Dr. Roscoe Conklin Harrison was born on February 19, 1880, in Raleigh, N.C. At about 17 years old, he went to the coal fields of West Virginia, where attractive wages drew him to mine coal between school terms to earn money for college. He later entered the Bluefield Colored Institute for preparatory work, then enrolled at Meharry Medical School to study medicine. Before officially graduating, he had shown such ability as a physician and surgeon that he was licensed to practice medicine in the state. Dedicated to constant learning, he set himself a daily goal of reading more than 100 pages of medical and related material and kept to it until his death. In 1904, he returned to Kimball, West Virginia, and established a successful medical practice serving African American coal miners and their families. In 1911, he opened Harrison Memorial Hospital, the first privately owned black hospital in West Virginia. Seven African American doctors from the area joined the staff, and more than 300 major operations were performed in the hospital's first 18 months. In 1915, with help from the Alpha Hospital Charity Commission, he raised $5,000 to expand it to a 20-bed hospital, with half the beds intended for poor, working-class African Americans who received free care. Between 1917 and 1918, Governor John Cornwell appointed him Examining Physician on both draft boards for West Virginia. Dr. Harrison died on November 21, 1923. After his death, Dr. Henry Dodford Dismukes was appointed head physician of Harrison Memorial Hospital, and at Harrison's funeral, Rev. Richard Johnson of Ebenezer Presbyterian Church praised his greatness, his healing work, and the duty of the medical profession to carry on the institution he had built.