Dr. E. Arthur Dreskin had a long and distinguished career in medicine and public service until his death in 2006. Active in the local, state and national medical communities, he was the chief pathologist and director of laboratories for the Greenville Hospital System from 1950-1984. In 1970, he served as president of the Medical Staff of Greenville Memorial Hospital and then was the consulting pathologist for Greenville Health System until 1994 and emeritus staff physician from 1994 until 2006.

Dr. Dreskin was president of the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB) from 1965 to 1966. In 1963, he established The Greenville Blood Assurance Program, the forerunner of The Carolina Georgia Blood Center that later became the Blood Connection. Dr. Dreskin served as medical director from 1963 to 2001.

At Greenville General Hospital, Dr. Dreskin created the nationally accredited schools of medical technology (1951) and cytology (1958). He developed the residency program in Pathology in 1953, the first residency program at the hospital.

Dr. Dreskin organized the South Carolina Society of Pathologists in 1951, serving as secretary/treasurer from 1951 to 1957 and president from 1958 to 1963. He was chairman of Medical Examiners of the South Carolina Medical Association and chairman of Laboratories of the South Carolina State Board of Health. From 1965 to 1967, he served as chair of the Committee on Blood for the American Society of Clinical Pathologists and from 1973 to 1990 as the regional commissioner, College of American Pathologists, Inspection and Accreditation.

Dr. Dreskin received many significant awards: Order of the Palmetto (1992); Lifetime Achievement Award from the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities (1998); and the Mayor’s Achievement Award (1992). Dr. Dreskin served as President of the Greenville Community Foundation (1990) and was named a Paul Harris Fellow of the Rotary Club. In 2007, The E. Arthur Dreskin, M. D. Biologics Processing Center was named “in honor of his vision leading to the advent of centralized blood banking services in our region.” He was on the advisory board of the Palmetto Society of United Way and chaired for many years the community physicians giving campaign for United Way.