Black History Month - February 2020
Albany Medical College Alumni Profiles
George Clayburn Carter, MD
Class of 1914
Dr. George Clayburn Carter was the first African American student to graduate from Albany Medical College and according to the 1914 copy of "The Skull" yearbook; he entered Albany Medical College with a "full score of Latin and Greek fresh from the local High School." Following two years of his internship he moved to Queens, NY and started a practice there. His professional affiliations included the American Medical Association, the Medical Society of the State of New York, and the Queens County Medical Society.
Orlando T. Hines, MD
Class of 1959
A native of Hartford, CT, Orlando graduated from Wesleyan University in 1955 followed by his medical degree from Albany Medical College in 1959. He stayed in Albany to complete his internship and residency at Albany Hospital. He joined the faculty of Albany Medical College in 1966 and was promoted to assistant professor in the Department of Medicine in 1968. Dr. Hines also served on the staff of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center Hospital and established the chronic dialysis unit at the Albany V.A. In 1985, he was elected to membership in the Theta Chapter of Alpha Omega Alpha as an alumnus of Albany Medical College. The next year, as the chief of the hemodialysis section at the Albany V.A. Medical Center, he received a plaque commemorating his 20 years of dedication and service to renal patients. In 1990, he was named Physician of the Year at the V.A. Hospital. Dr. Hines also served as a captain in the Army Medical Corps and as an advisor for minority affairs at Albany Medical College.
Ralston R. Fillmore, Jr., MD
Class of 1963
Ralston Fillmore originally entered Albany Medical College as a member of the Class of 1956. He attended the College for two years and then left to participate in a five year cancer research project at the Sloan-Kettering Institute. After the project was completed he returned to Albany Medical College to finish his degree, graduating with the Class of 1963. This was not the first time his education was interrupted for a noble cause. While attending Fisk University in Nashville, TN on a scholarship, he left after his freshman year to serve with the United States Marines in Korea. He was discharged in 1948. He continued his studies at City College following his discharge and received his B.S. degree in 1952.
While at Albany Medical College he spent one year as a student council representative and worked on a fellowship on the pathogenesis of fever with the pathologist Dr. Goodale. His work with Dr. Goodale led to his receipt of the Henry Schaffer Pathological Prize. During his medical career, Dr. Fillmore served as clinical assistant in medicine at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan, assistant attending physician at St. John’s Episcopal Hospital in Brooklyn, part-time physician at the Manhattan Bowery Project, the Port of New York Authority and the Provident Neighborhood Health Center. In addition to his many duties to New York Hospitals and organizations he also held a private practice in Brooklyn. He continued to practice medicine and was active in many organizations such as the Kings County Medical Society and the Urban League, until his sudden death from an illness in 1972.
Buel Staggers, MD, PhD
Class of 1967
A member of the class of 1967, Buel Staggers came to study medicine at Albany Medical College from Eatonville, FL, the nation’s first black incorporated municipality. He attended Hungerford High School in Eatonville, FL where he served as the class president and class valedictorian. Buel received a music scholarship to attend Florida A&M University where he participated in the concert and marching bands and joined the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. In the ten years that followed his graduation from Florida A&M, Dr. Staggers earned a doctoral degree in zoology at Rhode Island University, pursued post-doctoral studies at Brown University, received his medical degree from Albany Medical College in 1967, completed his residency in orthopedic surgery at the U.S. Public Health Service Hospital and served as a medical officer with the rank of Lt. Colonel, at the Staten Island Marine Hospital.
In 1982 he was appointed chief of staff at the United Hospitals Orthopedic Center in Newark, NJ and served as the director of the adult orthopedic surgery unit. In 1986 he was promoted to chief of orthopedics at East Orange General Hospital in New Jersey. A year later, he received his hometown’s “Living Legends Freedom Award” for his achievements in medicine over 20 years. In 1989 he was inducted into Florida A&M’s Science Hall of Fame. Dr. Stagger’s commitment to community service led him to treat, free of charge, Angolan refugee children with orthopedic injuries caused by land mine explosions. Additionally, he also joined with an international delegation of physicians treating patients in Barbados, West Indies, one month per year, to teach doctors there to perform various surgical techniques.