U.S. Navy launches ship named after Charles R. Drew in San Diego

Syliva Drew Ivie has seen schools and a medical college named after her late father Charles Drew, a black surgeon whose pioneering work in the science of blood preservation was key to the development of large-scale blood banks.

But the U.S. Navy’s christening and launching of the massive, 689-feet long dry cargo/ammunition ship Charles Drew from a San Diego shipyard early Saturday may have been the most unusual “edifice” named after him. But it was no less touching, the 66-year-old Drew Ivie said.

The Los Angeles resident acknowledged that some people would find it unusual for a warship to be named after her father, who also serves as the namesake of Willowbrook’s Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science.

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