Dr. Caesar Stevens Bassette, Jr. MD..Tuskegee Airmen Ground School Instructor and the WCIN connection.

Dr. Caesar Stevens Bassette, Jr. teaching morse code

Dr. Caesar Stevens Bassette, Jr. MD was born to the late Dr. C.S. Bassette, Sr. MD and Pearl B. Bassette on November 7, 1917 in Hampton, Virginia.  He was one of four children. He departed this life on August 7. 2008. He married Theresa A. Gavin on August 31, 1942 in Tuskegee Al. The couple was blessed with two children, Cherie and Steven ( Fredd E. Redd). Dr. Bassette began a life of service at an early age, serving as his high school president and president of his graduating class at Hampton Institute in 1937. During World War II he served in the U.S. Air Force as a Tuskegee Airmen Ground School Instructor where he taught morse code to the pilots. Dr. Bassette earned his medical degree from Howard University in 1950 and completed his residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Homer G. Phillips Hospital in 1956. He moved to Cincinnati in 1956 to begin a medical practice that spanned 43 years. Following his retirement in 1989, he continued to provide medical care to patients at Lincoln Heights Medical Center for 10 years. Dr. Bassette was the first African-American physician to receive Obstetrics and Gynecology admitting and staffing privileges at all major hosptials in Cincinnati. He was also the first African-American physician to be honored by the Cincinnati Obstetrics and Gynecology Society in 1998 with the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award. The Cincinnati Medical Society named a scholarship in his honor for African-American medical students in 2007. He had been an amateur radio operator since the age of 17. He used his knowledge of morse code to communicate with contacts throughout the world, including the Arch Duke of Austria. Dr. Bassette was a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Incorported, and a life-time member of the NAACP. He was a member of the Ohio, Michigan, Indiana and Kentucky Electronic Commission, Incorporated. His many awards include the 48th Annual Governor's Award ( from Gov. George Voinovich); the first Annual Civil and Human Service Award; honoree at 21st Black Business and Professional Day at Allen Temple A.M.E Church; The Ohio House of Representative; Zion Baptist Church's Tuskegee Airmen Appreciation Certification Award and the Key to the City by former Mayor Roxanne Qualls.

I am honored to feature Dr. Bassette for his accomplishments and also to acknowledge him and his lovely wife, Theresa, for a great job of parenting two of my favorite people who continually  pay tribute to the love they received from their parents.