Patrick Lloyd Anders, MD, 87, of Peachtree City died April 15, 2014.
He was born in Tulsa, Okla., on April 11, 1927. When his father, Walter Lesesne Anders, MD, Sr. died, his mother Elizabeth James Anders, RN returned to Pennsylvania to raise her four children close to family. He graduated from Liberty High School in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in 1944, then attended summer school and one semester of college at East Stroudsburg.
He enlisted in the Cadet Corps of the US Merchant Marines and reported for plebe training at the US Merchant Marines Academy at Kings Point, N.Y. two days before his 18th birthday. He served from 1945-6 as midshipman on the Panama Victory, the Hamilton Victory, and the S.S. Dunham to the Philippines. The Panama Victory’s initial orders to invade Japan, deliver supplies, and beach ship fortunately were nullified by the war’s end. A floating mine in the China Sea sank the Hamilton Victory shortly after he transferred to the S.S. Dunham. Fortuitous timing also placed him in Times Square in New York City on V-J Day as the end of World War II was announced.
Dr. Anders received a BA in Biology in 1949 from Lehigh University, and an MD from the University of Rochester in Rochester, N.Y. in 1953. At Rochester, he met classmate Rebekah Yates, a graduate of Wesleyan College, of Macon, Ga. They were married March 22, 1951 and gave birth to the first of their six children, Patricia, on June 2, 1953, in between final exams and graduation from medical school. He completed an internship at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, Ga. in 1954, then served in the U.S. Navy from 1954-62, stationed in Key West, Fla. as physician for the USS Bushnell from 1954-6, completing a residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at St. Alban’s Naval Hospital on Long Island, N.Y. in 1959, then serving the Naval Hospital at Camp Lejeune, N.C. from 1960-2.
In 1962 Dr. Anders moved his family of eight to Atlanta to begin private practice in Obstetrics and Gynecology at South Fulton Hospital in East Point, Ga. He practiced there, with wife Rebekah Yates Anders, MD, until his retirement in 1993, delivering thousands of babies, serving as chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology from 1975-7, and as Chief of Staff. He was an active member of Ben Hill Baptist Church. He loved to garden, and raised a menagerie including goats, sheep, rabbits, ducks, geese and pheasants. He valued education, as manifested not only by providing college tuition for all six children, but by the “alphabet soup” of degrees obtained by his survivors. In 1972 he built a new family home and moved to Riverdale, Ga. He became an active member and deacon of New Hope Baptist Church in Fayetteville, Ga. For decades, he enjoyed gardening and could be seen most days riding his lawnmower to keep his acres of grass trimmed, working in his vegetable garden or rose beds, or picking blueberries from his prolific bushes. He helped found TLC2, a home for unwed mothers, and served as its president in the 1990s. In 2004 he and wife Rebekah moved to Peachtree City to live with son David L. Anders, M.D. and his family of seven, where he lived until moving to Southland Health and Rehabilitation in 2009 due to declining health.
His legacy includes a long list of loving survivors: his wife of 63 years, Rebekah Yates Anders, MD; six children: Patricia “Tricia” Yates Anders Jones, EdD; Elizabeth “Buffie” Anders DuPuis, MD and husband Mark H. DuPuis, MD; David Lloyd Anders, MD and wife Kenya Houghton Anders, MD; Janet Anders Banks, RN, BSN, and husband Abe Joseph Banks, MSA, MBA; Mark Alan Anders, MD, CPA, and wife Kris Creecy Anders, CPA, MTax; Timothy Wayne Anders, CPA and wife Michelle Müller Anders, MS.
He is also survived by twenty grandchildren and two great-grandchildren: Jennifer Jones Sharits, MA, CCC-SLP, and husband Andrew D. Sharits, Laura Elizabeth Jones, MDiv, Jordan David Jones, Christopher Anders DuPuis, CPA, Nicholas Anders DuPuis, JD, Rebekah Joan Anders, Lloyd Davidson Anders, Luke Nobel Anders, Rachel Elizabeth Anders, Lincoln James Anders, Caleb Joseph Banks, Rebekah Joyce Banks, Sara Kathryn Banks, Nathan Joseph Banks, Lisa Marie Williams and husband Bradley Scott Williams, Emily Joy Anders, John Patrick Anders, William Lloyd Anders, Hannah Alexandra Anders, RN, BSN, Katherine “Katie” Grace Anders, Natalie Lauren Sharits, Camden Andrew Sharits. He is preceded in death by his parents, Walter Lesesne Anders, MD, Sr. and Elizabeth Jane Anders, RN and by three siblings: Fannie Belle Anders Leader, Walter Lesesne Anders, MD, Jr., and James Edward Anders.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to: Georgia Baptist Children’s Homes and Family Ministries, P.O. Box 329, Palmetto, Georgia 30268 (www.gbchfm.org)
Funeral services will be held Saturday, April 19, 2014 at 1 p.m. at Carl J. Mowell & Son Funeral Home, 180 N. Jeff Davis Dr., Fayetteville, Ga. 30214. The family will receive friends from noon to 1 p.m. prior to services. Interment will follow at Forest Lawn Memorial Gardens in College Park, Ga. Grandsons will serve as pallbearers.
