An iconic former Houston resident who tended to the healthcare needs of the community and participated in its progress has died.
{{tncms-inline alignment=”right” content=”<p>Services for Dr. Joe Abels Wall, 89, of Carthage, are 11 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 29, at First Christian Church, Houston. Visitation is 9:30 a.m. until service time at the church.</p> <p>The body will lie in state from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Friday, Dec. 28, at Evans Funeral Home, Houston.</p>” id=”f05b44c0-83e5-4868-ab95-9a1fa8923b2c” style-type=”bio” title=”SERVICES ANNOUNCED” type=”relcontent” width=”half”}}
Services are incomplete for Dr. Joe Abels Wall, 89, who practiced medicine in Houston for 37 years before retiring in 1996. He died Sunday in Carthage, where he lived close to a daughter. His wife, Carol, preceded him in death.
He delivered more than 3,000 babies and was the inventor of a diaper rash crème that was dispensed at Blankenship Drug next door to his clinic.
Wall, a native of Summersville, arrived in Houston about 1959 and worked with Dr. T.J. Burns before taking over the practice. He earlier graduated from the University of Arkansas School of Medicine and Drury College.
A former chief of staff at Texas County Memorial Hospital, he was active in numerous organizations, including Scouting. He is an Eagle Scout and a former deacon at First Christian Church in Houston. He served as the team physician for the Houston Tigers football squad and could always be found on the sidelines brightly dressed in the teams colors – red and black.
At TCMH he was the ultimate mentor — taking physicians and nurses under his wing. If they had a problem, he would provide the answer to not only the science of medicine but the fine art of administering it. At a retirement reception, Wall was described as the community’s “all-knowing” physician who demanded perfection. If you weren’t performing to the Wall standard, the clue was the peering look over his glasses, it was stated.
He is a recipient of the Houston Area Chamber of Commerce’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He retired at the end of 1996. In 1992, he was named the Family Physician of the Year in Missouri.
One of his longest friends, Bill Christie, chuckled when asked to sum up Joe Wall in a sentence upon his retirement: “My goodness, I have traveled with Joe as a friend and fellow fisherman from Florida to the Artic Circle. He’s a man for all seasons.”
Arrangements are under the direction of Evans Funeral Home in Houston.
Services for Dr. Joe Abels Wall, 89, of Carthage, are 11 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 29, at First Christian Church, Houston. Visitation is 9:30 a.m. until service time at the church.
The body will lie in state from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Friday, Dec. 28, at Evans Funeral Home, Houston.