Remembering Dr. Otis W. Smith

By Mary Rose Taylor, Executive Director Emeritus

Founding member and former board chairman of the Margaret Mitchell House & Museum, Otis Wesley Smith, M. D., died on Monday, February 5, 2007 of complications due to Alzheimer’s. 

The 81-year-old Smith, a graduate of both Morehouse and MeHarry Medical College, was Georgia’s first practicing black pediatrician.  His ties to Margaret Mitchell began in the 1940’s when she anonymously provided scholarships for Morehouse students to support their undergraduate and medical school education.  As a recipient of one of those scholarships, Dr. Smith spoke publicly and frequently about the Pulitzer Prize-winning author’s humanitarian works.

In 1970 Dr. Smith carried the banner of Ms. Mitchell’s legacy beyond Georgia when he called for the integration of the nation’s public hospitals.  Incensed by the blatant disregard of health care provisions in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 at Atlanta’s Grady Hospital, Dr. Smith led a committee of three other Atlanta physicians to the White House to meet with President Lyndon Johnson to demand action.  Documents enforcing the health care provisions of the Civil Rights Act were signed and executed.

Later Dr. Smith would join the Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority, the governing board of Grady, and would see the hospital’s West End Health Center named in his honor.

During his tenure as president of the Atlanta NAACP in the early 1990’s, Dr. Smith learned of the effort to save the Margaret Mitchell House, where the late author wrote Gone With the Wind, and restore it to its original architectural integrity.  His personal check for $10,000 became the foundation for future fundraising efforts.  

Dr. Smith, who admired the author and her book, never missed an opportunity to see the movie.  Whenever it was playing on Turner Classic Movies, he would telephone to remind us.  He never missed a board meeting and there was rarely a week that he didn’t stop by with friends to “just check on things.”  For the lucky visitors who happened to be touring on those occasions, Dr. Smith seemed to relish the opportunity to share his story about how Margaret Mitchell was responsible for making it possible for him to become a physician.

Dr. Smith is survived by his wife Gwen who reminds us today of her husband’s philosophy of giving back to the community.  “Do the right thing, that’s all,” Dr. Smith would say.  “Just do the right thing.”   He was a larger than life presence at the Margaret Mitchell House & Museum.  Already he is missed.