Doctors Clayton McDowell and Carter McDowell come home to serve
By Jessica Brown
There are some who would say you can never come home again. The doctors McDowell of Jacksonville would beg to differ. Dentist Clayton McDowell, and younger brother, optometrist Carter McDowell, both returned to Jacksonville after each obtained his respective degree in medicine.
They grew up in Jacksonville and attended Westfair Christian Academy, which they both graduated from. And both played sports … Clayton McDowell playing various ones while Carter McDowell concentrated on basketball. Their late father, Jason McDowell, coached them both.
Dr. Jason McDowell, an optometrist, started his practice at International Eye Care in 2001. He was an invested member of the community, serving on several boards and being an active member of the family’s church, Lincoln Avenue Baptist Church.
His passing at the age of 48 in 2022 from complications stemming from an autoimmune disease he’d been battling for years affected the brothers in many ways, not the least of which were their budding medical careers.
Both changed original plans to practice their specialties in other communities, deciding after their father’s passing to return to their hometown.
“It was a complete coincidence,” Clayton McDowell says, adding that his father’s passing made it clear that being close to family just made sense. Since he changed his mind about optometry due to a lifelong battle with his own dental condition and chose to study dentistry, he assumed his brother would follow in their father’s shoes.
“I didn’t have plans to move back to Jacksonville and work at International Eye Care,” Carter McDowell says, but Jacksonville was just the best fit. Working so closely with his father, he saw that optometry was much more than just prescribing glasses.
“It’s about serving others and building relationships with patients,” he adds.
Both brothers received their undergraduate degrees in biology from Hannibal Lagrange University. They parted ways after that, with Clayton McDowell choosing to study dentistry at Southern Illinois University’s Dental Medicine and Carter McDowell attending the University of Missouri’s College of Optometry.
Carter McDowell is married to Mollie, a teacher, and the two live in Jacksonville and attend Lincoln Avenue Baptist Church, while Clayton McDowell lives in Springfield and commutes to Jacksonville to practice at Midwest Dental.
Along with their mother, Mary Ann McDowell, the entire McDowell family had participated in missionary work in years past, and the brothers remember a trip to Romania and the Dominican Republic in 2012, during which their father would set up clinics to help underserved communities receive eye care that included donated eyeglasses.
The brothers reminisced about the experience that took place when both were young teens. “It was a great experience to have been around people in such different cultures,” they both recollect, adding that it caused both of them to appreciate how important their father’s work truly was.
