Disgrace Leads To Change An expulsion led a frontier doctor in a new and important direction.

Dr. George Goodfellow is known for being the Tombstone doctor who treated Morgan and Virgil Earp after they were wounded at the OK Corral shootout.  He also became a recognized expert on gunshot wounds. But his earlier life was not as distinguished.

Goodfellow entered the U.S. Naval Academy in 1872, at the same time as the institution’s first black student was there.  Reportedly, Goodfellow and others beat and harassed Midshipman John Conyers. A review board decided that Goodfellow and two others had to be expelled. It was only then that he sought a career in medicine.