W. Thomas Parrott, M.D.

W. Thomas Parrott, M.D.

W. Thomas Parrott, M. D. To no profession are there open greater opportunities of human and social usefulness than to the practitioner of medicine. One of the able men of North Carolina who have utilized to a remarkable degree these opportunities is Dr. W. Thomas Parrott of Kinston. Dr. Parrott is a leader in his profession and in certain lines has few peers in the state.

Dr. Parrott gave Kinston one of its noblest institutions, the Parrott Memorial Hospital, which he served as president for a number of years. He is a former president of the Seaboard Medical Society, and is one of the well known members of the Southern Medical Association, the Tri-State Medical Association, and the North Carolina State Medical Society.

Dr. Parrott was born in Falling Creek Township of Lenoir County, September 11, 1875. He was a small boy when his father died, and he and his widowed mother removed to Kinston, where he attended the local schools in preparation for college. In 1893 he entered the academic department of the State University, where he remained two years. Seeking an opportunity for self support, he became clerk in a drug store, and from a practical knowledge of drugs and pharmacy the ambition grew upon him to become a physician. He spent three years in the drug store and then entered and graduated with the degree Ph.D. from the Maryland College of Pharmacy at Baltimore. A few months later he enrolled as a regular medical student in the University of Maryland. During his summer vacations he practiced medicine with his brother. In order to have the opportunities of a Southern clinical training he took his last course at Tulane University in Louisiana. While at New Orleans he gave special attention to the treatment of tropical and sub-tropical diseases, and during his active practice he has become more and more recognized as a specialist in tropical maladies.

Dr. Parrott, when he graduated from Tulane University in the spring of 1899, was the youngest member of a class of one hundred and fourteen. Soon afterward he was granted a state license at the Asheville meeting of the State Board and began practice at Kinston. Dr. Parrott has since increased his general equipment and experience by extended courses both at home and abroad. In 1900 he was in New York City and in 1902 went abroad, receiving a diploma for work in the London Polyclinic and taking special work at the Ormond Street Hospital for Children. At regular intervals since he has attended clinics and the schools of leading medical centers in this country.

Doctor Parrott served for a time as superintendent of Health of Lenoir County, and was formerly surgeon of the Second Regiment, North Carolina National Guard, with the rank of captain, and retired from the service with the rank of major. He is now surgeon of the Kinston Fire Department and surgeon for the Norfolk and Southern Railroad Company. He was instrumental in helping with the plan for the Robert Bruce McDaniel Memorial Hospital at Kinston and has always been generous of his time and ability in promoting such institutions and the preparation and equipment of others for hospital work. Doctor Parrott is a member of the Christian Church. He has written a number of articles which have been read before the North Carolina Medical Society and other medical associations.

On March 15, 1916, he married Miss Jeannette Johnson, of Scotland County, North Carolina, daughter of Charles Johnson, a well known business man of that locality. Doctor and Mrs. Parrott have one son, William Thomas Jr., born December 23, 1916.

Source: History of North Carolina, Vol. VI, The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago and New York ©1919