Andrew Johnson Courts died on Sunday, May 3, 2015, after an extended illness. A celebration of life service will be held on Tuesday, May 5, at 2 p.m. in the sanctuary of First Presbyterian Church.
Dr. Courts was born in Rockingham County in 1931, the son of Robert Benjamin and Nancy Johnson Courts.
He attended Davidson College on a baseball and football scholarship and the University of North Carolina School of Medicine after graduation. He interned at Jackson Hospital at the University of Miami in Miami, FL, and completed a residency in Psychiatry at North Carolina Memorial Hospital and a residency in child psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center.
He served as a captain in the army and was stationed at Munson Army Hospital at Fort Leavenworth, KS, where he received a Medal of Commendation. He was a member of First Presbyterian Church in Greensboro and served as a deacon and president of the Agape Sunday school class.
Dr. Courts is survived by his wife, Nancy Fleming Courts, sons Andrew Johnson Courts, Jr. and his wife Louise, William Fleming Courts, and Robert Benjamin Courts; two grandsons, Benjamin Tyler Courts and Cotesworth Pinckney Courts. He was preceded in death by his four brothers and is survived by his sister, Dr. Sara Courts McClure. He also survived by two sisters-in-law and many nieces and nephews.
He maintained a lifetime interest in collecting primitive blacksmith and agricultural tools. Portions of Dr. Courts’ collections can be viewed in museums around the region. A farmer at heart, he planted a vegetable garden every summer and shared the bounty freely.
Memorials may be directed to the Children’s Hope Alliance in Statesville, Greensboro Urban Ministry, or the charity of ones’ choice.