Dr. Aaron Jackson, Urologist, Longtime Member College of Medicine Faculty

By Cheylin Parker
Communications Officer
College of Medicine

WASHINGTON -- Dr. Aaron Jackson, a longtime member of the Howard University College of Medicine faculty and former chief of the Division of Urology at Howard University Hospital, died Tuesday morning, Feb. 28, after a long illness.   He was 77.

A native of Jackson, Miss., Jackson was an associate professor in the College of Medicine and a member of the Division of Urology in the Department of Surgery at the college and the hospital.  He joined the Howard University College of Medicine faculty in 1973.

Jackson received his Bachelor of Science degree at Morehouse College in 1956 and his Medical Degree at Howard University College of Medicine in 1960.  He completed an internship at Freedmen’s Hospital, now Howard University Hospital.

Dr. Jackson served as a lieutenant in the Navy as a battalion and regimental surgeon to the Seventh Regiment of the First Marine Division at Camp Pendleton, Calif. His service included a deployment to Guantanamo Bay during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962.

Following his military duties, he returned to Mississippi with his wife and three young children to practice medicine in the small delta town of Greenwood. Greenwood was the center of much of the civil and voting rights activities during this period, and, as the only African-American physician in a 50-mile radius, Dr. Jackson became involved in many of these activities.  After five years of general practice in Mississippi and with a family now grown to five, Jackson decided to specialize in urology and was accepted in the residency program at the University of Iowa in Iowa City under the guidance of the renowned urologist Dr. Ruben Flocks.  

During 50 years as a physician, teacher and academic surgeon, Jackson served as president of the Washington Urological Society, president of the Mid-Atlantic Section-American Urologic Association (AUA), member of the nominating committee of the AUA, chair of the National Medical Association Urology Section, president of the medical and dental staff of D.C. General Hospital, member of the Society of University Urologists, the American Society of Andrology, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American College of Surgeons.

He was a pioneering contributor to the hospital’s renal transplant service and urology and surgery training programs at Howard.

Among his many honors and awards, Jackson received the Virgin Islands Department of Health Award for Outstanding Contributions to the St. Thomas Kidney Transplant Center as a member of the Howard University Transplant Team performing the first kidney transplant in the Virgin Islands.

In May, 1999, he was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Society, and in 2001, he was named Outstanding Attending Physician, Howard University Hospital.

 “Dr. Jackson is fondly remembered by friends, colleagues, students and patients for his humanism, dedication and delightful and irreverent sense of humor,” said Dr. Edward E. Cornwell III, surgeon in chief of Howard University Hospital and chair of the Department of Surgery at Howard University College of Medicine.

A memorial celebration will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday, March 18, Dr. Aaron at the Barn at Wolf Trap, 1635 Trap Road, Vienna, Va., 22182.

Jackson is survived by his wife of 53 years, Alexine Clement Jackson; 2 brothers, Emory and Charles Ray, four children, Celia Sarter;,Gordon, Emily, Juliet and Scott; 10 grandchildren, Jackson, Simone, Addison Sarter; Yasmin ,Tarek,Sereen Othman,;Ashley and Aaron Jackson, Christopher and Arielle Jones.