Compare Constellations

Biographical and institutional information is derived from clippings, press releases, and notes in the collection.

Wilmington physician Dr. Allston J. “Tony” Morris practiced internal medicine at the Wilmington Medical Center for thirty years, retiring in 1979. Before their merger formed the Wilmington Medical Center, he was on the staff of the Delaware, Memorial, and General Hospitals, completing his residency at Delaware Hospital in 1949.

At the Wilmington Medical Center, Dr. Morris served as the secretary of staff from 1967–1969, its president from 1970–1974, and a member of the center’s board of directors from 1976 until 1996. Following his retirement Dr. Morris became vice president for medical affairs at the Wilmington Medical Center, serving from 1979–1989.

Dr. Morris was active in the medical community serving as president of the Delaware Academy of Medicine in 1965 and 1966, chairman of the Committee on Public Laws of the Medical Society of Delaware (1969–1978), a board member of the Delaware Foundation for Medical Care, and a past medical director of the Milton and Hattie Kutz Home.

In 1968 Dr. Morris was part of the Southbridge Medical Action Committee, later known as the Southbridge Medical Advisory Council, which planned and founded a neighborhood clinic in the Southbridge section of Wilmington. When the clinic opened for patients in 1970, Dr. Morris was one of its volunteer physicians. He assisted at the Southbridge Medical Activities Center for many years, serving as the center’s vice president from 1968–1974. Today that clinic is the Henrietta Johnson Medical Center.

Dr. Morris died at his home in Wilmington on August 15, 1996. He is survived by his wife Emily B. Morris and four sons.

In 1967 a better-health subcommittee of the Greater Wilmington Development Council began to discuss and investigate the health care resources available for the inner city of Wilmington. In April of 1968 a group of physicians approached another private agency, the Health Planning Council, Inc., and expressed interest in developing and staffing a health center in a medically deprived area of Wilmington. By June of 1968 the Health Planning Council and Greater Wilmington Development Council had joined with the interested physicians, Pharmacy Associates, Inc., and the Wilmington Medical Center to explore establishing a clinic. South Wilmington’s Southbridge section, a primarily black, low-income neighborhood isolated from the city by the Christina River, was selected as a site for a health center and neighborhood residents were asked to organize for an exchange of information.

After several neighborhood meetings involving Southbridge residents and interested physicians, a Neighborhood Advisory Committee was formed. That committee, which was renamed the Southbridge Medical Action Committee (and later the Southbridge Medical Advisory Council, Inc.), determined that residents wanted an emergency walk-in service. In the months that followed the committee prepared documents describing the proposed facilities and budget estimates, explored funding options, and investigated property to house the center. Neighborhood health care centers in New York and Boston were visited, bylaws for the Southbridge Medical Advisory Council (S.M.A.C.) were written and revised, and by June of 1969 S.M.A.C. was incorporated.

The bylaws state the fourfold purpose of S.M.A.C.: to provide medical services to nearby residents, to provide health education for patients, to provide training and employment if possible for area residents in the delivery of health care, and to coordinate efforts with other community services in the planning and/or provision of health care.

Southbridge received support from a variety of groups and individuals. The Wilmington Medical Center provided training for Southbridge staff, the Delaware Pharmaceutical Association staffed the pharmacy, Physicians Organized to Practice at Southbridge provided volunteer physicians, area physicians donated medical equipment, and the Crystal Trust (a $27,000 grant) and a private donor ($5,000) provided the initial financial support.

On September 28, 1970, the Southbridge Medical Activities Center opened at 1113 A Street as Wilmington’s first neighborhood health care center to graduate from planning to operation. Initially the center employed one full-time nurse, Southbridge resident Mrs. Bessie Bungy, who later became the director of S.M.A.C. The facility was open weekdays from 1-8 p.m. and on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., with doctors available in the evenings and Saturday mornings.

For the next three years volunteer physicians and pharmacists provided professional services at S.M.A.C. During the first nine months of operation S.M.A.C. provided medical services to 2,006 patients. The center cooperated with state agencies, providing free space for child guidance counseling, a well-baby clinic, and in the Spring of 1971 provided the first screening program in Delaware for sickle cell anemia.

As the demand for services increased, the need for additional staff became critical. Consequently, in 1974 the Southbridge began the transformation from volunteer to paid professionals. Grants from the State of Delaware and New Castle County through revenue sharing enabled the hiring of physicians.

On August 1, 1977, the Southbridge Medical Activities Center became a federally funded community health center, which allowed the center to provide full-time medical services, dental services, family planning counseling, and minor surgical procedures. The Southbridge Medical Activities Center continues today as the Henrietta Johnson Medical Center.

Motivated by the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Dr. Allston J. Morris was one of the original physicians who approached the Health Planning Council in 1968. He was an active participant in the neighborhood discussions, early committees and served on the board of the Southbridge Medical Advisory Council. In addition, Dr. Morris facilitated the formation of Physicians’ Organization to Practice in Southbridge (P.O.P.S.), later known as Physicians Organized to Practice in Southbridge, and one of the first volunteer physicians to staff the center.