When Robert Yowell, MD’61, HS’64-’69, entered the Duke University School of Medicine in 1957, he was, by a pretty fair margin, the youngest student at the school. His parents had started him in grade school a year earlier than most kids, and Duke accepted him to its medical program after just three years of undergraduate work at the University of North Carolina, so he was just 20 years old when he began medical school. It wasn’t easy.
“I was pretty green behind the ears,” says Yowell, who retired a decade ago after a long career in obstetrics and gynecology. “That first year was tough. But I made it through, and from that point on I knew I’d found the right place.”
Being in familiar surroundings helped; Yowell was born in Durham and grew up barely 15 minutes’ drive from Duke Chapel. So did meeting his future wife, Barbara Dimmick Yowell, N’62, a Duke School of Nursing student, in his second year. The two were married in Duke Chapel after he completed a year’s internship at the University of Virginia and Barbara graduated. After two years in the Norfolk, Virginia, area while Bob served in the United States Navy, they returned to Durham, and Bob began his residency in OB/GYN at Duke.
Yowell went into private practice at Watts Hospital—where he was born—and then at Durham Regional Hospital for thirty years, the last ten of them under the Duke umbrella when his practice became part of the Duke network.
He and Barbara have deep roots at the university. She served a long career as a nurse in multiple units at Duke University Hospital. After they lost a daughter to leukemia at the age of 3, they had three more children, all born at Duke and all Duke graduates: Robert Yowell II, T’88; Sally Yowell Barbour, T’90, who is director of Oncology Pharmacy Programs at Duke; and Charles Yowell, MD’00, HS’00-’06, T’92.
Those roots have nourished a commitment to service and philanthropy. The Yowells helped establish the Roy T. Parker, MD, Endowed Professorship in honor of the longtime chair of Duke’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, who was an influential mentor to Bob. They both have served on boards and committees and given generously to the Davison Club, the School of Medicine, the School of Nursing, Duke Athletics, and many other units and programs.
“I probably have my name on more bricks and buildings at Duke than I should,” Yowell says. “But it’s not about me. Duke has been extremely good to us. If we can do something to give back and help out a little bit, we’re eager to do so.”
August 23, 2018
By Dave Hart
“I probably have my name on more bricks and buildings at Duke than I should,” Yowell says. “But it’s not about me. Duke has been extremely good to us. If we can do something to give back and help out a little bit, we’re eager to do so.”