Hometown Doctor

Dr JB Bennett grew up in Warren and after graduating from the local high school he enrolled in the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis. One of his classmates there was Otis Bowen who later became governor of Indiana.

In 1942, Dr Bennett graduated and took his internship at Chicago Wesley Memorial Hospital, from 1942-1943, and then spent three years as a

physician in the United States Air Force. After discharge from the service, Dr Bennett decided to stop off in his hometown Warren before going on to Chicago where he hoped to begin his practice. It was only going to be a short stay, then on to Chicago, but the short stay turned into a life time.

The hometown, the people and the Indiana environment changed his mind. He decided to stay. At first he practiced medicine in his home. In 1962, he moved his office to the Memorial Medical Building across from the Warren Methodist Home. Dr Bennett was past president of the Huntington County Medical Association and the Kiwanis club. He was a life member of the American Academy of Family Practice.

In 1968 he went to Vietnam for three months, as a volunteer physician and was presented a certificate of humanitarian service from the Republic of Vietnam. In 1968 he also received the Sagamore of the Wabash Award and in 1995 he was presented our own Samuel Jones Award.

Dr Bennett’s practice spanned over 50 years and it covered all areas of a family practice doctor. Though he didn’t deliver babies his last 20 years

or more, he estimated that he delivered over 2000 during his first 30 years of practice.

In the forties it wasn’t unusual to make house calls. It still wasn’t unusual for Dr Bennett to make house calls when the need arose in his later years. He said once “He was one of a few of a dying breed.”

As a hometown physician of 50 plus years, Dr Bennett felt he was in a position unusual to many doctors. From delivering babies, through treatment of childhood and adult diseases, he felt he had become a part of his community. It was like becoming a member of all the families that he had treated.