George R. Wilkinson, Jr. ’45

George R. Wilkinson, Jr. ’45, a lifelong resident of Greenville, S.C., and Cedar Mountain, N.C., died Mar. 19. He was born Feb. 11, 1924, the son of parents, Mary Lydia McAllister Wilkinson and Dr. George R. Wilkinson, Sr. Dr. Wilkinson dearly loved the people of the mountains of South Carolina, was a devoted physician to his patients, an avid reader, loyal alumnus to The McCallie School, Presbyterian College, and Johns Hopkins University, and was fiercely dedicated to his wife, children, grandchildren, and his animals. Dr. Wilkinson was the last surviving physician in the Wilkinson medical family, which began with his grandfather, Dr. James R. Wilkinson (1863–1935), who came to Greenville in 1888. Dr. Wilkinson’s own father, Dr. George R. Wilkinson, Sr., the first internist in South Carolina and president of the South Carolina Medical Board, practiced medicine from 1920–64 as well as his great-uncle, Dr. Henry Brookwood Wilkinson, and uncle, Dr. Louis Barr Wilkinson. Dr. Wilkinson was a graduate of The McCallie School; attended Davidson College for a year and a half; graduated from Presbyterian College, where he was student body president, president of Pi Kappa Phi fraternity, and president of the Inter-fraternity Council. He did graduate study at University of Georgia and in 1949 graduated John Hopkins University School of Medicine at the top of his class. He did his internship and residency at The Foss Clinic at Geisinger Hospital in Danville, Pa., and a three-year fellowship at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. He also received a B.S. degree in medicine from the University of Minnesota. He served as the chief of the Department of Medicine for U.S. Army at Camp Leroy Johnson in New Orleans, La. In 1956 Dr. Wilkinson joined his father in private practice at the Wilkinson Clinic in Greenville. He later was appointed head internist at the Veterans Administration Clinic in Greenville, where he retired in 1998. Dr. Wilkinson was a member of Fourth Presbyterian Church and Faith Memorial Chapel, South Carolina Historic Society, Sons of Confederate Veterans, Greenville County Medical Society, Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity, and Retired Physicians Tuesday Morning Breakfast Group as well as many social organizations. He served as chairman for several years of Table Rock Laboratories, chairman of the board of Covington Grocery, and was a member of the internal medical staff of Greenville Memorial Hospital, South Carolina Medical Association, American Medical Association, and a diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine. In 1995 Dr. Wilkinson fulfilled a lifelong dream and found the hospital his grandfather built in Soochow, China, now called Suzhou, and was appointed a director of that hospital. He and his wife, Millie, owned and operated Tall Pines Farm in Cleveland, S.C., and bred Angus beef cattle and American saddlebred horses, one of which won the world championships in 1979, named Winged Solo. He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Mildred Roper Wilkinson, 113 Ridgeland Dr., Greenville, SC 29601; his daughters, Richie Roper Wilkinson Bologni (John Louis Bologni), MaryEllen Wilkinson, and Milicent Anne Wilkinson; his sons, George Richard Wilkinson III and William McAllister Wilkinson; his 10 grandchildren, John Fabio Richard Bologni, George Richard Wilkinson IV, Thomas Albert Goode, Mary Lydia Wilkinson Fisher, William McAllister Wilkinson III, Anne Busche Wilkinson, Hayley Wilkinson Whatley, Max Edwin Whatley, Holly Roper Whatley, and Virginia Anne Hunt; one great-grandchild, Mary McAllister Fisher.