Drs. Helen E. Nash and Homer Nash Jr. were pioneering physicians who advocated for children and helped open doors for Black doctors.
It is fitting that a street deep in the heart of the prestigious Washington University Medical Campus will be renamed after the sibling physicians and be known as Nash Way.
The renaming ceremony is at 5:30 p.m. Friday Oct. 14, 2022.
It follows the St. Louis Board of Aldermen passage of resolutions honoring Helen E. Nash and Homer Nash Jr. “for their vast contributions to the city, where the Nash family has been treating children and advancing medical education since the 1940s.”
“In addition, the campus will soon display a permanent timeline of key moments in our institutions’ evolution toward diversity, inclusion and culturally responsive care for all patients in one of our most prominent public corridors, serving the medical center’s faculty, staff and trainees,” David H. Perlmutter, MD and Sherree Wilson, PhD, said in a joint release.
“Our institutional mission emphasizes building a campus culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Today we establish important milestones on that journey.”
Perlmutter is Executive Vice Chancellor for Medical Affairs Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Distinguished Professor and George and Carol Bauer Endowed Dean, School of Medicine.
“Nash Way will honor a family whose legacy continues to define pediatric care in St. Louis. As two St. Louis pediatricians, we celebrate this well-deserved tribute as we mourn the loss of Dr. Homer Nash Jr., a consummate educator, and renowned clinician whose name is synonymous with compassionate care,” said Perlmutter and Wilson.
Dr. Helen Nash completed her residency at Homer G. Phillips Hospital and the historic institution will also be honored during the Nash Way ceremony.
In 1949, she became the first African American woman to join the attending staff at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, where she helped develop one of the first specialized wards for premature infants.
She started her private practice that year, while remaining on staff at Homer G. Phillips Hospital, serving as pediatric supervisor and associate director of pediatrics from 1950 to 1964. She was president of Children’s Hospital attending staff from 1977 to 1979.
After treating thousands of children in her 45 years of practice, Dr. Nash retired from private practice and her faculty position as a professor emeritus of pediatrics in 1993. She then served as dean of minority affairs for Washington University School of Medicine from 1994 to 1996.
“She loved her patients and pushed institutions to change to improve children’s health and lives,” Dr. Alison Nash said.
Helen Nash followed her father’s footsteps by pursuing a medical career he was a general practitioner in Atlanta. Her younger brother, Dr. Homer Nash Jr., and her niece, Dr. Alison Nash, followed Helen Nash into pediatrics.
“She set very high standards for herself and the people around her,” Dr. Alison Nash said of her aunt.
Homer E. Nash Jr. served in the U.S. Army in Italy during World War II and received a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. When he returned, he went to Meharry Medical School in Nashville and following his graduation he moved to St. Louis to train under his sister at Homer G. Phillips. He sought to address obvious health inequities in the Black community, where children did not have access to the same resources other area children. He made it his life’s work to serve those children, always keeping his private practice office in the Black community as his sister had done and his daughter has continued to do.
He was on staff at St. Louis Children’s and Barnes-Jewish hospitals and served on many committees and advisory boards. He was a clinical professor of pediatrics at Washington University and worked with the Community Outpatient Practice Experience (COPE) to facilitate community pediatric practicums for WashU medical residents and for physician assistants and nurse practitioners in other programs.
Dr. Nash, who passed away earlier this year, practiced and taught well into his 80s, continually improving the lives of children and teaching students.
He was honored as a Lifetime Achiever during the 2009 Salute to Excellence in Healthcare and told The St. Louis American he chose pediatrics as his specialty while an intern at Mount Sinai Hospital in Chicago.
“In general internship, you spend six weeks or two months in each service. Pediatrics was the one I liked the best,” he said.
Speakers at the Nash Way celebration will include Will Ross, MD, Associate Dean for Diversity Principal Officer for Community Partnerships, St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones, Trish Lollo, St. Louis Children’s Hospital president, and Donald M. Suggs, St. Louis American publisher, friend, and colleague of Dr. Homer Nash.
Dr. Alison Nash will also speak on behalf of the family during the Nash Way unveiling.
