Harry C. Press Jr., 78, dies; led Howard University's radiology department

Harry C. Press Jr., 78, a Howard University radiologist who successfully fought for the racial integration of a swimming pool in his former Silver Spring neighborhood, died July 4 at his home in Bethesda. He had complications from colon cancer.

Dr. Press led Howard's radiology department from 1966 to 1979. During his tenure, the department's residency program became nationally accredited. He continued serving as a professor at Howard's medical school until becoming ill recently.

Harry Cody Press Jr. was born in Chesapeake, Va., and graduated with honors from Virginia Union University in Richmond. He received a medical degree in 1957 from the Medical College of Virginia.

He served in the Navy for two years before moving to Washington for a residency in radiology at Freedmen's, now Howard University Hospital. He trained further at what is now Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the National Naval Medical Center and the University of Pennsylvania before joining Howard's faculty in the mid-1960s.

Dr. Press wrote more than 40 articles for national medical journals and with a colleague brought modern mammography techniques to Freedmen's. In the late 1960s, Dr. Press and his wife were not allowed to join the Wheaton-Haven Recreation Association, an all-white swimming pool club in their Silver Spring neighborhood.

The Presses sued the club. They were joined by three co-plaintiffs: Murray and Rosalind Tillman, a white couple who were members of the club, and a friend, an African American woman named Grace Rosner who had been denied entry to the pool as the Tillmans' guest.

The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1973, justices unanimously decided in favor of the plaintiffs, mirroring a decision to require integration of the swimming pool in Fairfax County's Little Hunting Park subdivision.

Dr. Press was a Sunday school teacher at Trinity Episcopal Church in the District and volunteered as a physician for sports teams sponsored by the Boys Club of Silver Spring.

Survivors include his wife of 55 years, Francella Teal Press of Bethesda; three children, Harry C. Press III of Palos Verdes Estates, Calif., Lillian J. Williams of Montclair, N.J, and John E. Press of Burlington, Vt.; a sister; and seven grandchildren.