Memorial to Robert Toombs Jackson, MD

By Arthur E. Davis, MD
(Reprinted with permission by the Wake County Medical Society, Vol 2, No. 3, 1998)

Robert Toombs Jackson was born on September 7, 1915 in Cochran, Georgia. Bob was raised by his mother and grandmother in Macon, Georgia, his father having died in 1917.

An accomplished tennis player, member of a championship ROTC rifle team, and academic excellence led to a scholarship at Mercer University.

He graduated in 1938 with honors and a BS degree and accepted a scholarship to the University of Georgia School of Medicine. Graduation from there in 1941 was followed by a year of internship at the University of Michigan.

Upon completion of his internship and with the country at war, he attended Flight Surgeon School as a member of the US Army Air Corps. He was assigned to the air base at Laredo, Texas, where he spent most of the war, until being transferred to Washington, D.C.  where he was a general medical officer for the Penatgon.

Bob met Ellen Holmes Carson while in Washington and they married on August 17, 1946. Bob was discharged from the service in November of 1946 as a Major and received the US Army Commendation  Award with pendant.

Bob began solo practice of general medicine in the apartment complexes near Boling Field in Washington with 50% pediatrics and 10% geriatrics. During the first five years of his practice, Bob and Ellen had three children, Robert Toombs, Jr., Ellen Taylor and Richard Montgomery.

Bob worked evenings and most nights and loved primary care and patient contact, but felt there was not enough time to meet the needs of his patients. He saved money, applied and was accepted for a fellowship in Radiology at the Mayo Clinic.

In 1951, Bob begin 3 1/2 years of training as a Fellow and First Assistant in Diagnostic and Therapeutic Radiology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. When he finished his training, Bob and Ellen headed for Georgia, with stopovers in Bristol, Tennessee and Charlotte, NC. At this time, Tom Worth, radiologist at Rex Hospital in Raleigh, invited him to become a partner of Raleigh Radiology Associates. It was a wonderful relationship and Tom proved to be the brother that Bob never had. The partnership was rewarding in every respect for both men.

Dr. Jackson started the Rex Hospital School of Radiology Technology, which is still located at Wake Technical Community College. Dr. Jackson taught classes in physics and anatomy until qualified teachers were hired. Bob planned and developed the incorporation of Raleigh Radiology Associates, a large group of physicians who continue to sponsor a scholarship recently renamed to honor him.