SENIOR KAPPAS SPOTLIGHT
Akron Doctor, 90, Isn't Ready to Hang up his StethoscopeAnytime Soon Special to the Journal by Betty Lin-Fisher
Dr. Russell L. Platt, Sr., above, was initiated April 18, 1947, with his brother Ernest Platt, at the Alpha Lambda of Kappa Alpha Psi ® at South Carolina State University. He is a graduate of South Carolina State University, The Ohio State University, and Meharry Medical School. He also served as 2 nd Lieutenant in the United States Air Force Medical Services. His son, Russell L. Platt, Jr., was initiated at the Gamma Tau of Kappa Alpha Psi ® at Kent State University in 1984.
D r. Russell L. Platt, Sr. came to Akron to train as a doctor because he knew that as a person of color in the 1960s, he would not get a job in a hospital in the south. Platt knew “regrettably” that even though he wanted to practice medicine in his hometown in South Carolina, it wouldn’t be accepted culturally. Dr. Russell L. Platt, Sr. was initiated on April 18, 1947 in the Alpha Lambda of Kappa Alpha Ps i® with his brother, Er- nest Platt, at South Carolina St. Univer- sity. He is a graduate of South Carolina St. University, The Ohio State Univer- sity and Meharry Medical School. He also served as a Second Lieutenant in the US Air Force Medical Services. He then became the first African Ameri- can to finish his residency at Akron City Hospital and stayed to build his life and practice in Akron. He would become one of the first African American doc- tors to have an integrated practice of both Caucasian and African American patients. Now, after 51 years in private practice and 57 years living in the com-
munity, he’s still going strong.
“People look on the outside, but he’s very good with patients. He’s all right with me. We’re going to pray for 15 more years,” Kirklin said. Platt, who says he has probably cared for more than 25,000 patients, isn’t taking new patients. People ask all the time, he said. “My life expectancy is such that I don’t think it’s fair. I get asked fairly often and some of them say ‘I don’t care,’ ” he said. And it’s “yet to be determined” who would take over for his practice, he said. “Unfortunately, I don’t know that many of the younger doctors who are new in practice and the older, or those who are middle aged, they have patients and I don’t know if they’re taking new pa- tients,” he said. Platt’s current patients say they’ll stick with him as long as they can. Dr. Brian Hayes (Akron (OH) Alumni 1997), a radiologist at Akron Radiology Inc., has known Platt since Hayes was a student 24 years ago at what is now Northeast Ohio Medical University.
Platt, who turned 90 on July 10, still sees patients three times a week and serves as the physician attending numer- ous health fairs for Summa Health. He is likely the longest-serving doctor with an affiliation to City Hospital, of- ficials said. But retiring is “not in my vocabulary,” Platt said, while sitting in an exam room in a West Akron medical office he shares with another physician. He is temporar- ily using a walker in addition to his cane because “of a little fall,” but otherwise he’s still healthy, he said. “I love what I do and without being pre- sumptive I think I’m pretty good at what I do,” he said. Platt’s patients have no problem with his age, saying he’s still got what it takes to care for them. “He’s always been on point,” said Raniece Kirklin, who has been Platt’s patient for 15 years. Her two adult chil- dren and husband also see Platt.
20 | SUMMER 2017 THE JOURNAL
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