Site of the earliest experiences of the Coalition in Appalachia, Clairfield is located in the Cumberland Mountains near the Kentucky border, in a coal-rich landscape with a history of community organizing that became a role model for subsequent Coalition work. Since the early 1960s, activists with Presbyterian and Catholic organizations had already established a clinical and social presence. In 1969, they welcomed Vanderbilt students Bill Dow, Pat Maxwell, and others, and introduced them to community leaders. Over time, community leaders in Clairfield became role models for others around the region eager to establish community-run primary care clinics. Legal research about taxation and land ownership in and around Clairfield inspired the foundation of SOCM (Save Our Cumberland Mountains).
Related People:
Welmoet Spreij
Contributed by Welmoet Spreij, Amsterdam, 2017. I came to Nashville as a Dutch exchange-student in the fall of 1969 and took some classes at Vanderbilt University. While attending a course in philosophy, I came to know John Davis, Dick Burr,… Continued
Bill Corr
Contributed by Bill Corr, September 2015 I am forever indebted to the Vanderbilt Student Health Coalition because my involvement put me on a career path that has enriched my life and given me the opportunity to serve our nation’s health… Continued
Charles Schiff
While an engineering student at Vanderbilt University, Charles spent the summers of 1970 and 1971 with the Student Health Coalition. He was 18 years old when he joined the SHC, one of the Coalition’s youngest members. He served as a… Continued
Marie Cirillo
Contributed by John Emmeus Davis, 2015. Marie Cirillo was born in Brooklyn in 1929. Her father had emigrated from rural Italy. Her mother had grown up in a small Catholic community in central Kentucky. Every summer, her mother returned to… Continued
Martha Stucker
Martha was a Catholic nun and a registered nurse working in East Tennessee at the Clairfield clinic in 1969 when Bill Dow first encountered her and engaged her help in designing student-run health fairs. She had been conducting primary care… Continued
Related Stories:
Decline of coal camp healthcare and subsequent basis of need for reform
Charles “Boomer” Winfrey and Maureen O’Connell discuss the local healthcare setting upon Save Our Cumberland Mountain’s (SOCM) and the Student Health Coalition’s (SHC) early stages of community organizing in East Tennessee. Maureen details several local factors which established a major… Continued
Bill Dow as a community organizer in Appalachia
Maureen O’Connell and Charles “Boomer” Winfrey reflect on Bill Dow’s character and personal philosophy about community organizing. They describe him as an other-oriented person driven by creative, actionable service and mutually respectful relationships best illustrated by his perception of and… Continued
Mo & Boomer
On strip mining, community organization, and “[having] fun while trying to change the world.” Interview with Maureen O’Connell and Charles “Boomer” Winfrey, recorded at a May 2013 reunion of the Student Health Coalition (SHC) in Nashville, Tenn. Continued
“Liberté, Egalité, Frivolité”
[Story contributed by John Emmeus Davis, 2015] At one emotional pole of the Coalition experience was the gravity and ferocity of the organization’s founder, Bill Dow. He usually displayed little patience for peers whose personal commitment to the SHC’s Appalachian… Continued
Maureen O’Connell’s introduction to SOCM and the SHC
Maureen traces the development of her involvement with Save Our Cumberland Mountains (SOCM) and the Student Health Coalition (SHC), beginning with her 1969 introduction to Marie Cirillo and research presence in Clairfield, Tenn. Recorded on May 20th, 2013. Full… Continued
A conversation with Martha Stucker
Martha Stucker shares about her time working in the mountains from 1968-1972, and explains her role as a nurse practitioner focused on meeting community needs. Continued
Related Resources/Links:
Article: “Health Care for those off the beaten path,” from the Tennessee Valley Authority
Kollar, Robert. “Health care for those off the beaten path.” Tennessee Valley Authority, post-1975. View PDF. More on the Tennessee Valley Authority: Continued
Interview with Maureen O’Connell by Jessie Wilkerson, August 11 2010, Southern Oral History Program, UNC Chapel Hill
Maureen O’Connell grew up in St. Louis, Ill., in the 1940s. She was a community organizer for Save Our Cumberland Mountains (SOCM) from 1974-1992, and she served as Executive Director of the organization from 1992-2009. She begins the interview by… Continued
Interview with Mary Herr by Jessie Wilkerson, May 19 2011, Southern Oral History Program, UNC Chapel Hill
Mary Herr was born in Springfield, Ill. in 1940. In 1978 she moved to Cherokee, N.C. where she has worked on many community development projects, primarily in legal aid services. Herr begins the interview by discussing her family history; a… Continued
Interview with Marie Cirillo by David Cline, May 26 2010, Southern Oral History Program, UNC Chapel Hill
Eighty-one year-old Brooklyn, N.Y. native, Marie Cirillo has spent the last forty-two years of her life as a community organizer in Appalachia. There she has worked closely with natives to the area to create independently run nonprofits, land trusts, women’s… Continued
Richard Davidson Photograph Collection, Southern Historical Collection, UNC Chapel Hill
Richard Davidson (1947-), a medical physician and educator, was among the founding participants of the Vanderbilt Student Health Coalition at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. (1970-1971) and the Mountain People’s Health Council in eastern Tennesee (1975-1976). The Student Health Coalition… Continued