Andrew Dickerson

Waynesville-Dr. Andrew Jackson Dickerson, II died on December 31, 2007 at his residence. Born in 1922 in Louisville, KY, his parents were the late N.K. Dickerson, Sr. and Clara M. Dickerson of Monroe, NC. At age 17 he worked for a year at the Charlotte News as a photographer and was the official sports and yearbook photographer at Wake Forest College. He later developed a busy commercial photography studio in Monroe, NC where he contracted aerial and military photography for the War Department. He joined the US Army in 1943 and was sent to Rutgers University in New Jersey and Tufts Medical School of Boston. After WWII, he transferred to Bowman Gray School of Medicine in Winston-Salem for completion of medical school, internship, and surgical residency. He served as anatomy instructor at Bowman Gray School of Medicine and volunteered as a surgeon at Ft. Bragg during the Korean War. He completed his surgical residency in June 1955 and moved to Waynesville in July 1955 as the first board-certified surgical specialist in the area. He pioneered in initiating open-chest surgery, major cancer surgery, bronchoscopy, colonoscopy, and introduced modern surgical techniques into the local hospital. He was a member of Haywood County Medical Society, AMA, NC Medical Society, Diplomat of American Board of Surgery, Fellow of SE Surgical Congress and Norfolk-Southern Railroad Physicians. He received many honors including: Chief of Hospital Staff, Chief of Surgery, State President of American College of Surgeons, President of Norfolk Southern Railroad Physicians, Chairman of NC Medical Society Insurance Review Committee, President of Waynesville Rotary Club and member of 30 Club, Waynesville Industrial Committee, and also served on the Daniel Boone Boy Scout Council. He published articles and photos in many college newspapers and medical journals including the Journal of American Medical Association, Medical Economics, and Rotary International and was a member of First Baptist Church of Waynesville. Having celebrated their 67th wedding anniversary in August 2007, he is survived by his wife, Gwen McCorkle Dickerson. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his four children, Beverly Dickerson and husband, Ronald Segal, of Oakton, VA, Margaret Dickerson and husband, Douglas Fox, of Greenwood Village, CO, Paul Dickerson of Mauldin, SC, and Mark Dickerson and wife, Vickie, of Hamilton, MT; and five grandchildren, Lauren O'Neal of Cambridge, MA, Lt. Alexander Dickerson Fox of Fort Rucker, AL, Andrew J. Dickerson III of Helena, MT, and Elliot N. and Kate Dickerson, both of Mauldin, SC. A memorial service will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 12, 2008 in the sanctuary of First Baptist Church of Waynesville. The family will receive guests in the church chapel after the service. The family has suggested that in lieu of flowers, memorials be made to the Dickerson Infirmary at Wingate University, P.O. Box 159, Wingate, NC 28174, First Baptist Church of Waynesville Building Fund, P.O. Box 690, Waynesville, NC 28786 or Haywood Regional Medical Center Hospice, 560 Leroy George Drive, Clyde, NC 28721.

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