From the Desk of Commissioner Bobby B. DuBose DISTRICT III NEWS

SPECIAL EDITION JUNE 2012

Dear District III,

The City of Fort Lauderdale has lost a trailblazing pioneer in the person of Dr. Calvin H. Shirley.

This year Dr. Shirley was celebrated as the City of Fort Lauderdale’s Honored Founder and was the special guest at the annual Walk Through History event that commemorated the medical history in the Northwest.

Calvin H. Shirley was in a league that many aspire to. He walked tall and humbly yet left a mark that is undeniably etched in the framework and foundation of Fort Lauderdale.

Dr. Calvin Hylton Shirley graduated from Booker T. Washington High School at the age of sixteen in Pensacola, and matriculated at Florida A & M Uni- versity in Tallahassee, Florida where he obtained his pre-medical education ma- joring in Biology and a double minor in Chemistry and Education. During these undergraduate years, he played trumpet in the College Marching Band, Sym- phonic, Jazz and Dance Orchestras. This afforded him a full music scholarship which helped to pay his tuition and living expenses.

Drafted into the Navy after the completion of his college career and during World War II, Dr. Shirley served his country as a Hospital Corpsman in the Asiatic Pacific Theater of War. Following an Honorable Discharge from the Navy, Dr. Shirley enrolled in the Boston College of Physicians & Surgeons in Boston, Massachusetts graduating Summa Cum Laude. He completed his Internship and Residency in Obstetrics & Gynecology at Boston City Hospital and returned to Florida in 1949 to commence his medical practice. He joined the three medical doctors already established in Fort Lauderdale at the Old Provident Hospital and became a Staff Physician there delivering a career total of over six thousand (6000) newborn infants.

As a medical professional, Dr. Shirley accomplished many firsts during his practice; and along with Jeanette E. Shirley, his late wife and herself a BS degreed Registered Nurse, implemented the first curriculum and operations for Broward County Licensed Practical Nurse Training Program. He later became the county’s first Medial Advisor to the Sickle Cell Foundation. He was the first and only black physician who in 1985 received the coveted Heideman Memorial Doctor of the Year Award. Dr. Shirley was also the first black physician to serve on the Executive Board of the Florida He was one of the first four Black physicians admitted to the staff of then rowardB General Hospital (now known as Broward Health Broward General Medical Center), opening its closed doors to physicians of color and paved the way for acceptance of all future black physicians. It took many court battles to win that privilege. He was instrumental in getting Fort Lauderdale’s County HealthDepartment building erected in a predominately black community, thereby affording more accessibility to available county health facilities and public health services. This facility, North- west Health Center, originally housed the county’s first AIDS Care & Treatment Center, developed and directed initially by his daughter Jasmin Shirley and with whom he shared his expertise.

Nationally, Dr. Shirley served fifteen years as the Grand Clinical Director and Assistant Grand Medical Director of the Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the World. This service is rendered during their annual Grand Lodge Conventions held in various cities throughout the United States.

Over the years he collected numerous honors and awards which included: Broward County Historical Commission Award; the Southern Provincial Achievement Award presented to him by his brothers of the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity; and a plaque of “Merit and Appreciation” from Florida’s former State Governor, , for having provided “Valuable and Distinguished Services” to the State of Florida.

Having asserted himself in many ways, Dr. Shirley was listed in Who’s Who among Black Americans; Who’s Who International Intellectuals; Personalities of the South, and the City of Fort Lauderdale has honored him with Northwest 22nd Road being changed to “Dr. Calvin H. Shirley Road.” He built his own office there and retired from that location in 2004.

Other community accomplishments include: Charter Polemarch (President) of the Fort Lauderdale Alumni Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc; 32nd Degree Mason; a Shriner of Kazah Temple #149, , Florida; a Brother of the Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity of Alpha Rho Boule; a former member of the Board of Directors of Broward County Environmental Educational New World Aquarium Commission and a fomrner member of the Advisory Board of Fort Lauderdale Sunniland Bank. He held membership in the Broward County Recreational Vehicular Campers Club; and as an avid golfer, he held membership in the Palm View Golf Association. He was been a member of St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church over the past sixty-three years and continued to serve in its choir as its trumpet accompanist.

Dr. Calvin Shirley truly represented the best that the City of Fort Lauderdale had to offer. Thank you Dr. Shirley for your legacy!

Yours in Service,

Commissioner Bobby B. DuBose