Thomas Batchelor, M.D.

Thomas Batchelor, M.D., Class of 1947, injured his leg in a fall on the ice at age 12. With no money for a doctor, his mother took him to a faith healer. He later developed a serious bone infection. A neighbor who was a nurse intervened to get him proper medical treatment, which involved staying in a convalescent home for a year. Batchelor recovered, but had to wear a special shoe because the infection stunted the growth of his leg.

The disability did not keep him from earning straight A’s and graduating from high school with honors. He majored in art at Wayne State University with a full scholarship. His mother worked for the dean of the Wayne State College of Medicine. The dean asked if her son was interested in medicine. Batchelor applied, was accepted and offered a full scholarship. Thomas had to wait a year for his slot at the College of Medicine, during which he continued his studies with a master’s degree in Pathology while teaching at the university.

He was admitted to medical school in an era of racial tensions in Detroit. Batchelor took a date to the park on Belle Isle one summer afternoon in 1943, where a race riot broke out. He was attacked and his leg was reinjured. He suffered from a persistent bone infection from that injury. Instead of spending a year in a convalescent home, he had his leg amputated so he could graduate with his medical class and begin an internship at Detroit Receiving Hospital – where he was one of the first African American physicians given that opportunity.

After his internship, Dr. Batchelor became a resident and fellow under Gordon Myers, M.D. He built his first clinic in Detroit, the beginning of a medical career that would span 54 years. He was the first African American physician on staff at Sinai Hospital, the first African American in Michigan to specialize in hypertension and kidney disease, and the first African American to be granted teaching privileges at Grace and Sinai hospitals. Dr. Batchelor was the first African American to serve as president of the Detroit Board of Health and on the Greater Detroit Area Hospital Council. He was a founder of The Wellness Plan, which at one time was the largest Medicaid health maintenance organization in Michigan that served African American patients.

In 1978, Dr. Batchelor received the School of Medicine’s Distinguished Alumni Award, the highest honor an alumnus can receive. He knew that in 1947 he had graduated with honors and in the top 10 percent of his class, but it was not until that evening, 31 years after he graduated, that he learned he was actually the valedictorian of his class.