Sally Abbott Pomputius
Even before opening her Springfield, Ohio, practice in 1967, family physician Sally Abbott Pomputius ’62 took pride in caring for people − especially the disadvantaged. For her contributions to her profession and community, Pomputius received the UMW Distinguished Alumnus Award. Alumni awards were presented during Reunion Weekend.
The 1993 Ohio Family Physician of the Year has delivered babies for unwed mothers, visited battered children, and treated nursing home patients.
She was the only woman in her 1966 graduating class at the Medical College of Virginia, where she helped integrate the cafeteria. She worked with African-American women during childbirth, providing anesthesia that was not normally allowed to them. She earned a chemistry degree at Mary Washington in just three years.
Pomputius is Clark County Medical Society president and Springfield Manor medical director, as well as a National Board of Medical Examiners diplomat and American Academy of Family Physicians charter Fellow.
A former chair of Springfield’s Mercy Medical Center Department of Family Practice, she helped turn Mercy Hospitals into one of the country’s largest nonprofit systems and develop the Mercy Medical Continuing Care Center to help hospital patients transition to living in nursing centers.
Pomputius served as speaker and vice speaker of the Ohio Academy of Family Physicians House of Delegates and as president of her local chapter. She was St. John’s Church Council president and helped establish the St. John’s center nursing home.
Today, though she battles multiple myeloma and lambda light chain disease, Pomputius and her husband, James, pursue their passion for ballroom dancing.