Shreveport icon Dr. Donald G. Mack, Sr. died March 28.
Mack was a renowned pediatrician in the Shreveport area, as well as the founder of a program that would benefit childhood cancer research.
“When I first went into practice, you know, a lot of my friends saw him growing up, and I mean, everyone knew who I was going in with. And they would they would tell me things like, ‘oh, he took out my tonsils’ and ‘he took out my appendix,’ Dr. Margaret Crittell, Pediatric Doctor at Piermont Pediatrics said. “They just always remembered him as like, the person who took care of them.”
Mack was born June 12, 1931, to a Lebanese immigrant family in Longview, Texas. In 1940, his family moved to Springhill, Louisiana where he graduated from Springhill High School in 1947.
Mack’s family owned a popular department store in Springhill that carried sewing material and clothing. In March 1995, the Mack family donated the department store building to the Springhill library branch.
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Webster Parish Libraries said on a Facebook post, “Springhill Branch would like to remember the family of Dr. Donald G. Mack, Sr., M.D. in light of his recent passing. Dr. Mack and his family have strong ties to Springhill, Louisiana and our Springhill Library branch.”
Upon graduation, Mack moved to Shreveport to attend Centenary College of Louisiana where he received a Bachelor of Science in 1951, and five years later he graduated from LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans where he also completed an internship in general pediatrics.
Mack served as a captain in the U.S. Air Force Medical Corps from 1957 to 1959 and then returned to LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans to complete a residency in general pediatrics and to serve as chief pediatric resident for one year.
In 1961, Mack returned to Shreveport where he established a pediatric practice, which lasted 52 years when he retired in 2014.
Crittell worked with Mack for 10 years, and she said, “He was unbelievable. He’d remember these really specific details about people like what kind of car they had, or who was related to whom and he always made a point to ask about the aunt, who lived in some little town and gave something to St. Jude’s.”
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Mack’s passion in life was St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. In 1991, Mack founded the St. Jude Dream Home Giveaway which has raised close to $600,000,000 for the patients at St. Jude’s.
Mack also served on The ALSAC/St. Jude’s Board of Governors and Directors from 1982 until 2003 when he was elevated to emeritus status.
“I think what a lot of people don’t understand is that it’s pretty rare for pediatricians today to see children die from cancer. And when he started out, it was pretty common. You know, when he saw kids with cancer, they died. And it’s because of St. Jude’s. And it’s because of doctors like him who were so vocal in supporting St. Jude’s that we are where we are today.,” Crittell said.
Makenzie Boucher is a reporter with the Shreveport Times. Contact her at mboucher@gannett.com.
