C. O. Simpkins

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Cuthbert Ormond (C.O.) Simpkins is a doctor, biographer and historian, best known for his medical work on shock and violence prevention and for his 1975 biography of Jazz musician John Coltrane.

[edit] Biography

Simpkins was born August 20, 1947 in Chicago, Illinois. His father, a dentist, is Cuthbert Ormond Simpkins from Shreveport, Louisiana and his mother, a social worker, is Dorothy Herndon Simpkins from Chicago, Illinois. Until he was 14 years old his family lived in Shreveport.

In retaliation for his father's leadership role in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s two of his family's homes were bombed. In addition his father's malpractice insurance was cancelled and its renewal denied for no overt reason. These events forced his family to leave Louisiana. Simpkins received his undergraduate degree from Amherst College graduating with honors in chemistry. Afterwards he earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School in 1974.

His surgical training was at St. Luke's Hospital in New York City and Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. After his surgical training he did research fellowships at the Boston University School of Medicine and the Naval Medical Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. While in the Navy he achieved the rank of Commander and received two commendations for excellence in research. Simpkins is board certified in General Surgery with certification in critical care. He is also a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and an Honorary member of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma. He was recently voted to receive the best faculty teacher award by the surgery residents at LSU Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, Louisiana. Dr. Simpkins practiced many years as an academic surgeon. He accepted his present appointment in February 2004 at the LSU Health Sciences Center/Department of Surgery where he is Professor of Surgery/ Chief of Trauma and Critical Care.

He has made original scientific contributions concerning the pathophysiology of shock and violence prevention. He is the founder of the Violence Intervention Program (VIP) which continues at the R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, Maryland. He practices surgery as a medical doctor.

The documents accumulated during his medical schooling hold to a relevant part of Black culture, the assembly of which contains many references to what he calls 1920s type Malcolm X figures in the Philadelphia region at the time. The nature of such documentation in light of current geopolitics holds special weight in the expansion of Islam. Simpkins' personal experiences are modestly documented and consist of the youthful participation in the historic jazz culture. Significant postings electronically and in letters contain revealing first-hand accounts of such significant moments in jazz as the only live performance of "A Love Supreme."

While in medical school he wrote the 1975 book Coltrane: a Biography (New York: Herndon House, one of the early texts on John Coltrane (another biography by J.C. Thomas was published close to the same time). The book includes many first-hand interviews with notable individuals, including Coltrane's first wife, Naima. At the time that Coltrane: A Biography was published, it was well-received, but there has been some subsequent debate between Simpkins and later Coltrane biographer, Lewis Porter, with Simpkins stating:

"I have tried to resolve the differences between the details of my account of Coltrane's life and that of Mr. Porter's. There are some issues which need further work to resolve. It appears that Mr. Porter's claims that he corrected “numerous errors” are not supportable by the evidence. Particularly egregious is his misinformation about liver cancer. I would have been delighted to have been given the opportunity to assist him and help him in any way possible. But he chose to make his claims of errors without checking with those who came before him. Therefore, within the pages of John Coltrane: His Life and Music new errors have been created and resolvable issues have been left unresolved. At this point I hope that those who write about Coltrane can be gracious and open like him, and work together to compare notes and sources and bring us closer to the truth about some important details of Coltrane's life."

[http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/review_print.php?id=38 from Tranography: A Juxtaposition of Apparent Conflicts Between Two Biographies By Victor L. Schermer]

Dr. Porter's response to Dr. Simpkins was published in 2004: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=2054

[edit] Medicine

Many documents exist on Cuthbert Simpkins pertaining to medicine and hospital faculty. Images of him may be found at http://www.buffalo.edu/reporter/vol29/vol29n08/n2.html

[edit] External Links

http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/civilrights/cr-exhibit.html Retrieved May 9, 2008 Photo of the bombed Simpkins family home

http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aah/coltrane-john-william-1926-1968 Retrieved May 9, 2008 Article reference to Simpkins' Coltrane Biography

http://www.ethnomusic.ucla.edu/staff/martinelli/Sun%20Ra.htm Retrieved May 9, 2008 Article about the experimental musician/composer Sun Ra using material found in Simpkins' Coltrane Biography

http://books.google.com/books?id=TU_HozbJSC8C&pg=RA1-PA490&lpg=RA1-PA490&dq=co+simpkins+dentist+civil+rights&source=web&ots=TVo-cCtzRY&sig=3YHWvKQa5GOvoeuDiXjArhQhHw8&hl=en Retrieved May 9,2008 Letter from Ella Baker the civil rights activist to Reverend Martin Luther King regarding Simpkins' father and a planned hearing of the United States Civil Rights Commission on the denial of the African American right to vote. Dated July 20, 1960.

http://de.scientificcommons.org/cuthbert_o_simpkins Retrieved May 9, 2008 Listing of Simpkins' Amherst College Chemistry Honors thesis.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3026681 Retrieved May 9, 2008 Research article published by Simpkins while in the Navy. The article documents his discovery of the anti-inflammatory effect of naloxone and the existence of a naloxone receptor