Drew, Charles Richard (1904-1950)

US surgeon who demonstrated that plasma had a longer life than whole blood and therefore could be better used for transfusion. Drew was born in Washington DC and studied at Amherst College and McGill University Medical School. He became professor of surgery at Howard University Medical School 1942. In 1939, he established a blood bank and was in charge of collecting blood for the British army at the beginning of World War II. In 1941, he became director of the American Red Cross Blood Bank in New York, which collected blood for the US armed forces. Drew resigned, however, when the Red Cross decided to segregate blood according to the race of the donor.