generals in Ohio. Over the years, the Dr. Charles E. Dillard Memorial Building (791 E. McMillan) housed not only his medical offices but a variety of community services. These snippets are from an interview conducted in March, 2017. [NOTE: Dr. Dillard was interviewed by WHHS again in November, 2017. Snippets from that interview will be posted soon. Also several other interviews of Dr. Dillard are available and links will be posted soon.]
In this story, Dr. Dillard describes his parents’ reasons for sending him to Frederick Douglass School.
“We ended up with a much better education.”
After his education and initial practice in Detroit, Dr. Dillard moved back to Cincinnati and set up practice in Avondale. Here he describes gaining entrance to the hospitals. Compare his experience in the 1970’s to the experience of Dr. Lucy Oxley in the 1950’s.
“1968 … they were opening up their staff…”
Dr. Dillard has been very active in a variety of medical outreach work. Here he describes setting up a neighborhood clinic on Woodburn Avenue in 1975 based on a public-private model for practice. Dr. Dillard refers to a journal article in Med Care (1977, vol 15, pp 838-48).