James Samuel Mitchener, Jr. ’43

James Samuel Mitchener, Jr., M.D. ’43 died April 10, 2007, at Scotland Memorial Hospital in Virginia. At Davidson, he was a member of the varsity basketball team. He later earned his M.D. at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Md. While in medical school, Jim met Sara Elizabeth Carton (Sally) of Coshocton, Ohio, whom he married on January 24, 1948, in Baltimore, Md. They celebrated their fifty-ninth wedding anniversary this year. Jim trained as a surgeon in Baltimore at Johns Hopkins Hospital and The Church Home & Hospital. After completing his pathology internship at Duke Hospital in Durham, he served in the United States Army in San Juan, Puerto Rico, from 1951 until 1953. He and Sally then settled in Laurinburg, where he began a general surgery practice. He retired in 1994. During these years, he also provided his surgical services to the hospitals in Hamlet, N.C., and Bennettsville, S.C. Jim was an active member of the American College of Surgeons and the North Carolina Medical Society. He was also a member and served as president of the North Carolina College of Surgeons as well as the Scotland County Medical Society. Dr. Mitchener served as a Scotland County commissioner for eighteen years, serving as chairman at his term’s end. He was a past president of the Rotary Club and the Scotland County Chamber of Commerce. Jim volunteered for twenty-two summers and served as a physician at Camp Sea Gull in Arapahoe. In 1985, he and Sally lived for an extended period in Tenwek, a village in western Kenya, where Jim volunteered his services as a doctor in the mission hospital located there. Jim was a member of the First United Methodist Church in Laurinburg, where he taught Sunday school for several years. He enjoyed playing golf and tennis, and was, for many years, a regular runner. Survivors include his wife, Sara Carton Mitchener, 704 Morrison Ln., Laurinburg, N.C. 28352-4221. He is also survived by seven children, twelve grandchildren, and three step-grandchildren: Dr. James Samuel Mitchener III ’73 and wife, Cary, and their son, Jim, of Roanoke, Va.; Victor Carton Mitchener, and wife, Becky, and their children, Roland Mitchener, Anne Stuart Mitchener, Katie, John, and William Moore, of Charlotte; Albert Stevenson Mitchener, and wife, Sally, and their children, Jay and McNair, of Charlotte; William Thomas Mitchener, and wife, Vicky, and their children, Ruffin, Larson, and Mary Carton, of Charlotte; Sara Elizabeth Mitchener Daniel, and husband, David, and their children, Robert and David, of Wilson; Dr. John Edward Mitchener, and wife, Julia ’91, of Winston-Salem; and Mary Harriet Mitchener Gray, and husband, Lee, and their children, Will and Mitch, of Greenville, S.C. Jim was preceded in death by his first son, J.S. Mitchener, another son, Paul Williams Mitchener, and his brother, Calvin Chambers Mitchener ’46 of Charlotte.