Samuel Lee Kountz Jr. was a physician and pioneer in organ
transplantation, particularly renal transplant research and surgery. An
Arkansas success story, he overcame the limitations of his childhood as
an African American in the Delta region of a racially segregated state to achieve national and world prominence in the medical field.
Sam Kountz was born on October 20, 1930, in Lexa (Phillips County) to the Reverend J. S. Kountz, a Baptist sminister,
and his wife, Emma. He was the eldest of three sons. Kountz lived in a
small town with an inadequate school system in one of the most
impoverished regions of the state. He attended a one-room school in Lexa
until the age of fourteen, at which point he transferred to a Baptist
boarding school in the same town; he later graduated from Morris Booker
College High School in Dermott (Chicot County).
Kountz applied to Arkansas Agricultural, Mechanical and Normal College (AM&N), now the University of Arkansas as Pine Bluff,
in 1948, but he failed the entrance examination. Undaunted, he applied
directly to Lawrence A. Davis Sr., president of Arkansas AM&N, who
was so impressed by Kountz’s ambition, his inquiring mind, and his
determination to become a physician that he admitted him despite his
scores. During Kountz’s senior year, he conducted a tour of the campus
for Senator J. William Fulbright,
who encouraged him in his goal of becoming a physician. Kountz earned a
BS in chemistry in 1952, graduating third in his class.
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Source: The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture
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