Charles Drew (1904-1950) is widely credited as the father of the modern blood bank. In 1937, Drew made the key discovery that separating red blood cells from the plasma (the liquid part of blood that can be given to anyone), and freezing the two separately, allowed blood to be preserved for longer and reconstituted at a later date.
In February of 1941, Drew was appointed director of the first American Red Cross Blood Bank, and launched the "Plasma for Britain Project" where he collected thousands of units of plasma for the British war effort. From these samples the British Army established its own blood transfusion service, where dried and powdered plasma could be stored and turned into a liquid with the addition of sterile, distilled water. After the war, doctors who had seen the effectiveness of transfusion therapy in battle began to demand that blood be made available for treatment of civilian patients.
An earlier discovery in 1915 by Richard Lewishon proved that adding sodium citrate to freshly drawn blood prevented clotting, thus opening the way for the development of blood banks.
In 1950 breakable glass bottles were replaced with plastic bags, allowing the development of a system with multiple blood samples. The shelf life of stored blood was extended by the addition of an anticoagulation preservative, CPDA-1, in 1979, facilitating resource-sharing among blood banks.
Ironically Drew died in a car accident in North Carolina, and was too severely injured to benefit from his own invention.
