Diggs Award

 Terrance Geiger, MD

2018 Recipient

The most prestigious award given by the Tennessee Association of Blood Banks 

is the Diggs Award, named for the late 

Lemuel W. Diggs, M.D. 

The award is given annually at the 

spring meeting of the Association. 

Below is a listing of the Recipients. 

Nominations due prior to 

annual Spring Meeting.

DEADLINE: March 16, 2019

Click SUBMIT below and download

"Form - TABB Diggs Award Nomination"

A Portrait of Dr. L. W. Diggs 

by Ann Bell

The outstanding medical career of 

Dr. Lemuel Whitley Diggs 

began in 1929 in Memphis, Tennessee,

 when he joined the faculty of the

 University of Tennessee as 

Assistant Professor of Pathology. 

His main duties consisted of 

supervising the clinical laboratories,

 including the transfusion.

Dr. Diggs filtering blood through 

gauze into a Kelly flask held by 

Ms. Alice Jean Keith. 1938.

 The needle was inserted from above downward in order to “meet the blood head on.” The first ten bloods that were collected and refrigerated were grossly contaminated with bacteria and could not be used. 

This experience immediately led to the adoption of a closed system of collection. 

To remove fibrin clots the blood was filtered through multiple layers of cotton gauze, spread over a funnel, into a Kelly flask. 

• 1974 Eunice Vance
• 1975 Dean Birdwell
• 1976 Clifford I. Argall, PhD
• 1978 Jeanette Spann 
• 1977 Jack Smythe
• 1979 Jack C. Duggin
• 1980 Elsie Argall
• 1981 Monica Willis
• 1982 James R. Cundall
• 1983 Dianne P. McAfee
• 1984 Francis S. Jones, MD
• 1985 Grace Neitzer
• 1986 Richard H. Walker, MD
• 1987 Sherry Jane Aycock
• 1988 Jean Wright

• 1989 Lois Marsh
• 1990 E. Eric Muirhead, MD
• 1991 Basil Welch
• 1992 Carl A. Nelson, MD
• 1993 Laura Lee Woods
• 1994 Charles Wallas, MD
• 1995 Doris B. Presley
• 1996 Joan G. Freeman
• 1997 Patricia Callicoat
• 1998 Edwin A. Steane
• 1999 Susan Steane
• 2000 Patricia Tanley
• 2001 Sandra Bonds
• 2002 Mary Johnson
• 2003 Christopher Stowell, MD

• 2004 Eva D. Quinley
• 2005 Lynn Blake, MD
• 2006 Marilyn K. Moulds
• 2007 Jerry Rysticken
• 2008 Anne T. Neff, MD
• 2009 Jocelynne McCall
• 2010 Mona Dilbeck
• 2011 Nancy Cornwell
• 2012 Diane McFarland 
• 2013 Joseph V. Schifano
• 2014 John Hilsenbeck, MD
• 2015 Edward P. Scott, MD
• 2016 Elizabeth Culler, MD
• 2017 Garrett S. Booth, MD
• 2018 Terrance Geiger, MD