DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker on Dr. Tom Douglas Spies tells it, as near as I can render it. Born September 21, 1902, right there in the Fannin County community of Ravenna, Texas — a small place that had no idea what it was sending out into the world.
Tom Spies grew up to become one of the most eminent authorities in the study of nutritional diseases this country ever produced. Now, that might not sound like the stuff of legend at first blush, but stay with me. In the 1930s, thousands upon thousands of people across the South were being afflicted by a disorder called pellagra — a cruel condition caused by inadequate diet.
And Tom Spies, the boy from Ravenna, led in the discovery of a cure for it. Not a treatment. A cure.
For something that had been grinding down lives by the thousands. The American Medical Association took notice. In 1957, they awarded him their Distinguished Service Award — about as high as that world goes.
And it wasn't just the United States paying attention. Cuba and Puerto Rico both issued citations recognizing his work in tropical medicine. Ravenna, Fannin County, Texas — turns out it had quite a lot to say to the world after all.
Dr. Tom Douglas Spies passed away February 28, 1960, but what he did in those years between — the people who got their lives back because of a cure he helped bring to light — that's the kind of arithmetic no marker needs to spell out.
What the marker says
(Sept. 21, 1902 - Feb. 28, 1960) A native of the Fannin County community of Ravenna, Dr. T. D. Spies was an eminent authority in the study of nutritional diseases. In the 1930s, he led in the discovery of a cure for pellagra, a disorder caused by inadequate diet that once afflicted thousands in the South. He received many honors, including the American Medical Association's Distinguished Service Award in 1957 and citations from Cuba and Puerto Rico for his work in tropical medicine.