A community thrives when residents benefit from a variety of services, including those essential to health and well-being. Having access to them is also extremely important. Bronzeville was successful because it had a variety of services and business, including dental offices, such as that of Fred Bobo.
Dr. Fred D Bobo was born in Okolona, Mississippi around 1899. While living in St Louis, Missouri Bobo was drafted into World War I at the age of nineteen. He served in the United States Army branch of the military before being discharged two months later. In 1921 Bobo married Cecilia Phillips, a Milwaukee native. After he graduated from the University of Illinois with honors, he earned his degree in dentistry from Marquette University Dental School in 1926.
By 1929 he, established a dental office located on 612 W Walnut St. Around that time, Dr. Bobo also secured employment at the Milwaukee County Welfare Department in programs designed to aid families in need. When he retired in 1967, he was honored with the Governor’s Special Award and the Milwaukee Service Award for his 36 years of service to the people of the State of Wisconsin and Milwaukee County.
Bobo had an active history as a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. He was initiated at Tau Chapter in 1918. He was a charter member of Alpha Phi Chapter at Marquette
University in 1923, the first chapter in Wisconsin. He was instrumental in the chartering of the Gamma Epsilon Chapter at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1946, and a charter member of served several years as the first president of Milwaukee’s Delta Chi Lambda Chapter in 1949. Bobo was named Milwaukee's Alpha Man of the Year in 1968.
He was also active in community life. His family were members of St Benedict the Moor Catholic Church. During that time, he lived at 2112 N 9th Street, maintaining his dentistry located at 2009 N 10th St. Bobo would remain in Milwaukee until his death in January of 1976. His obituary attests to his many roles and positions in the community. Bobo was the vice-president of the Milwaukee County Museum Board of Trustees, and he was a member of the Governor’s Commission on Human Rights, the NAACP, Milwaukee Urban League, Boy Scouts, Cream City Medical Society, the American Legion, YMCA, Wisconsin and Milwaukee Dental Societies, and the philanthropic Catholic Order of Foresters. The remarkable career of Dr. Fred Bobo was a benefit to the Bronzeville community.
Images