Legacy is a living thing.

For Neil Christopher, M.D., it was the legacy of his grandfather’s career as a rural physician—combined with timely encouragement from his older brother Ralph, also a doctor—that provided the inspiration to switch majors and pursue a career in medicine. Three years after his graduation from Auburn University in 1955, Christopher earned his medical degree from what would become the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine.

Neil Christopher, M.D.Over the next four decades, Christopher established a historic legacy of his own as a beloved family doctor, mentor, and advocate on behalf of rural communities across Alabama. Now, following the establishment of the Neil E. Christopher, M.D., Endowed Chair in Family and Community Medicine by the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees, his example of compassionate service leadership will continue to change lives for the better for generations to come.

“It was my privilege to pass this resolution,” said Trustee Kenneth Vandervoort, M.D., following the February 2025 meeting of the board. “I was able to share with my fellow trustees and others present what Dr. Christopher meant to me personally as a physician mentor, along with what he meant to my family and the Guntersville community. He is a medical pillar in Marshall County, as well as the entire state of Alabama. This endowed chair is a wonderful way to honor his legacy.”

“He was my role model”

Born in Crossville, Alabama, a town of only 316 people at the time of the 1930 census, Christopher returned to northeast Alabama to begin his family medicine practice in 1961. According to his namesake, Dr. Neil Christopher Jr., this less specialized era of medicine required his father to deliver babies, among other services, to meet his patients’ needs. It didn’t take long for Christopher’s commitment to his patients, especially families in outlying rural areas, to earn him the respect of his community.

Dr. Bernice Craze, the first woman to practice medicine in Marshall County, first met Christopher as a medical student and remembers him as a kind mentor with a tireless work ethic. In addition to caring for as many as 60 patients every day, Christopher also volunteered at UAB Hospital every month and worked diligently to keep up with the latest developments in the field.

“He was well-dressed, very approachable, confident, clearly practiced a high standard of medicine care, and had an obligation to his patients and his community that was admirable,” Craze said. “I decided I wanted to be a family practice physician, and he was my role model.”

Craze became Christopher’s colleague at the old Guntersville Hospital after completing her residency, where they got to know each other in “3- to 15-minute increments of time over 25 years” while conducting their rounds every morning.

“We would talk about the latest studies, complicated patients, current hospital changes or needed hospital changes, end of life issues, our families, and Auburn Football,” Craze recalled. “When I came on staff at the old Guntersville Hospital, I was the only female M.D. I never felt unwelcome by anyone, but Dr. Christopher treated me like an equal—a colleague—and I believe that was the highest compliment I could have gotten.”

Saving Lives at Home and Abroad

Dr. Neil Christopher with protégé Dr. Thuy Do in VietnamAt the height of the Vietnam War, Christopher served as a commanding officer in the American Military Public Health Assistance Program. Following his stateside training in Millington, Tennessee, Christopher was stationed at a forward operating medical outpost in the city of Tam Kỳ in central Vietnam, caring for the wounded and training Vietnamese physicians, nurses, and medical technicians to fight malaria.

Persevering through mortar fire, Christopher earned a Bronze Star for meritorious service and built lasting friendships with his trainees. When one of his former proteges, Dr. Thuy Do, fled Saigon, Christopher opened his home to their family. Dr. Neil Christopher Jr., who was a teenager at the time, remembers it as a “unique and exciting” experience.

“Dad left Vietnam after a year, and when ‘Nam started to fall, he was thinking about Dr. Thuy all the time,” Christopher said. At 3 a.m. one morning, his father received the call he’d been dreading for months. Without hesitation, Christopher volunteered to sponsor Do, his wife, and five young children, hosting them in the rec room above his garage before renting them an apartment. Do subsequently moved to San Antonio, Texas, to practice geriatric medicine, and two of his children have also become physicians.

“He basically saved Dr. Thuy’s life,” Christopher said of his father. “He saved a whole family from death and poverty.”

Advocating for Rural Families

Outside of his two years in the armed services, Christopher cared for patients in Guntersville continuously until his retirement in 2001. In the process of developing strong relationships with countless families in and around Marshall County, he emerged as a leading voice calling for a sustained, strategic investment in rural communities.

“He was the one who was instrumental in forming the Alabama Family Practice Rural Health Board…and chaired it for many years,” the late Bill H. Coleman, M.D., a longtime friend of Christopher’s and a fellow family physician, said in an interview with the Auburn Alumni Association. “That board probably gives out around $800,000 or $1 million a year just for projects that promote family medicine training and practice in rural communities, and it wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t for Neil Christopher.”

Christopher served as a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians’ Rural Health Committee from 1983-1987, as well as Chairman of the Alabama Academy of Family Physicians. As a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Society, the admissions committee for the UAB Heersink School of Medicine, and the Alabama Medical Licensure Commission, Christopher also played a key role in developing outstanding physicians to serve the people of Alabama, including his sons Neil and Reid.

“With a mentor like my father, it wasn’t difficult to decide a career path,” said Reid Christopher. M.D. “He embodied what a primary care physician should be.”

Christopher’s colleagues recognized his outstanding contributions with the Samuel Buford Word Award, the highest honor granted by the Medical Association of the State of Alabama, in 1997. Following his retirement four years later, the Alabama Rural Health Association named him Rural Practitioner of the Year, and he was later inducted into the Alabama Healthcare Hall of Fame in 2008.

A Living Legacy

Erin W. DeLaney, M.D.Shortly after establishing the Neil E. Christopher, M.D., Endowed Chair in Family and Community Medicine, the Board of Trustees appointed Erin W. DeLaney, M.D., to serve as its inaugural holder. An Alabama native, DeLaney has been a rising star in the Department of Family and Community Medicine since joining UAB in 2013.

“This endowed chair will empower me and my department to train the next generation of family physicians, provide exceptional patient care, and carry on Dr. Christopher’s extraordinary legacy in this state,” a grateful DeLaney said. “My goal—and my hope—is that we can make our efforts more robust and concerted to reach all in Alabama.”

DeLaney noted that Christopher’s legacy is more important than ever given the state of rural care in Alabama, which has been significantly impacted by both the national nursing shortage and the closure of at least 14 rural hospitals since 2010. Faced with comparatively poor health outcomes, structural obstacles to care, and a lack of preventive care, DeLaney believes that family medicine has a key role to play in providing solutions.

“Family physicians can and will meet this need,” DeLaney said. “This endowment will help us recruit and train more future family physicians, sharing with them the joy and privilege of this calling, and ultimately improving health outcomes through improved access and quality.” According to Medical Economics, a record number of aspiring physicians matched to family medicine and internal medicine in 2025.

Christopher was perhaps the most accomplished of a long line of physicians, and the Christopher family is proud to see his legacy enshrined in this vital resource.

“He epitomized the highest standards of a community physician in a rural practice,” said Dr. Wade Christopher, Neil Christopher’s grandson and the latest of approximately a dozen members of the Christopher family to practice medicine.

“There are countless memories from my childhood that demonstrated the impact he made on his local community. I can recall many instances of patients coming up to him while we were out running errands around town and thanking him for the care he had given them over the course of their lives. I was always enamored of the level of appreciation, respect, and trust his patients placed in his judgment and dedication to their well-being. He is my greatest mentor, and his impact on shaping and improving rural medicine in the state of Alabama cannot be understated.”