Rosedale Donor Center renamed in honor of Dr. Margie B. Peschel
Carter BloodCare held a dedication ceremony in Fort Worth on March 29, renaming its Rosedale Donor Center in honor of Margie B. Peschel, M.D.
Joined by family, friends and health care colleagues, Dr. Peschel – Medical Director Emeritus with Carter BloodCare – was recognized for her outstanding commitment to the North Texas community and Carter BloodCare’s mission to save lives by making transfusion possible.
Throughout her decades-long career, Dr. Peschel served as a valued, trusted mentor for medical professionals and was instrumental in significantly advancing the role and reach of blood banking to help an increasing number of patients in need.
Carter BloodCare President and CEO Dr. Merlyn Sayers said, “She really showed us what it means, locally and nationally, to be a blood banking physician. She is an inspiration.”
Honoring a blood banking pioneer
Bobby Grigsby, former Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of Strategic Alliances with Carter BloodCare, said of Dr. Peschel, “Her active involvement in the community brought a greater awareness of how important blood centers are. As a pioneer in blood banking, she helped lay the foundation of what Carter BloodCare is today.”
That solid foundation originated in 1959, when the Amon Carter Foundation helped establish a blood banking system in Tarrant County. Dr. Peschel, whose specialty was in hematology, became director of the program.
Dr. Peschel was named Chief Medical Officer with Fort Worth’s Carter Blood Center – the precursor to Carter BloodCare – in 1976, the first such role within the organization and a distinction she held through her retirement in 1995.
A medical professional of many hats
Throughout her career, Dr. Perschel served leadership roles as president of the Tarrant County Medical Society, the North Texas Society of Pathologists, South Central Association of Blood Banks, and the Tarrant County Medical Library Association.
She was an officer of the American Cancer Society, the Texas Medical Association, the American Association of Blood Banks, and the American Society of Clinical Pathology.
Dr. Peschel also has held academic appointments at Tarrant County Junior College, The University of Texas at Arlington, Tarleton State University, and The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School.
“She did so much for our profession, absolutely phenomenal,” Grigsby said. “She’s had a lifetime of achievement and she’s not done yet.”
Dr. Peschel noted the practice of medicine is an art, rather than a trade.
“The practice of medicine is a calling in which your heart exercises equally with your brain,” she said. “I am so glad my calling was to practice medicine as a blood banking physician.
“Blood bankers are the luckiest people in the world, because we need people – we need blood donors, we need patients, and we need each other.”
The Margie B. Peschel, M.D. Donor Center at Rosedale is located at 1263 W. Rosedale St., Suite 100, in Fort Worth’s Medical District. Hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. The center accepts whole blood, double red cell, platelet and plasma donations.
To make a lifesaving appointment to donate, visit the center’s webpage or call 800-366-2834.