Plaque to honor Zuber Park namesake in West Point

Thomas L. Zuber
Thomas L. Zuber
Thomas L. Zuber

WEST POINT, Mississippi (AP) — Zuber Park, located on U.S. Highway 45 in West Point, was named for the city’s first black physician.

The family of Dr. Thomas L. Zuber is looking to update the history of the park’s namesake with a new plaque commemorating the doctor’s life.

Zuber family friend Charles Ivy said the park had been in West Point for more than 30 years, and that younger residents and park visitors might not be aware of the doctor’s impact.

The West Point Board of Selectmen approved placement of the plaque earlier this month.

“We’ve been going through a citywide revitalization process for our parks, and I think this plaque would really add meaning to Zuber Park,” Mayor Robbie Robinson told The Daily Times Leader.

Narva Perry, Zuber’s granddaughter, said Zuber originally owned the land where the park was located, and it passed to his wife after he died in 1956.

“They were doing urban renewal in the 70s, and the land was a flood zone, so the city did some work and made a park of it,” Perry said.

The $1,215 cost of the plaque will be split by the Zuber family and the city. Ivy said the family would take care of all costs and labor for erecting the base where the plaque would sit.

“The bricks we’ll use to erect the monument actually came from Dr. Zuber’s house,” Ivy said. “His grandson still lives in West Point, and he’s had the bricks stacked behind his house for 25 years.”

Zuber served as an Army battalion surgeon for the 365th infantry in World War I, After returning to West Point and opening a practice, he was named Medical Doctor of the Year by the Mississippi Medical and Surgical Associates in 1952. He died in 1956.