Diggs was born in
Hampton, Virginia, but spent most of his life and did most of his work in
Memphis, Tennessee. He received his undergraduate and master's degrees from
Randolph-Macon College, and his medical degree in 1925 from
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He joined the faculty of the
University of Tennessee in Memphis in 1929 and later became Director of Medical Laboratories. In 1938 he helped create in Memphis the first
blood bank in the South, only the fourth in the US. He helped
Danny Thomas create the
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, also in Memphis, in 1962. In 1971 his work led to the creation of the first comprehensive research center for sickle cell disease at the University, which later endowed a Professor of Medicine position named after him. His
Morphology of Human Blood Cells, which he co-authored with Ann Bell and medical illustrator
Dorothy Sturm, is on its 7th edition and is still used as a textbook. A 1984 interview with Diggs entitled,
History of Medicine in Memphis has been published. Diggs died in January 1995, on his 95th birthday. ==Publications==