tion and opened a blood storage bank at the Columbia Presybterian Hospital. In 1940, Charles Drew received a doctor of science degree. He became the first African American to be awarded this degree. During World War II, one of Drew's former instructors, John Beattie, was Director of Research Laboratories at the Royal College of Surgeons in London. He was in charge of blood transfusions for the Royal Air Force and asked Drew to assist him in providing blood. Drew took thousands of pints of dried plasma to England and was named medical supervisor of blood for Great Britain. He organized a system of volunteer blood donors and centralized the collection of donated blood where he processed the blood and separated out the plasma. In 1949, he was appointed a surgical consultant for the Army's European Theater of Operations. On April 1, 1950, he gave at speech at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. At two o'clock in the morning, he left the city with three other doctors in the car, to travel back home after an exhausting day. He fell asleep at the wheel and ran off the road. He was killed and the other doctors suffered minor injuries. Although his life was cut short at the age of 46, the techniques he developed for storing and transfusing blood continue to be used to save lives. In 1981, the U.S. Postal Service issued a stamp in the Great Americans series in his honor. In 1966, the Charles R. Drew Postgraduate Medical School was incorporated in the State of California as a private, non-profit, educational institution. ...
