Dr. Alexander Sproul

SPROUL, Dr. Alexander Erskine, died on Monday, July 12, 2010. He was born on July 22, 1916 in Augusta County, Virginia, the youngest child of Hugh Bell Sproul and Agnes Erskine Miller Sproul. He was preceded in death by five siblings, Harriette S. Allnutt of Baltimore, Md., Eugenia S. May, Hugh B. Sproul Jr., Mason Miller Sproul and Agnes S. Bush, all of Staunton. On May 27, 1943, he married Ruth Eileen Peters of Wheeling, W.Va. and Staunton, who survives. He is also survived by four sons and their wives, Maj. Alexander E. Sproul Jr. and his wife, Drury Gaulding Sproul, of Greenville, James Mason Sproul, Ph.D. and his wife, Kathleen Baker Sproul, of Richmond, George Thomas Sproul, M.D. and his wife, Sharon Hanger Sproul of Staunton and David Alexander Sproul and his wife, Robin Vierbuchen Sproul, of Bethesda, Md. In addition, he is survived by seven grandchildren, Benjamin Alexander Sproul and his wife, Allyson Shankland Sproul, of Kill Devil Hills, N.C., Elaine Miller Sproul and her husband, David Szymanski, of Warrenton, Ore., Eric Alexander Sproul and his wife, Marie Byrd Sproul, of Catonsville, Md., Emily Sproul Cox and her husband, Steven Neil Cox, of Staunton, Catherine Ruth Sproul of New York, N.Y., Anna Love Sproul of Arlington and Amy Grace Baker Sproul of Charlottesville. Also surviving are six great-grandsons, Vega Alexander Sproul, Jude Nimo Sproul, Carter Samuel Cox, Andrew Erskine Cox, Gabriel Drury Sproul and Leo David Andrano Sproul; and one great-granddaughter, Margaret Lupton Cox. Dr. Sproul was educated in the Staunton public schools and Augusta Military Academy. He graduated from Washington and Lee University in 1937 and the University of Virginia Medical School in 1941. His internship was at Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore, Md. in 1941-42. Dr. Sproul entered the United States Army at Carlisle Barracks, Pa. in July 1942. He attended the Medical Officer Indoctrination Course and later the Army Air Corps School of Aviation Medicine at Randolph Field, Texas. In August 1943, he was assigned to the 461st Bomb Group as a flight surgeon and remained with that Group until separating from the service in August 1945. In the interim, the Group spent 18 months in the 15th Air Force in Italy. After release from active duty, he spent one year each in the Maryland Air National Guard in Baltimore and the Virginia Air National Guard in Richmond. In 1950, he was commissioned as a Major in the newly separate U.S. Air Force Reserve. In 1957, he was promoted to Lt. Colonel and in 1964 to Colonel. He retired from the USAF Reserve in January 1970. After the war, Dr. Sproul served three years residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore and at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond. He then spent three months in gynecologic pathology at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He was in the private practice of obstetrics and gynecology in Staunton from 1948 to 1967, as a solo practitioner until he was joined by Dr. Philip Grant in 1958. From 1967 to 1970, he was a fellow in pathology at the University of Virginia Medical School. From 1970 until his retirement in 1984, he was associate pathologist at King's Daughters Hospital in Staunton and Stonewall Jackson Hospital in Lexington, in association with Dr. Karl Menk. During those years, he was also a (Continued)


This obituary was originally published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.