A Man After The Community’s Heart

Charles E. Blair, M.D.

by Roy Harris, Sharon West, and other contributors

 “Deacon Harris, come on in.” I get a big hug and smile. “Have a seat. I won’t be with you long, my cancer is terminal, but I’m glad to see you. Life has been good to me and I’m at peace with my condition.” Such is the greeting of Dr. Charles E. Blair. His wife Jeanie enters the room and his eyes light up. We settle down at the kitchen table and I listen enraptured as Dr. Blair tells me his story.

Charles Blair was born January 19, 1955 in Canton, Mississippi. Canton is a rural place, and Charles grew up as a country boy reared by his mother, Annie, and stepfather, Alfred. He and his brothers and sister rolled car tires, fished for bream in the local pond, climbed trees, made baseball gloves out of caps, and played with a no-longer-round basketball. They were poor, though most of them did not realize it at the time, and they were healthy, eating the gleanings of their father’s hand from the local garden.

Forty years later, he remembers a little boy who walks
into his grandmother’s bedroom as she lies in the bed recovering from
another bout of sickness. She calls him over to her bed, hugs and
kisses him and holds his little hands, and tells him how much she loves
him. They make small talk for a while, and he vows to her that one day
that he will become a doctor to help her get well.
Now Charles Blair is licensed to practice medicine in North Carolina,
Maryland, Virginia, Mississippi, and Indiana, and for more than twenty
years he has helped people get well. A patient who wishes to remain
anonymous says, “He always greeted me with a smile, a hearty hand
shake, looked me in the eyes and asked, “How may I be of service to
you?” It’s apparent, and true, that his medical role model was
television’s favorite doctor, Marcus Welby, M.D.

Fast forward nine years. As he completes the 11th grade, Charles has a
decision to make. He could go off to Southern University, but he also
has an offer from the S.T.E.P. program that would enable him to move to
Scarsdale, NY, where he would live with a white family and complete two
more years of high school. He recalls taking a deep breath and saying
to himself, “I have got to get out of the South.”

He arrived in Scarsdale with a cardboard suitcase and moved into the
home of Hugh and Billie Jones to complete his last two years of high
school. His Scarsdale family remains friends to this day, and both the
Joneses fondly remember the night that they had a prayer meeting with
Charles and encouraged him, “Just trust us.” It was hard to be a teen
so far from home and in such a different environment than he had always
known. He missed his mother and stepfather and siblings, but he
weathered the storm and adjusted to the new phase of his life,
finishing high school in 1974.

After graduation, Charles enrolled in Amherst College for one year and
then transferred to Alcorn State in Lorman, Mississippi to complete his
undergraduate education in 1978. Four years of medical school followed
at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, TN; he graduated with honors
in 1982. Most of his post-graduate medical training came while he was
enrolled in the Army, where he rose to the rank of Major, Medical
Corps. He served his internship and residency at Martin Army Hospital
in Ft. Benning, Georgia, prior to serving on the medical staff at Bayne
Jones Army Hospital in Ft. Polk, Louisiana. His military service also
included brief stints in California’s Mohave Desert and in Bolivia and
Panama, and he served as Chief and Interim Commander while stationed in
West Germany. Now a Reserve Major (inactive), Dr. Blair received the
Army Commendation Medal for Meritorious Service in June 1990.

While at Alcorn State University, Charles happened upon a meeting of
the Baptist Student Union. His arrival was greeted by the young ladies
present with the excited announcement, “A man, and he has a car!” One
of the four, Jeanie, was to become his life-long partner; they met that
day, but their romance truly began after she beat him in the race for
president of the student group.

Once they were married, Jeanie accompanied Charles on his travels with
the Army. They were in West Germany when Dr. Blair made the decision to
leave the service, and the young couple began looking for a place to
settle. From 1990 to 1992, he became the “locum tenens” physician for
Kron Medical Corporation, and as a Kron Scholar he earned a business
degree from Kenan-Flagler Business School of the University of North
Carolina-Chapel Hill.

One factor that mattered to the Blairs in seeking a new home was to
find a place where their young children could receive an excellent
education. They liked the mountains, and decided on Asheville sight
unseen. Almost immediately they found their way to the historic Mount
Zion Missionary Baptist Church, which they have served ever since.

Dr. Charles E. Blair, community health parity activist, takes a moment from his busy schedule.

On arriving in Asheville in 1992, Dr. Blair went into practice with the
late Dr. John P. Holt, and he also joined the Buncombe County Health
Department as a staff physician. In January 1993 he also began working
with St. Joseph’s Urgent Care (now Sisters of Mercy Urgent Care), a
role that continued through this past February, and he had hospital
privileges with both Mission and St. Joseph’s hospitals. In the summer
of 1996, he helped found the New Hope Community Health Center, which he
served for three years as medical director. The need for the clinic had
become clear when a man on The Block told Dr. Blair, “I would rather
die than go up to [the County Health Department]” for treatment.

Bonnie Love worked as outreach coordinator and office manager for the
clinic, helping bring in clients for screening for prostrate cancer,
breast cancer, and diabetes, three diseases that disproportionately
affect the African-American community. According to Love, who now lives
in Charlotte, “God sent Dr. Blair to us in a time of need and he has
served us well. Thank God for Dr. Blair.”

A few years after New Hope closed, Dr. Blair began additional service
as medical director of Three Streams Family Health Center in West
Asheville. He was also instrumental in the Rites of Passage program
coming to Asheville and the formation of Asheville- Buncombe Institute
of Parity Achievement (ABIPA), which he has served as a board member
for a number of years.

These initiatives were just some of the joint activities that Charles
Blair undertook in his partnership with Jeanie, who has also served the
community as a teacher, through her church, and as a constant
inspiration for her husband’s and children’s endeavors.

Their three
children, Mary, Laura, and David, completed their secondary education
in the Asheville City Schools System. Now Mary is in her third year of
medical school at Meharry Medical College, following in her father’s
footsteps. Laura is a teacher in the Guilford County Public School
System, and David is stationed in Japan as a corporal in the United
States Marine Corps. From the sawmill-quarters housing of Canton,
Mississippi, to the mountains of Western North Carolina, Dr. Charles E.
Blair has left an indelible mark on society.

This past March Dr. Blair was diagnosed with incurable lung cancer.
Today, after four courses of chemotherapy, he is in remission. Once
they sell their Weaverville home, he and Jeanie will return to Canton
to be closer to their families and where, no doubt they will continue
their public ministry serving their community.

As they contemplate their return, they will benefit from all our
prayers, thank-you cards, and tangible support as we say to Dr. and
Mrs. Blair, “We, Asheville and the surrounding community, collectively
say goodbye and good luck to you. May God bestow his bountiful
blessings upon you and your family, Dr. Blair, as you have been a
blessing to us. You have served us well.”