Uncrowned Community Builders

W. Yerby Jones was born in Memphis, TN on February 19, 1904. He moved to Buffalo, NY as a teenager with his family. His mother was a teacher in the Buffalo School system and his father was a teamster.

Dr. Jones was the third Black doctor to graduate from the University at Buffalo School of Medicine in 1924. He began practicing medicine in Buffalo in 1931 and specializing in ophthalmology 1934. He was Buffalo's first Black physician to be accredited as a specialist. Dr. Jones completed graduate work at Cleveland Clinic and Columbia University. He interned in St. Louis. He became an instructor at the University at Buffalo Medical School in 1946 and an Associate Clinical Professor in 1951. He was the only Black physician on the University at Buffalo Faculty at the time.

He was one of the first Blacks admitted to membership in the American College of Surgeons. He was a Fellow of the American Academy of Ophthalmology & Otolaryngology; a diplomate of the American Board of Ophthalmology; member of the Erie County Medical Society Economics Committee, American Medical Association; and New York State Medical Society.

In 1968, he became both the Head of the University at Buffalo's Department of Ophthalmology and head of the Department of Ophthalmology at Meyer Memorial Hospital. He received the Buffalo Urban League's Award for Occupational and Professional Achievement in 1949.