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Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to reflect minor corrections. 

Dr. Melville Wyche Jr. has led quite an illustrious career. From his beginnings in Washington, North Carolina, to becoming a true trailblazer in the practice of anesthesiology and education. Wyche was born at Tayloe Hospital in Washington on November 16, 1938, to the parents of Melville and Martha Dowdy Wyche. They lived at his grandmother’s home at the corner of 7th and Respess Streets, which is now 6th Street and still stands today. He lived there until he was around eight years old, when his parents built a home about a half block away on 6th Street. Both of his parents were educators. His father was a principal at schools in Beaufort and Pitt counties. His mother taught at each of those schools. Wyche attended the school in Pantego until the 5th grade and then went to school in Grimesland, where he would go on to graduate from the Pitt County Training School at the young age of 16. “I was always two years younger than the rest of my classmates,” said Wyche. “My mother was a first-grade teacher, and we didn’t have a babysitter, so she would take me with her to school every day. At the end of the year, she just promoted me to the second grade,” he said with a big chuckle.

Wyche said his decision to pursue a career in medicine can be directly attributed to one of his childhood role models. “My uncle was Dr. Haywood Dowdy, the first Black dentist in Washington, who had an office at the corner of 4th and Gladden Streets,” said Wyche. “He was a high profile fella. He was the first African American to serve on the Washington City School Board, was a Mason, and was the first African American man in Washington to become a 33 Degree Mason, and went on to become the secretary of the Grand Lodge of North Carolina. He was such a great role model for me, so when I decided to go to Hampton University, I did so with the intent of becoming a dentist. Hampton didn’t have a formal pre-dental program, so I majored in chemistry with a minor in math, which eventually served as my guide to getting into medical school, as some of my classmates had already decided to take that path.”

Having served in the ROTC at Hampton, Wyche was faced with the decision of entering the Army as a commissioned 2nd Lt. for two years or applying for medical school. “I thought the military might be a good choice as I was engaged at the time, but I sent an application to Meharry Medical College, just as a backup, and I was accepted,” said Wyche. “My engagement broke off, so I decided to put the military on hold for a bit.”

Following his graduation, with the intent of becoming a surgeon, Wyche would do an internship at Homer Philips Hospital in St. Louis, which served the Black community, for one year. He then entered the surgery program there for about six months, but ultimately decided surgery was not for him and decided to fulfill his two years of military service. “I received a call from the Surgeon General’s office, inquiring if I wanted to do something related to surgery, said Wyche. “I happened to be dating a nurse at the time who was an anesthetist and was thrilled about the work. I asked about anesthesiology, and the answer was yes.”

Wyche was sent to Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston, Texas for six weeks, followed by the three months of on-the-job training in Anesthesiology at Madigan General Hospital, in Tacoma, Washington. From there, he was shipped to the U.S. Army Hospital at Camp Zama in Japan, where he became the chief of Anesthesia and the operating room. Camp Zama was one of two or three hospitals in Japan that had been expanded to accommodate casualties from the Vietnam War. In 1970, he would go on to become the first Black Doctor accepted into the Department of Anesthesiology Residency Training Program at the University of Pennsylvania and became the first Black faculty member of the department. While in Philadelphia, he served as chief of the Anesthesia Service and Oxygen Therapy Service at Philadelphia General Hospital and also became director of the Department of Anesthesiology at Pennsylvania Hospital. In 1988, Wyche joined Howard University as chief of the Anesthesiology Division and program director of the Anesthesiology Training Program. One year later, he was named chairman of the newly established Department of Anesthesiology. In 2000, Wyche was elected president of the medical staff at Howard University. “I do feel very fortunate,” said Wyche. “I guess you could say that I have always seemed to be in the right place, at the right time, with the right credentials.”

Through his work, he has also received national accolades, serving as associate examiner for the American Board of Anesthesiology, residency inspector for the Residency Review Committee for Anesthesiology, and member of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, among other national accomplishments. This begs the question: Would he have done anything differently? “My father and mother were both educators, but I took another path, or so I thought. I chose medicine, determined I was not going to be a teacher, little knowing that my entire career would be devoted to academics, helping to shape the lives and practices of young men and women,” said Wyche.”I feel good about being able to teach and counsel young people and I guess serve as a role model for other Blacks who have decided to pursue this field. I’m proud of my son Melville Wyche III, M.D., who pursued a career in Anesthesiology and just retired as chief of Anesthesiology at the VA Medical Center in New Orleans. I’m proud of our daughter Angela Wyche Jones, who is an entrepreneur in Chicago. She and her husband are rehabbing houses on the city’s Southside. We have nieces who have also pursued careers in medicine.”

And through all of this, Wyche has not forgotten about his roots. “While on rotation manipulating the airway of a small child in surgery, an attending physician walked behind me and said, ‘I can’t believe you are from Washington, North Carolina!’ “I proudly looked up at him and said, ‘Yes, I am from Washington, North Carolina.’ “I was proud to be able to say that. I still regard Washington as my home. It is where my parents lived and where I grew up.”