Cuthbert Ormond Simpkins

He was born in 1847, according to the stamp on his birth certificate.

However this is contradicted by his continued presence on the World Wide Web.

The individual himself states that the humor in his birth dating pertains to the common occurrence of facts not matching truth, a frequent historic study of his.

Cuthbert Ormond Simpkins, II (born August 20, 1947 in Chicago, Illinois), is a physician, biographer and inventor, best known for his work on shock and violence prevention and for his 1975 biography of the jazz musician John Coltrane.

Simpkins' parents took an active role in the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

Two of their family homes in Shreveport were bombed.

The senior Simpkins' malpractice insurance was cancelled, and he was denied renewal because he was listed as No. 1 on the death list of racist elements.

These events forced the Simpkinses to leave Louisiana, but the senior Simpkins later returned to Shreveport.

Simpkins hence received his undergraduate degree from Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts, having graduated with honors in chemistry.

In his senior year at Amherst, he began work on the biography of American saxophonist and composer John Coltrane.

Coltrane's strong affirmation of the African-American struggle for freedom was revealed in greater detail in his 1962 letter to jazz journalist Don DeMichael.

The book contains engaging information about the experimental composer and musicians, Sun Ra and Ornette Coleman.

After graduation from Amherst, he earned his medical degree from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from which he graduated in 1974.

At Harvard, he finished the book Coltrane: A Biography, which was published in 1975.

Another biography of Coltrane, Chasin' the Trane by J. C. Thomas was published in the same year.

It is not clear which book was published first.

Coltrane: A Biography was well received by major media critics such as Mel Watkins who wrote in The New York Times Saturday book review section, "Dr. Simpkins very often accomplishes something that few other jazz biographers have done: He narratively simulates the emotional effect of the subject's music."

The book includes many first-hand interviews with notable individuals, including Coltrane's first wife, Naima.

Coltrane: A Biography also demonstrates the major influence of Christianity, Islam and Hinduism on the jazz musicians of the time.

This documentation has special significance in understanding the dynamics of the expansion of Islam and current geopolitics.

The influence of Black Nationalism, rooted in the teaching of Marcus Garvey, is expressed by Coltrane through his admiration for Malcolm X.

Simpkins' completed his surgical training in 1980 at St. Luke's Hospital in New York City and Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn.

After his surgical training, he did research fellowships at the Boston University School of Medicine and the Naval Medical Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland.

While in the United States Navy, Simpkins achieved the rank of Commander and received two commendations for excellence in research.

Simpkins is board certified in General Surgery with certification in critical care.

He is also a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and an honorary member of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma.

Simpkins faced retaliation at the now-defunct D.C. General Hospital in Washington, D.C., where he worked from 1987 to 1991.

D. C. General retaliated by sending misleading and false information to the National Practitioner's databank without any basis or hospital process and in violation of its bylaws.

Dr. Simpkins sued the databank and D.C. General Hospital in U.S. District Court.

He won after the actions of the defendants were determined to have been "capricious and arbitrary".

Dr. Simpkins' name was ordered removed from the databank.

He may be the only physician whose name was ever removed from this listing.

He has made original scientific contributions concerning the pathophysiology of shock and violence prevention.

Simpkins' father, C. O. Simpkins, was a dentist from Shreveport, Louisiana, who served a single term from 1992 to 1996 as a Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from the heavily African American District 4.

His father fostered his interest in science by showing him the one celled organisms such as paramecia in pond water as shown in this video and story, (https://www.ktbs.com/news/arklatex-indepth/c-o-simpkins-the-influence-of-a-father-on-a-son/article_b44cdf7c-49f9-11ea-be40-ff2f200c3d09.html) His mother, the former Dorothy Herndon, was a social worker and teacher, originally from Chicago was also influential in encouraging his early interest in science by showing him a photo of African-American intellectuals and reciting the Langston Hughes poem "Mother to Son" to him.

Until he was fourteen, Simpkins, lived with his family in Shreveport, at the time a heavily segregated city.

In 1993, he designed and established the Violence Intervention Program (VIP) which continues at the R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, Maryland.

Under this program a masters level social worker, Mary Hampton, interviewed hospitalized victims when they recovered sufficiently to converse.

From this interview Ms. Hampton would obtain an extensive personal history and an individualized plan of intensive case management and counseling.

After discharge from the hospital, the intervention continued with Hampton making home visits and conducting group sessions.