BANCROFT, DR. JOE D., age 69, of Vestavia, Hills, died Tuesday, May 19, 1998.Dr. Joe D. Bancroft, the third Doctor Joe Bancroft to care for patients in Birmingham, was Ruling Elder, Sunday School Teacher, and member of the Building Committee at Briarwood Presbyterian Church. He attended Howard College and The University of Alabama Medical College. Following medical school he was a Fellow in Internal Medicine under Tinsley R. Harrison. Dr. Bancroft went to Columbiana as a General Practitioner in 1957 and was President of the Shelby County Medical Association when the Shelby Memorial Hospital (now Shelby Baptist) was opened in 1959. He later took residencies in Medicine and a fellowship in endocrinology at University Hospital.He was Associate Director of Medical Education, establishing a residency program in Internal Medicine at Baptist Medical Center Montclair while conducting his private practice in Internal Medicine, and serving as Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine for the University of Alabama School of Medicine at Montclair, subsequently serving as Program Director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program at Baptist Medical Centers.In 1979 he became the Medical Director of the first hospice in Alabama under Mr. Emmett Johnson, CEO of the Baptist Hospitals. Montclair Baptist Hospice Care was underwritten by the Baptist Hospital and served as a pilot program to secure Blue Cross Insurance funding of Hospice Care in the state. Dr. Bancroft served in that capacity until two weeks before his death continuing to send ideas for patient care to the Hospice until one week before his death. He was one of only two doctors in the State of Alabama certified by the American Board of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. He also served on the Mission and Ministries Committee of the Baptist Health System.Dr. Bancroft was also on the Governor's Commission of the Alabama Year of the Child, and the Governor's Representative for the State of Alabama White House Conference on Aging, as well as the Alabama Commission on Aging. He also served as President of the Birmingham Society of Internists. In the Association of Hospital Medical Educators he was on the Board of Councilors (Council of Transitional Year Program Directors) and the Board of Directors representing seven states.Dr. Bancroft was a Fellow of the American College of Physicians. For eighteen months Dr. Bancroft was President of the Medical Staff of Birmingham Baptist Medical Center Montclair. He was also a member of the College of Counselors, Medical Association State of Alabama.Dr. Bancroft is survived by his mother, Lucile Dial Bancroft Collins; his wife, Betsy Bancroft; his brother, Charles Benjamin Bancroft and wife, Sheila Bancroft; three sons and their wives, Josiah and Barbara Bancroft, IV, John Ben and Teresa Bancroft and William Barber and Fletcher Bancroft; and seven grandchildren, Elizabeth Ann, Josiah the Fifth, Jesse Rebekah, Lucile Ray, John Charles Benjamin, Mary Allison and William Elliott Barber Bancroft. Dr. Bancroft is also survived by his many loving patients.The pallbearers are John Epps, Parker Glasgow, Wayman Sherrer, Bill Gray, Dr. Jim Haggard, Tom Leopard, Dr. Chris Old and John Carey. Honorary pallbearers are Dr. John Packard, Emmett Johnson, Dr. John M. McMahan, Dr. David Sperling, Dr. Stanley Kahn, and Dr. Alan Goldstein.Funeral services will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, May 22, at Briarwood Presbyterian Church (off I-459 at Acton Road Exit) with burial at Elmwood Cemetery. Dr. Eric Hayward will officiate. The family will receive friends Thursday evening between the hours of 4:30 and 8:00 p.m. at Ridout's Valley Chapel in Homewood.Memorials should be sent to the Baptist Hospice at Baptist Medical Center Montclair, 800 Montclair Road, Birmingham, Alabama 35213.Services are under the direction of Ridout's Valley Chapel (879-3401) in Homewood.
The Birmingham News, Birmingham, Alabama Thursday 21 May 1998 Section Obituaries Page 6B