Robert T. Ball, Jr.

Robert T. Ball Jr. is a public health and infectious disease specialist who discovered the first case of AIDS in South Carolina.

Personal life and education Ball was born in Charleston, South Carolina. He attended the College of Charleston and the Medical University of South Carolina, studying internal medicine. He completed his medical residency at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. During his college years, he was conservative in his views, participating in the John Birch Society. Ball was drafted during the Vietnam War and sent to work at the William Beaumont Army Medical Center for two years.

Medical research Ball opened a private practice in the Charleston neighborhood of West Ashley in 1977, where he diagnosed the state's first recorded case of Legionnaires' disease and was one of the first physicians in South Carolina to diagnose a case of toxic shock syndrome.