Blacks@Dartmouth 1775 to 1960

Dr. Hildrus A. Poindexter, 85, a retired Public Health Service physician who also taught at Howard University's College of Medicine, died April 21 at Southern Maryland Hospital Center after a heart attack. Dr. Poindexter was a specialist in tropical diseases, epidemiology, preventive medicine and public health. He served 30 years in the Public Health Service before his retirement in 1977 with the rank of medical director, which is comparable to colonel in the Army. His assignments included duty in Africa, Asia, South America, the Caribbean, Europe and the Middle East, and he had served as health attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Liberia.

Since retiring from the Public Health Service, he taught courses in laboratory diagnosis of tropical diseases, global epidemiology, international health and travel, geriatrics and gerontology at Howard Medical School. Dr. Poindexter also taught at Howard from 1931 until 1943 when he joined the Army Medical Corps. He served in the Pacific during World War II, then rejoined the faculty at Howard before joining the Public Health Service in 1947.

A resident of Clinton, he was born in Memphis and graduated from Lincoln University. He attended medical school at Dartmouth and received his medical degree from Harvard. He did his internship and residency in New York and in Puerto Rico. He was recipient of the National Civil Service League Career Service Award Citation in 1963.

Dr. Poindexter was a Mason and a member of the Northeast Presbyterian Church in Washington. Survivors include Ruth Grier Poindexter, and a daughter, Patchechole Ojo, both of Clinton, and three grandchildren.