###

ED. NOTE from 2026: This year, the Northern California Community Blood Bank celebrates 75 years of saving lives in Humboldt County. On Thursday evening, the Blood Bank — along with the Kiwanis Club of Henderson Center and the Eureka Chamber of Commerce — will be throwing a party at Blood Bank HQ, and you are invited! See below or click here for details.

[UPDATE: Apparently there was some miscommunication between the Blood Bank and the Chamber of Commerce. The event stricken through, above, is not open to the public.]

Below: A story about the genesis of the Northern California Community Blood Bank from the September-October 1986 issue of the Humboldt Historian.

###

If you had been a patient at a local hospital in 1950, your need for a blood transfusion might have necessitated a frantic search for a local citizen with the same blood type who would be willing to donate blood for you. Sometimes, the blood could be found in time. Often, it was found too late to save the patient in need. And so, in an effort to remedy the situation, a dream of many local doctors came true in 1951: the establishment of a local blood bank to serve all of the hospitals in Humboldt and Del Norte counties.

The first blood bank was known as the Humboldt-Del Norte Blood Bank. Founded as a non-profit enterprise, its purpose was to save lives by collecting and furnishing whole blood and derivatives to the local hospitals. The minutes of board of directors meetings over the past thirty-five years, attest to the contributions of all of our citizens who have helped to continue the dream of those early physicians. If you are one of those citizens, the Blood Bank thanks you during this special Thirty-fifth Anniversary Year.

Early efforts to organize a blood bank are recounted in an article printed in the Humboldt Times newspaper in November 1950. A dinner, donated by the Paradise Grill at the Eureka Veterans Building, set the scene. Special guests included Senator and Mrs. Arthur Way, and the dinner speaker was Dr. John Upton of San Francisco, then Chairman of the California Medical Association’s Blood Bank Commission. Dr. Upton told the group of the experiences of many San Francisco physicians who had watched women die during childbirth for lack of available blood. One physician had approached the Irwin Foundation and convinced members to establish a blood bank in San Francisco.

Dr. Upton pointed out that a blood bank in the Eureka area would certainly be prudent, since there was a high number of accidents related to the hazardous nature of our lumbering, fishing, and farming industries. At the dinner, with Mrs. Katherine Shattuck presiding, a warranty for the blood bank’s first refrigerator was presented by Brizard-Matthews Company. Also, more than 100 units of blood. Carl Hansen of the Eureka Elks Club presented a check for $1,500, raised from the auction of a car donated by the club.

With that seed money, plus a one-dollar lease of the Eagles Building (now the Lloyd Building in downtown Eureka), the Blood Bank was “in business.” The earliest efforts involved three doctors, H. Phillip Dohn, George Watson and Schiras Jarvis. Dr. Watson assumed the position of blood bank medical director and served in that role for many years. The first board of directors consisted of Doctors H. Phillip Dohn, Schiras Jarvis, Stanwood Schmidt all of Eureka), Fred Olsen (of Arcata), and Herbert L. Moore (of Fortuna). Soon after the blood bank opened, a science writer for “Reader’s Digest” interviewed the physicians for an article in his magazine.

The first blood bank was open only a couple of times a week for donors to come in and give blood. Big contributors included prisoners from the county jail. In the first three months of operation, a total of 367 pints of blood were received.

Early in 1959, the directors were informed that they were to lose their lease in the Lloyd Building. After much discussion and debate, a decision was reached to try to build a new building for the blood bank. Some land owned downtown was traded for the present site at 2524 Harrison Avenue in Eureka, although some felt strongly that donors would not be willing to “go that far” to donate blood. Gerald Matson was selected as architect, and the low bid of $52,378 went to Beacon Construction of Fortuna. The Humboldt-Del Norte Medical Society lent great support to the project, as did the Medical Society’s Auxiliary, which planned the decorating and furnishing of the new building. Local civic groups also pitched in.

In 1960, the blood bank branched out to offer mobile blood drives in the community. Also considerably more expensive than the “drop in” donation system in place, the mobile blood drives were necessary to obtain the number of units of blood needed. In those early days, it was not uncommon for Dr. Schmidt or Dr. Jarvis to use the newspaper to urge citizens to come in and donate.

Over the years, the blood bank board of directors has addressed many issues involved in staffing and equipping the local bank, methods of collecting the blood, and how to transport it to hospitals in the fastest and safest way. More than 120 physicians have served on the board of directors along with many members of the lay public. An emphasis has been placed on the continual upgrading of knowledge and skills of technologists, nurses and administrators, and funds have been allocated each year to sponsor continuing education efforts. Donors of twenty or more units of blood are honored with commemorative plaques displayed in the blood bank building.

There are many stories of citizens rallying to help their fellow citizens by donating blood. Sometimes, blood bank staff members have been forced to telephone loyal donors in the middle of the night to come in to donate for a particular patient.

About thirteen years ago, my brother, Bob Piersall, was not expected to live after the veins in his esophagus varicosed and burst. His blood type is AB negative, the most rare type. The local blood bank was forced to contact blood banks out of the area to have blood flown in to save his life. Fortunately, his life was saved and he has been doing well for the last ten years. In a similar situation in 1984, a woman in her mid-30s developed unexpected bleeding. Because her blood had a rare combination of antibodies, more than 100 units of blood were screened by blood banks across the state. An “angel flight” was finally able to fly in the 17 units of blood and 40 units of plasma which saved her life.

More recently, local resident Cecil Beason, age 72, began having pains in the middle of one night this past July. He was rushed to St. Joseph Hospital, where emergency surgery was instituted for a ruptured aortic aneurysm. Dr. John Van Speybroeck operated for more than six hours and transfused 27 units of blood. After spending five days in the Intensive Care Unit and four more on the surgical floor, Beason was able to go home. He reports that he is “doing great” today.

There are hundreds more stories that give testimony to the contribution of the thousands of blood donors as the blood bank continues in its mission. At the present time, there are two men who have donated more than 100 units of blood apiece: Carlo J. Albonico and Gerald L. Crawford. Appropriately, both men have Type “O” blood, sometimes known as the “Universal Donor.”

I have worked as a volunteer at the blood bank for almost a year now and find it most interesting. I have learned that only 30 percent of the population are able to give blood, and of that number, only 3 percent donate regularly. Not long ago, I overheard a young woman who had given for several years telling a blood bank nurse that the reason she began donating was because when she was younger, she didn’t have a lot of money to give to charity. Instead, she decided to give the gift of blood as her donation to mankind. What a wonderful gift! THANKS TO ALL OF YOU WONDERFUL BLOOD DONORS!

###

The piece above was printed in the September-October 1986 issue of the Humboldt Historian, a journal of the Humboldt County Historical Society. It is reprinted here with permission. The Humboldt County Historical Society is a nonprofit organization devoted to archiving, preserving and sharing Humboldt County’s rich history. You can become a member and receive a year’s worth of new issues of The Humboldt Historian at this link.