WILLIAM DOBBS

Dr. WILLIAM HENRY DOBBS  
Passed away January 17, 2018. Bill Dobbs was born in Camilla, Georgia, on May 5, 1924, where he grew up. In 1943, he enlisted in the Army, serving as a longshoreman in Hawaii, Okinawa, and Korea. He earned a Bronze star supporting the front-line troops in the Ryukyu Islands Campaign, and survived a kamikaze attack and a typhoon. After an honorable discharge in 1946 as a First Lieutenant, Bill enrolled at Emory University, where he obtained his B.A. and M.D. degrees.  Motivated by the effects of war on himself and his fellow soldiers, Bill decided to specialize in psychiatry. He completed an internship at Walter Reed Army Hospital and a residency at St. Elizabeths Hospital in ,Washington, DC Bill spent the majority of his career at St. Elizabeths, rising from staff psychiatrist to Superintendent. During his tenure, St. Elizabeths patients included infamous residents Ezra Pound and John Hinckley, Jr. Bill also directed a methadone-based treatment program for heroin addiction, and he served for 24 years as a Captain in the Medical Corps of the Army Reserve. Bill retired from St. Elizabeths in 1984 and continued practicing psychiatry at area mental health clinics for several years.  During his retirement, Bill captured his war experience in his memoir War Journey: Witness to the Last Campaign of World War II, completed at age 87. Bill greatly enjoyed spending time with his family, reading, watching movies, camping, crabbing, bird watching, and rooting for his beloved Redskins.  All his life, Bill felt passionately about racial equality and helping the less fortunate. His kind and compassionate spirit was an inspiration to many. He will be greatly missed.  Bill was preceded in death by his sisters, Billie Wimpy, Marion Edge and Vallie Dobbs; his first wife, Dorothy Dobbs; and his second wife, Audrea Dobbs. He is survived by his children, DeDe Paul, Judith Hayes and Hillary Block; grandchildren, Pamela Hayes, Alice Paul, Carla Paul, Shane Dobbs, Lucas Dobbs and Calvin Ruffin; and great-grandchild, Paris Hayes. He was anticipating the birth of another great-grandchild.  The family will receive visitors on Tuesday, January 23, 2018 from 10 a.m. until time of service, 11 a.m., at Marshall & March Funeral Home in Suitland, Maryland. A graveside service with military honors will follow at Washington National Cemetery, also in Suitland.