Family Practice

In the framed photo on the desk of his otherwise sparsely decorated office, Charles Crutchfield III is wearing a stethoscope. It’s an odd ornament for a dermatologist, but at the time of the photo, Crutchfield was not yet a specialist. In fact, he was not yet potty-trained.

The photo was taken at the University of Minnesota’s Medical School 1963 graduation ceremony. In it, Crutchfield is held by his father, Dr. Charles Crutchfield Sr., who is standing beside his mother, Dr. Susan Crutchfield. The two are adorned in commencement robes and mortarboards, grinning proudly as their three-year-old son happily plays with his father’s stethoscope. “That was me,” proclaims the present-day Crutchfield. Laughing, he addresses the photo, “Look at you, you’ve got a stethoscope in your hand! You didn’t have a chance!”

The jovial forty-four-year-old is medical director of Crutchfield Dermatology in Eagan. He is a professor and lecturer at the U of M and Carleton College. Also a leading researcher in his field, he has published more than 100 scholarly articles and coauthored a clinical textbook.

Despite his own list of accomplishments, he remains in awe of his parents’ achievements. “It has been such a joy to be their child, practicing medicine behind them,” says Crutchfield, “especially after the challenges they faced as African-American physicians.”

Crutchfield’s father moved from Alabama to Minnesota as a teenager, his own father fearing that his son’s natural intelligence would go undeveloped in the pre-civil rights South. The elder Crutchfields met at the U of M, married as undergraduates, and enrolled together at the Medical School. Shortly thereafter, Crutchfield’s mother discovered she was pregnant. “In her first year of med school, she really had a tough time,” the dermatologist explains. “My dad’s a super hard worker, so he would go to class and take all the notes. My mom has a photographic memory, so she can memorize the stuff. And that’s how they did it—together.” Crutchfield’s mother, the first African-American woman to graduate from the U of M Medical School, went into family practice. His father became an obstetrician/gynecologist, eventually establishing his own St. Paul practice.

Despite their professional success, the family routinely faced the racial prejudice of the era. Crutchfield recalls his father’s anger upon discovering in 1969 that neighbors were circulating a petition to prevent the family from moving into their Highland Park home. In another instance, Crutchfield recalls a Halloween (“I went as Blacula!”) when a neighbor demanded that he “trick-or-treat in [his] own neighborhood.”

As a young man, Crutchfield accepted the common assumption that he too was destined for a career in medicine. Then, in college, he had a “maverick” impulse. “I saw the movie Top Gun,” he says. “I said, ‘I want to be one of those!’ ” One trip to the recruiter and a couple of tests later and Crutchfield was in Pensacola, training to become a Naval pilot.

But the glamour faded, and Crutchfield returned to medicine with renewed passion. He enrolled as a graduate student at the Mayo Clinic, where he developed a fascination with clinical dermatology.

Crutchfield’s mother went on to senior positions in the medical insurance industry before retiring in 2003. In her last official duty as a physician, she attended a lecture given by her son. Crutchfield’s father continues to practice and has delivered nearly 10,000 babies. “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t see three, four, sometimes ten patients—he delivered them, he delivered their kids,” Crutchfield smiles.

Today, Crutchfield continues his parents’ legacy. He is the only African-American clinical dermatologist practicing in Minnesota, and he counts diagnosis and treatment of ethnic skin concerns among his many interests. His medical philosophy can be expressed in terms of continuity and change: Crutchfield reveres the example of his parents, while embracing new technology and methods. His four-year-old dermatology practice was the first in the state to keep electronic medical records and the first in the country to use Wi-Fi. But he also relishes the interpersonal touches that characterize old-time practice—familiarity with patients, the laying-on of hands, offering treatment to the underinsured. “I still hold on to the belief my parents taught me,” he says, “that medicine is both a profession and an art.”

Crutchfield and wife, Laurie, have two children, five-year-old Olivia and two-year-old Charles IV. Neither has yet decided on a profession.