Perry Clinic
[Submitted in the Heritage of Chesterfield County 2004]
Dr. William Joel Perry, M.D., came to Chesterfield in 1905. He was a native of Wingate, North Carolina. His purpose was to practice medicine in Chesterfield. He married Essie Burn Buchanan, a native of Chesterfield.
He served in the General Assembly of South Carolina as a Representative in the State Legislature from 1922-1926 and as State Senator from 1926-1930.
Dr. Perry was joined in practice by his son, William Louis Perry, M.D. in January 1940. Because of health reasons, Dr. Perry had to stop practice in 1944. Dr. William continued the practice alone until he was joined by his brother, Jerry Buchanan Perry, M.D., in 1949.
The idea for the Perry Clinic was conceived shortly after Dr. Jerry joined the practice. Their father and mother gave them the property for the clinic on West Boulevard and the clinic was completed in early 1954.
The building contained office space for two physicians, one on each side of a long hall, a waiting room, a delivery room, a ward, and three bedrooms, and an x-ray lab. The grand opening was held on March 28, 1954. A large group of people attended the Open House. Those gathering included Dr. and Mrs William Perry, Sr.
The Perry brothers practiced together until September, 1987 when Dr. William was forced to retire because of health reasons. Dr. Jerry retired because of health reasons in December of the same year.
The combined years of medical practice of the three doctors was 122 years of servic to Chesterfield County Residents.
James W. Jenkins
Dr. William Joel Perry died six months after the Open House for the Perry Clinic. The Perry family gave the property to the Town of Chesterfield. The town has entered into contracts with the Hospital and other health providers to try to keep medical services available. In 2006 the Town Offically Designated the facility as the Perry Clinic.
I recall how fortunate I felt when coaching here that we had such good medical care across the road from the ball field. I can still see in my mind's eye, Dr. Jerry Perry working on athletes to make sure that they were available for the game. He must have restored a homemade halo on J. Calvin's broken hand a half-dozen times to see that he could play. I recall on one occasion when Mack Lawrence got hit under the eye and the skin popped open and I sent our manager, Butch Pelfrey with Mack to the Clinic. At the conclusion of practice, Mack came back to the school where the dressing rooms were located but Butch was not with him. I inquired where he was and found that while watching Dr. Jerry sew up Mack's wound, Butch fainted and fell and hit his head on the floor and had to be retained for observation over night. A sad follow-up on that story is that Mack was killed in an automobile accident in Camden, SC only a few years later. Every young person with whom I had the pleasure of teaching or coaching was special to me in some way. I was blesssed to have the opportunity to work with them.