Oscar Lovelace
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Oscar Fred Lovelace (born September 23, 1959) is a physician in Prosperity, South Carolina. He was a candidate for the Republican nomination for Governor of South Carolina. In the primary, scheduled for June 13, 2006, he sought to unseat the incumbent Republican governor, Mark Sanford. However, Sanford defeated him soundly with 65 percent of the vote.
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[edit] Early years
Lovelace was born in Columbia, South Carolina as one of three children of Virginia and Fred Lovelace; his sisters are Lynn and Karen. In 1981 he graduated with honors from Clemson University, where he was student body president and winner of the Algernon Sidney Sullivan Award for public service and the Norris Medal for overall excellence. It was there he met Mary Atkinson, whom he married in July of 1982. They have four children: Ben, Spencer, Erin, and Luke.
In 1985, Lovelace graduated from the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. Here, too, he was the student body president. He selected the field of Family Medicine and completed a three-year residency at the University of Virginia. In 1988 he moved to Prosperity and opened the Lovelace Family Medicine office in a remodeled farmhouse.
[edit] Honors and awards
Lovelace's campaign website includes this paragraph about recognition of him and his practice:
Lovelace Family Medicine was recognized as Rural Practice of the Year in 1996 by the State Office of Rural Health. Dr. Lovelace was recognized as Wellspring Physician of the Year in 1998 by a nonprofit organization which recognizes one physician annually in the midlands of SC who practices holistic medicine - emphasizing compassionate care and sensitivity to the needs of others. Oscar was selected to be a member of nationally recognized Best Doctors in 2002 and named SC DHEC Physician of the Year in 2005 for the Midlands Health District. Lovelace Family Medicine was named the Outstanding Teaching Practice of the Year in 2006 for the South Carolina Area Health Education Consortium because of its work educating third year medical students who are assigned two month teaching rotations from the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. [1]
[edit] Public affairs
In 2003, Sanford appointed Lovelace to co-chair the Governor’s Health Care Task Force along with former Governor James B. Edwards. The Task Force produced a 16-page report.
Although Lovelace had contributed money to Sanford's 2002 campaign for governor, he was disappointed by Sanford's failure to press for implementation of the Health Care Task Force's recommendations. In challenging Sanford's bid for renomination, Lovelace also criticized "Governor Sanford’s libertarian ideology and inability to work together with leaders of his own party". [2]
