Boyd And Fulford Drugs To Close Pharmacy In Bel Air

BEL AIR, MD — A longtime Bel Air business is closing its doors for good. The owner of Boyd and Fulford Pharmacy said simply that it was time. The last day the pharmacy will be in business on Main Street is Sept. 30.

"For everything there is a season and as summer is transitioning to fall, I've decided now is the time for me to transition to a new season in my life while my health remains sound," owner M. Eugene Streett, Ph.D., wrote in a letter addressed to friends, neighbors and family posted on the Boyd and Fulford Pharmacy Facebook page.

After 127 years of continuous operation, Streett said the business would end its run as provider of prescriptions for those in the heart of Bel Air. Once the pharmacy closes, all Boyd and Fulford prescriptions will transfer over to Klein's ShopRite Pharmacy at 223 North Main Street.

"I am pleased to inform that Boyd and Fulford pharmacist Audrey Streett, my daughter-in-law, will transition to and work full-time at the Klein's ShopRite Pharmacy" at 223 North Main Street, Dr. Street wrote.

Those picking up their medicines may see other familiar faces, since he said Klein's offered other Boyd and Fulford employees jobs there too. Dr. Street said that the Klein family shares "our philosophy of service, caring and compassion."

One man commented on the Facebook post that when he was an infant in winter 1971 and had been battling a cold for a week and began to have trouble breathing, his father looked up Dr. Streett in the phone book and asked him what to do.

"Dr. Streett got out of bed on that cold winter night, got dressed, drove to Boyd & Fulford and met my father at the store," the man wrote. His father purchased a humidifier and some VapoRub.

"And when my Dad was short on cash to pay for these items, Dr. Streett told him to pay him back when he could. My Mom still can’t tell the story without getting choked up," the man said, explaining his family had recently moved to Bel Air at the time, where his father was a sergeant at the National Guard Armory on Main Street. "Here they were alone in a rural town in a moment of desperation and someone who they didn’t even know went above and beyond to help them out," he said. "It was this act of kindness, compassion and caring on Dr. Streett’s part that forever endeared my parents, and me as well, to Bel Air itself and its feeling of community."

The pharmacist wrote in his letter announcing the closing that it was an honor to serve.

"During the many years Boyd and Fulford Pharmacy has provided independent professional pharmacy services and care to the folks of Bel Air and Harford County, Maryland, it has been the distinct privilege, honor and mission for me, my late wife Mary, my family and everyone who has ever been employed at Boyd and Fulford, especially Dr. Fred Dreyer and the late Dr. Frank Ward, to serve and care for you," Dr. Streett wrote.

"I thank you for your loyalty and entrusting Boyd & Fulford Pharmacy for generations with your pharmacy care and personally for 75 years of service," Dr. Streett wrote. "More than customers, you are my friends, neighbors, high school classmates and extended family. I will miss you all."

According to The Aegis, the pharmacy was closing in part due to "clawback fees" that are incurred retroactively by insurance company affiliates, making costs and revenue unpredictable.