McDowell’s Pharmacy is community’s ‘front door to health care’
Four generations of Carolina alumni have served rural Scotland Neck and surrounding counties for more than a century.
When customers walk into McDowell’s Pharmacy, they step back in time. The pharmacy in rural Scotland Neck, North Carolina (population approximately 1,500), still boasts the original mahogany cabinets and tile floors installed in 1901.
Since 1922, the pharmacy has been owned by four generations of the McDowell family, all UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy alumni:
- Norfleet McDowell Sr., World War I veteran and 1922 graduate of Carolina’s pharmacy school, bought the building in 1922.
- Norfleet McDowell Jr. ’44, World War II veteran, worked at the pharmacy until his death in 2009.
- Joe McDowell ’81 worked with his father and now his son.
- Thomas McDowell ’15, ’16 (PharmD) became the pharmacy’s owner in 2022.
“My great-grandfather took the biggest risk of purchasing the business and putting himself out there. He grew the business, and made it sustainable,” Thomas McDowell said. “He wanted to serve his hometown, and my grandfather saw how rewarding it was.”
Thomas McDowell still works alongside his father every day. “My dad has given me the freedom over the years to try new things and add more services, which has been invaluable.”
Carolina faculty and administrators visited McDowell’s on the Tar Heel Bus Tour on May 15, 2025. (Johnny Andrews/UNC-Chapel Hill)
Continuing the legacy
“I wanted to continue the legacy,” Thomas McDowell said. “We’ve been able to stay open because of how we treat people, and loyalty comes with treating people with kindness and respect. We’ve tried to uphold that by treating people like we would our own family.”
Independent pharmacies often are the most accessible healthcare providers in their communities. Patients can talk to a pharmacist and immediately get help with over-the-counter remedies and information about medication side effects from a medication. The pharmacists also help customers with in-home medication management and vaccinations and offer remote patient monitoring for diabetes and blood pressure management.
The pharmacy’s medication packaging service, MAC Pack, offers free delivery to six counties and hundreds of patients every 28 days. The packages sort medications by date and time with easy-to-tear sealed strip pouches. The service helps patients keep track of their medications and allows the pharmacy to reach patients who may have transportation barriers or limited mobility.
The pharmacy partners with the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and Rural Research Alliance of Community Pharmacies to host pharmacy students on rotation.
“Our patients lean on us and appreciate what we do for them, so it’s a very rewarding place to practice,” Thomas McDowell said. “We’ve enjoyed getting students involved in our clinical services and patient care. It’s been a great partnership.”
First-year pharmacy student Hayden Ousley is on rotation at McDowell’s getting valuable experience in medication monitoring, packaging services, remote patient monitoring and shadowing pharmacists. Ousley would like to pursue clinical or hospital pharmacy, but his hands-on experience at McDowell’s is helping him become more well-rounded.
“They do so much more than dispensing medication. They’re all-encompassing compared to other community pharmacies,” said Ousley.
Thomas hopes the pharmacy will continue to serve the community for generations to come. Perhaps his children, Press and Mary Hayes, will become the fifth generation of McDowell pharmacists to provide trusted care to Scotland Neck. Thomas McDowell just hopes they find a career as rewarding as pharmacy has been for him.
“It all comes back to how you treat people. My father always says, ‘If you take care of people, they’ll take care of you.’ That has held true for us over the years,” he said. “We’re a small close-knit community. We know our patients’ families, ask about their kids, pets and grandparents. It builds trust and relationships, I enjoy having that connection as a trusted resource. We’re that front door to health care in our community.”
