Walter
Walter Brodie Burwell
d. November 29, 2013
Dr. Burwell was born in Henderson on November 25, 1916 the son of Spottswood Blair Burwell and Frances Brodie Burwell. He was a graduate of Henderson High School and attended the Citadel, Charleston, SC and the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA. He earned his M. D. degree from Tulane University of Louisiana and interned at the Charity Hospital of Louisiana in New Orleans.
Soon after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the entry of the United States in World War II, Dr. Burwell volunteered for service in the Navy Reserve and was assigned as a medical officer to the U.S.S. Suwannee, which was being commissioned at the time as an aircraft carrier. In the following 27 months at sea, until it was forced to return to the United States for extensive repairs due to severe battle damage, the Suwannee participated in the assault and landings at Casablanca and North Africa, the capture and defense of Guadalcanal, New Georgia, Tarawa, Kwajalein, Eniwetck, Palau, western New Guinea, Saipan, Tinian, Guam, Halmahera, Morotal and the Philippines earning eleven battle stars. For its part in the invasion of the Philippines and the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the Suwannee received a Presidential Unit Citation and Dr. Burwell was awarded the Silver Star Medal for gallantry and intrepidity action against the enemy on his ship.
At the end of the war, Dr. Burwell continued post-graduate training as Assistant Resident and Fellow in Medicine at Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC. In 1947 he married a former Navy Nurse, Lieutenant Kathleen Krenke of Janesville, Wisconsin and in 1948 they made their home in Henderson. Dr. Burwell then began to establish a practice of Internal Medicine, and joined the Medical Staffs of the Maria Parham and Jubilee Hospitals, developing electrocardiographic services for both hospitals. He also served as Medical Director of the Scott Parker and Jubilee Tuberculosis Sanatoria from 1950 to 1960, during which time the extraordinary advances made in treatment of tuberculosis finally enabled the sanatoria to be phased out and closed at the end of this period.
After the Jubilee Hospital closed and its Medical Staff merged with Maria Parham Hospital Medical Staff in 1965, Dr. Burwell established the hospitals first Coronary Care Unit and taught a number of courses at the hospital on Cardiology and Electrocardiography for Coronary Care Nurses. Meanwhile he maintained his commission in the US. Naval Reserve until his retirement with the rank of Captain in the Medical Corps in 1976. Dr. Burwell continued private practice until 1992, when he became Consultant Member of the Hospital Medical Staff and Medical Director of Industrial Medicine and Occupational Health at the hospital, finally retiring in 2002, having served continuously in various capacities on the Staff for 53 years.
Dr. Burwell was a Diplomate of the National Board of Medical Examiners, a Diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American Society of Internal Medicine. He was also a member of the American Medical Association, the North Carolina Medical Society, the North Carolina Society of Internal Medicine and a number of other professional organizations. His interests in various aspects of medicine and history was reflected by some of his papers and articles in the Naval Medical Bulletin, the North Carolina Medical Journal, the A
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