Carroll Moton Leevy was an American physician, nutritionist, medical educator, as well as author of several scientific writings. He was mostly known for establishing the first clinic in the world for alcoholics with liver disease. Internationally recognized for his research, Leevy defined alcoholic liver disease as an immune reaction to the effects of alcohol.
Background
Carroll Moton Leevy was born on October 13, 1920, in Columbia, South Carolina, United States. He was a son of Isaac S. Leevy and Mary (Kirkl) Leevy. His parents pursued various business ventures, notably a funeral home and ambulance service. His grandparents were freed slaves. Carroll had three siblings: Marion, Isaac and Ruby.
Education
Leevy’s first experience with the medical community and one he never forgot or failed to appreciate, came, when he was four years old and had severe pneumonia. Later, an aunt who was suffering from stomach cancer, came to live with the family to be close to medical care. She could not be helped in her rural home. This was not lost on the young Leevy.
Later, Carroll attended Booker T. Washington High School in Columbia, and during those years, he worked in his father’s mortuary. This gave him firsthand experience and understanding of the lack of medical facilities and personnel, that contributed to high death rates in African-Americans. In those days of rampant racism, often only black doctors would treat black patients. Leevy’s sister died of tuberculosis, when she was a college student. His experiences of death and the lack of quality medical care gave him his goal to become a physician.
Throughout high school, Leevy was involved in humanitarian projects, church youth group and in the Boy Scouts, as well as the debate team. Also, during those years, he was a class president, led the science club, acted as an editor of the school newspaper. Moreover, he and his chemistry teacher worked together to write a paper on isotopes. All these activities prepared him for what he would achieve later. He graduated from high school at the top of his class.
Leevy attended Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, as a premed student. To pay for his studies, he received a scholarship and also worked at a clerical job. He was active in the Student Christian Association and was vice president of the Southeastern YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association) Field Council.
In 1940, Carroll attended an integrated Young Men's Christian Association's conference in Lisle, New York, where he observed people of different races and cultures, working together for a common goal, and this impressed him.
Leevy graduated summa cum laude from Fisk University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1941. Then, he attended the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor. While at medical school, Leevy was nominated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt for membership on the National Advisory Committee of the National Youth Administration (NYA). Leevy’s work for the NYA was in keeping with his career and special interest path — inadequacies in health care, education and segregation. This work took him to the White House, where he presented his findings. While Eleanor Roosevelt and Mary McLeod Bethune were devoted to improving the situations he reported, World War II took precedence. A Kellogg Foundation fellowship and a job waiting tables helped finance his education, and in 1942, with the United States’ involvement in World War II and a shortage of physicians, Leevy entered the Army Specialized Training Program. He received a monthly stipend, which helped finance his medical education and gave him more time to concentrate on his studies. In 1944, Leevy received his Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Michigan Medical School.
During his lifetime, he also attained several honorary degrees from different educational establishments, including an honorary Doctor of Science degree from the New Jersey Institute Technology in 1973 and others.
Leevy began his postdoctoral work at the Jersey City Medical Center, serving first as intern, then as resident and chief resident physician from 1944 to 1948. During the period from 1948 to 1959, Leevy acted as a director of clinical investigation and the outpatient department at Jersey City Medical Center. He had two postdoctoral fellowships, one at Banting-Best Institute of Medical Research (present-day Banting and Best Department of Medical Research) at the University of Toronto, in 1952, and the other at Thorndike Memorial Laboratory at Harvard Medical School, from 1958 to 1959. In addition, from 1954 till 1956, Carroll served as a staff officer and assistant chief of medicine in the United States Naval Hospital in St. Albans.
In 1957, Leevy began teaching at the New Jersey Medical School (also known as Rutgers New Jersey Medical School), starting as an associate professor of medicine, a post he held till 1975. From 1975 to 1991, he was a chair of the department of medicine and physician-in-chief of the University Hospital. In addition, in 1984, Leevy became the Scientific director of the Sammy Davis, Jr. National Liver Institute. Later, in 1990, Carroll was appointed a director of the New Jersey Medical School Liver Center.
During his career, Leevy estimated, that he taught 3,160 graduates at New Jersey Medical School between 1960 and 1993. Between 1947 and 1993, he estimated, that he trained more than 3,500 physicians in internal medicine, and more than 200 graduate physicians in the specialty of hepatology, nutrition and gastroenterology.
Leevy’s experiences as an intern and resident at the Jersey City Medical Center pointed him toward researching alcoholic liver disease. The overwhelming number of people with liver disease prompted him to establish the first clinic for alcoholic liver disease at the Jersey Medical Center in 1948. Leevy also investigated the mechanisms of liver disease. He and his colleagues found, that alcoholic liver disease is due to an immunologic reaction to a breakdown product of alcohol. Leevy considered this was his most important contribution as a researcher. In addition, he helped to develop a technique to evaluate the liver’s ability to repair itself. The technique can evaluate the effectiveness of various drugs in treating liver disease.
Throughout the course of his career, Leevy served on both national and international advisory panels. He was a member of the National Digestive Disease Advisory Board, the National Commission on Digestive Diseases, the Ad Hoc Committee on Liver Centers and the Clinical Cancer Training Committee, all under the auspices of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He was a consultant in gastroenterology and hepatology to the United States Food and Drug Administration and a member of the World Health Organization's Committee on Chronic Liver Disease.
In addition to being a member of many professional organizations, Leevy served as president of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases from 1967 to 1968. He was both a vice chair and a chair of the program committee, section on gastroenterology, of the American Medical Association.
Moreover, during his career, Leevy lectured and wrote extensively, publishing books and more than five hundred research papers, related to his field. Furthermore, he held two patents: one for a process and apparatus for evaluating liver disease; the other for a type of monoclonal antibody.
Carroll was a member of numerous organizations, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Association of Professors of Medicine, Association of American Physicians, Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, American Society for Nutrition, Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha Omega Alpha, Sigma Pi Phi and others.
American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases
,
United States
1967 - 1968
International Association for the Study of the Liver
1970 - 1974
Association for Academic Minority Physicians
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United States
1986 - 1988
Connections
Carroll married Ruth S. Barboza on February 4, 1956. Their marriage produced two daughters — Carroll Barboza and Maria Secora.