Dr. Read Flournoy McGehee, Jr. died on July 3, 2024. Known affectionately to his family as “Pop,” Read was born January 1, 1937 in Sumter, South Carolina. He was predeceased by his parents Read Flournoy McGehee, Sr. and Ethel Gulledge McGehee and by his first wife Eleanor Oppenhimer McGehee. He is survived by his wife Virginia Withers McGehee; his son Read McGehee, III, his wife Cathy Smylie McGehee and their children Eliza and Jane; his son John McGehee, his wife Sandra Quigg, and their children Sarah, Liam and Maren; his daughter Marshall Lewis, her husband Jeff Lewis, and their children Harry and Lucy; and his daughter Caroline McGehee, her fiancée Michael Harvey, and her children Henry McLean and Norah Pascual.
Pop grew up in Colonial Heights, Virginia and spent his youth searching for arrowheads and hunting squirrels. At the age of 16, he graduated from Petersburg High School and enrolled in Davidson College, graduating in 1957. He earned his Doctor of Medicine from Medical College of Virginia and interned at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, followed by his internal medical residency at Vanderbilt University. He served as an Epidemiology Intelligence Officer at the National Communicable Disease Center (now the CDC) of the United States Public Health Service in Atlanta, Georgia. During his tenure with the CDC, he participated in West African smallpox eradication studies in Togo and Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso), anthrax vaccine studies in Kenya, and malaria eradication projects in Haiti. He had a postdoctoral fellowship at Thorndike Laboratory at Harvard Medical School and subsequently joined the faculty at MCV. He retired from that position in 1973 as Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Pathology, after which he co-founded Pulmonary Associates of Richmond and practiced critical care pulmonology. After he left Pulmonary Associates in 1992, he founded Sleep Disorders Center of Virginia where he practiced until his retirement in 2008.
He was certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine, American College of Chest Physicians, and the Academy of Sleep Medicine. He served on the State Board of Medicine of the Commonwealth of Virginia from 1986-91 and was President of the Board in 1991. He was Chief of the Medical Staff of St. Mary’s Hospital from 1988-90, chaired the Human Values Committee, and was a staunch advocate for patient rights in end-of-life decision making.
He served on the Board of Directors of St. John’s Hospital, St. Mary’s Hospital, the Irvin Gammon Craig Health Center and St. Joseph’s Villa. He was a founding member of both the Richmond Montessori School board and the Maymont Foundation board.
He was a member of St. James’ Episcopal Church, the Country Club of Virginia, the Commonwealth Club, Custis Mill Pond Fishing and Hunting Club, and the Richmond Dove Association.
Aside from his numerous professional accomplishments and service to his community, Pop had an adventurous nature and loved to travel, which he believed transformed the person and edified the spirit. He floated the Irrawaddy River in Myanmar, bird watched in South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Guyana, caught piranhas in the Amazon, sought pirate treasure on Île de la Tortue, caught monster brown trout in Patagonia, saw the temples of Kyoto, the palaces of St. Petersburg, the ruins of Machu Picchu, as well as numerous other destinations in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. But Haiti above all captured his imagination, and he returned to the country numerous times on humanitarian mission trips. He was moved by the plight of the Haitian people and retained a keen interest in Haitian art and culture.
Pop spent many hours out in nature and loved bird watching. He was known to stop a conversation to note the appearance of a downy woodpecker at the bird feeder and could identify dozens of different warblers by their songs. Few things delighted him more than executing a perfect roll cast and gently dropping a popping bug in front of a hungry bream at Custis Pond.
Pop was a southern gentleman, in the finest sense of the term. He believed in manners, fairness, hard work, and respect for all people. He loved long meals, interesting conversation, mischief, and hearty laughter. He found love as a young man, and he and Eleanor enjoyed many loving years together raising children, traveling, and forging his career. After Eleanor’s passing, he met Jenny and shared a love affair that lasted the rest of his life. Jenny and Pop enjoyed fishing, traveling, golfing, and bird watching together, and she was his constant companion throughout his last years. Above all, he loved his family and delighted in his children and his nine “grandbabies.”
A service of remembrance will be held at St. James’s Episcopal Church on Tuesday, July 9 at 11:00 a.m. In lieu of flowers please consider a gift in memory of Read to the Robert Ford Haitian Orphanage and School (http://www.fordhaitianorphanage.org).