Herman A. Godwin, Jr., MD, received the distinguished T. Reginald Harris Memorial Award, in conjunction with the North Carolina Medical Society’s fall meeting on October 31. This year marks the eleventh anniversary that the award, a plaque, and a monetary prize of $2,500, has been given by The Carolinas Center for Medical Excellence (CCME) in honor of the life and memory of T. Reginald Harris, MD, one of its founding members and Past President of the NCMS.
Dr. Godwin, a retired medical oncologist from Blowing Rock, NC, spent his career advancing the quality of care in North Carolina. He served as the head of the Blumenthal Cancer Center at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte and was instrumental in launching the Seby B. Jones Regional Cancer Center at Watauga Medical Center in Boone. In 2005, the oncology department at Watauga Medical Center was named for him.
Dr. Godwin also founded the Appalachian Healthcare Project, a collaborative effort of the medical community to provide health care for the low income, uninsured residents in Watauga and Avery counties. Since 2001, more than 1,100 patients have received donated medical care worth more than $6 million.
His nominator, John B. Smith, Jr., MD, of Clinton, NC, best summed up Dr. Godwin’s contributions by saying, “Compassion, caring, quality. . .Dr. Godwin truly illustrates what we, as physicians, should strive to be.”