Alton Cobb, longtime Mississippi state health officer and proponent of Medicaid, dies

Alton Cobb, Mississippi’s first director of the state’s Medicaid program and a long-time state health officer, died Oct. 14, five days shy of his 93rd birthday.

Cobb, 92, spent his career working to advance public health in Mississippi, including a 20-year stint leading the Mississippi State Department of Health. He served under several governors — William Winter was his favorite — and at Cobb's direction, the state department of health expanded in size and scope, his daughter, Mary Alford, told the Clarion Ledger Tuesday.

Under Cobb, the health department started its Women Infants and Children program and began requiring compulsory school vaccinations for students, among other things.

"Dr. Cobb was a giant for public health and in advancing public health in Mississippi," State Health Officer Thomas Dobbs said in a statement. "He will truly be missed."

Cobb was state health officer for so long, most Mississippians probably have his signature on their birth certificates, Alford said jokingly.

But even with the progress made toward public health in the state, the work remained unfinished in Cobb's eyes. He found it “ridiculous” the state has not further expanded Medicaid, Alford said

Once asked by his wife, Mary, what his last wish would be, Cobb said: “More affordable and accessible health care for all the people of Mississippi,” according to an obituary written by his grandson.

Alford described her father as a practical, serious man. He was slow to laugh, but he was fair, and anyone who interacted with him knew where they stood, she said.

Born Oct. 19, 1928, to Winnie Ora and Joseph Harrison Cobb in a rural Madison County log cabin, Alton Cobb grew up playing with sharecroppers' children and attending school in a one-room schoolhouse, Alford said.

Cobb attended Holmes Community College, known then as Holmes Junior College, before moving on to, and graduating from, the University of Mississippi. Cobb loved Ole Miss, and made an offer to pay all of his grandchildren’s tuition if they attended school there, Alford said. 

Cobb attended medical school at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, and it was there he met Mary, then a nursing student. On the same day he met his future wife, he called her and asked for a date, Alford said. They were married 67 years until his death.

Cobb’s medical career was interrupted by war, serving two years active service in the U.S. Army Medical Corps in Korea. His service extended beyond active duty and into the Mississippi National Guard where he eventually retired with the rank of colonel.

Cobb graduated from Johns Hopkins in 1954 and, with Mary in tow, returned to the South for an internship at Charity Hospital in New Orleans. He earned a master's degree in public health from Tulane in 1960.

After a brief solo medical practice in Pickens, Cobb joined the public health ranks as county health director in Sunflower County.

In 1969, he became the first executive director of the Mississippi Medicaid Commission, now known as the Mississippi Division of Medicaid. 

A staunch Democrat, Cobb would later tell his children he believed he played a large role in convincing then Gov. John Bell Williams to sign Medicaid into state law, Alford said.

In 1973 Cobb was appointed state health officer, a position he would hold until 1992. 

In retirement, Cobb invested in charitable causes and spent Sundays with family and friends at his childhood home in Madison County. 

"Dad was very proud of his pine trees," Alford said. "He used to love to ride back in the woods and count and look at his trees."

Other survivors include son Tommy Cobb and daughter Susan Cobb, nine children and 19 grandchildren.