Dr. William Owen, Dean, and Chancellor, Ross University School of Medicine speaks at the MOU Signing Ceremony at Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science. To understand the legend, you have to know something about the man. Charles Richard Drew, (born June 3, 1904, Washington, D.C., U.S.—died April 1, 1950, near Burlington, N.C.), African American physician and surgeon who was an authority on the preservation of human blood for transfusion.. Drew was educated at Amherst College (graduated 1926), McGill University, Montreal (1933), and Columbia University (1940). But Drew died in North Carolina, and the story of his death has become one of the most frequently told legends of our time. Family & Early Life. Dr. Charles Drew wasn’t born in North Carolina, and he never lived here.

A pioneering African-American medical researcher, Dr. Charles R. Drew made some groundbreaking discoveries in the storage and processing of blood for transfusions. But the legend doesn’t tell what really happened.