Dr. Alfred Joseph, a longtime East Point pediatrician, began his career by traveling the hilly back roads of his West Virginia hometown, making house calls to coal miners and their families.
It wasn’t unusual for the physician and his wife, Lucille, to get a knock on their door in the middle of the night telling them someone needed medical help. When that happened, they would both pile into their jeep and head out, said daughter-in-law Debra Joseph of Kennesaw.
“She went with him because she didn’t want him to drive on those roads by himself late at night,” Mrs. Joseph explained.
For several years during the late 1940s, Dr. Joseph served hundreds of people as the only doctor for the Montcoal mining community in Whitesville, W.Va. He had grown up in those Boone County hills.
Dr. Joseph’s younger brother, Phillip Joseph of Wipoma, Calif., explained how grateful the residents were to have those services. He said the two were attending a brother’s funeral in Whitesville in 1988 when a young man came up to Dr. Joseph and thanked him for saving his life.
“He said, ‘You don’t remember me but you saved my life when I was born. You put me in a milk carton as an incubator until they could get me to the hospital, and for that I am alive today’,” Dr. Joseph's brother recalled.
Alfred Joseph 90, of Peachtree City died July 18 of congested heart failure at Doctor’s Hospice of Georgia in Fayetteville. A memorial service will be at 10 a.m. Monday at Carmichael Hemperly Funeral Home, 135 Senoia Road, Peachtree City. Carmichael Hemperly Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
Dr. Joseph was born in 1919, the son of Lebanese immigrants from Syria who operated a shoe store in the Boone County mining community. His mother died when he was a young boy, and that tragedy influenced him to pursue a medical career, his daughter-in-law said.
“He always remembered that no one could save her,” she said.
Dr. Joseph graduated from West Virginia University and received his medical degree from the Medical College of Virginia, his family said.
He served as a military doctor twice. His first stint with the U.S. Army was during World War II, and he was called back into active service for two years during the Korean War. He was honorably discharged in 1953 as a captain, said a son, Randy Joseph of Kennesaw. In between those wars, Dr. Joseph practiced medicine for the mining community.
The Josephs moved in 1953 to East Point, where Dr. Joseph began a 41-year pediatric practice. He was also on staff at Georgia Baptist Hospital, Crawford Long Hospital and was chief of staff of pediatrics at South Fulton Hospital, his son said.
Randy Joseph said his father loved his work and was still making house calls through the 1970s. He retired at age 75.
During his retirement, Dr. Joseph was caretaker for his wife, who is in ill health, said a friend and neighbor, Dr. Litell Baird. The Josephs, married 64 years, recently moved to Peachtree City so Mrs. Joseph could receive additional medical help.
Dr. Joseph was also a tireless fund-raiser for the Salvation Army and other charities, his son said.
“He wanted to help people out. I think it was because his parents didn’t have much” when he was growing up, Mr. Joseph said. “And he was so glad to get out of the coal mines of West Virginia.”
The couple’s only daughter, Laura Joseph, died at 18 months old in the early 1960s, the family said.
Other survivors include a son, Alfred Joseph Jr. of Peachtree City; and six grandchildren.
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