Dr. William Singleton Ogden died peacefully at home in Lake Waccamaw, NC, on Tuesday, June 15, 2021, at the age of 81. Born on May 29, 1940, he was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Monroe G. Ogden of Macon, Georgia.
Dr. Ogden lived and practiced in Danville from approximately 1972 until 1986. He was the owner of the J. H. Schoolfield House at 944 Main Street and the adjoining J. H. Cosby House at 936 Main Street in the Old West End. He used the Schoolfield House (at top above) as his family’s residence and the Cosby House for his practice.
Dr. Ogden completed a straight medicine internship at the University of Virginia, followed by a year of general surgery and four years of orthopedic residency at Duke. There, he developed the Ogden Band and Plate, revolutionizing management of periprosthetic fractures when manufactured in 1976.
It was while serving as a major in the U.S. Army, where he cared for many who had returned from active duty in Vietnam, that he decided to enter private practice rather than return to an academic career at Duke. He began a Clinical Associate Professorship at Duke in 1972 while practicing in Danville.
In 1977, Dr. Ogden and his wife, Will Lou Gray Ogden, purchased and restored the Flinn House at 841 Main Street.
Tragedy struck in 1982 when his first born and only son was killed in a car accident, leading him and his wife, Lou, to establish the Bill Ogden Jr. Memorial Travel Fellowship at Duke providing funds for a resident to travel to the annual Piedmont Meeting, and the Bill Ogden Jr. Memorial Scholarship at Presbyterian College, which provides tuition for a pre-med student.
In 1986, Dr. Ogden moved his family to Whiteville, NC, where he practiced for 15 years. He continued to publish a range of topics and received national acclaim for the Ogden Anchor – used by podiatric surgeons on soft tissue and one of the many implants he developed during his career.
In 2000, Dr. Ogden moved his family to their home in Montreat, N.C., and he began work as Chairman of Orthopedics at the Asheville N.C. VA Hospital, teaching the Duke residents during their rotation. In 2009 Duke recognized him as a mentor and as one of the five “Giants of Duke Orthopedics.”
Dr. Ogden was a gifted banjo player who encouraged music in his family. He was also a master gunsmith and passed on his passion for fine shotguns and shooting to his children and grandchildren. From his junior high school days he wrote articles on hunting and shooting for local newspapers.
Dr. Ogden retired from 45 years of medical practice at the age of 75 to battle the progression of Parkinson’s disease.
On Dr. Ogden’s departure from the Old West End, both of his properties were sold to dentist Dr. James R. Evans who used them in the same way. In 2001, Dr. Evans changed his residence and the J. H. Schoolfield house was sold to Carl “Tim” Norton. When Dr. Evans relocated his practice in 2010, the J. H. Cosby House was transferred to Amy Whitehouse.
