Eaton was born in Fayetteville, NC grew up in Winston-Salem, NC, the son of Estelle Atley (Jones) and Dr. Chester Arthur Eaton. A graduate of Johnson C. Smith University, where he was a member of the tennis team, he earned a MS in zoology and his medical degree at the University of Michigan. He moved to Wilmington, NC in 1943 with his wife, Celeste Burnett. Eaton practiced general medicine and general surgery and was a member of the surgical staff of [segregated] Community Hospital. In 1950 he and others sued the New Hanover Board of Education to force upgrading of the segregated schools. Eaton returned to the courts when the school system was not integrating schools in accordance with the Brown decision. In 1957 Eaton and his fellow physicians sued to force James Walker Memorial Hospital to admit black doctors to its staff. When New Hanover County moved to build a new hospital, Eaton and other African-American physicians used the courts to insure that the new facility would be open to patients and doctors of all races. Eaton had a lifelong interest in tennis; he sponsored Althea Gibson, and served as president of the American Tennis Association. Eaton served as an advisor to several area educational institutions: Cape Fear Technical Institute [now Cape Fear Community College], the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teaching. He served as a Title VI Consultant for the Dept. of Health Education and Welfare, as a trustee for Pitt County Hospital and participated in national medical conferences. He was a scholar and writer who authored an account of the history of Community Hospital, a biography of Dr. James F. Shober, and his own memoirs, "Every Man Should Try."
From the description of Papers, 1938-1989. (University of North Carolina, Wilmington). WorldCat record id: 36878369
