Frank Ramsay Thies, Jr. ’51

Frank Ramsay Thies, Jr. ’51, of Charlotte, N.C.,died Jan. 10, 2012, at Charlotte’s Presbyterian Hospital, the same hospital in which he was born 82 years ago on Feb. 8, 1929, the only child of the late Frank R. Thies, Sr. and Eleanore Louise Arhelger. He graduated from Davidson and obtained the degree of master of arts from the UNC Chapel Hill. Thies was president of Thies Realty & Mortgage Company, a firm founded by his grandfather. He was a trustee of the Nalle Clinic Foundation and had served for half a century as a trustee of the Myers Park Civic Commission. He was a founder of Charlotte Latin School, in the belief that excellent liberal arts education is essential for those who must assume the mantle of leadership in future generations, and he served for a decade as the first chairman of that institution’s board of trustees. He founded Southeastern Savings Bank, serving as chairman of the board of directors and, for a time, as president, and he served as a founding director of the Scottish Bank. He loved his family and friends, his country, and his God. He served with pride in the U.S. Army Adjutant General’s Corps during the Korean War. He attended Christ Episcopal Church. Loved by his family and friends, he was an extraordinarily compassionate, generous, and gentle man, ever courteous, with great strength of character and abiding faith. Much cherished also are his ready sense of humor, his felicitous sharing of his deep knowledge of and love of literature and history, as well as many happy times together at the beach cottage he designed and built in the 1960s at Garden City, S.C. Thies was preceded in death by his beloved wife of nearly 50 years, Janet Rich Thies. He is survived by their children, Frank R. Thies III ’82, 609 Poplar St., Spartanburg, SC 29302, Mary Janet Thies Hawkins (George), F. Boyce Thies, J. Lawton Thies ’88, and Charles Rich Thies; by granddaughters, Caroline Ramsay Hawkins, Mary Padgett Hawkins, and Julia Banister Hawkins; by his dear friend, Nancy Cheatham Riggsbee; by brother-in-law, Charles B. Rich, Jr. (Marsha); and sisters-in-law, Lyttleton Rich Hollowell (Tom) and Ann Boyce Gyger (Roland). He is survived, also, by nieces, Mary Denton Lunsford, Elizabeth Denton Shah-Kahn, Jennifer Rich, Eve Gyger, Rebecca Gyger DuPont, and Alexandra Gyger Roy, and nephew, Charles B. Rich III.