Dr. John Shelton Reed

John Shelton Reed, 95, of Kingsport, died Sunday, May 2, 2010, at Wellmont Holston Valley Medical Center in Kingsport, TN, after an extended illness.

Shelton Reed was the son of Hattie Elizabeth Vanover and William Henry Reed. Born in Clintwood, VA, in 1915, he moved to Kingsport with his parents in 1918, and was graduated from Dobyns-Bennett High School in 1933. George Eastman arranged for a scholarship for him to the University of Rochester, where he was invited to join Phi Beta Kappa in his junior year. He was graduated cum laude with a BA degree, and then received a medical degree from Harvard University.

In 1940 he married Alice Margaret Greene of Rochester, NY. They lived in New York City for four years while he performed his internship and residency at the Roosevelt Hospital. During World War II he was a convoy surgeon with the British Merchant Marines, escorting Liberty Ships across the North Atlantic. He later worked with a hospital unit and in field hospitals in England and France, returning to Washington, D. C., to serve as chief of surgery at the Soldiers' Home. In 1947, he moved his family back to Kingsport, where he practiced for nearly forty years as a general surgeon, establishing the group practice Surgical Associates prior to his retirement in 1985.

Dr. Reed participated on various boards and committees on behalf of Holston Valley Community Hospital. He served on the board of directors for the First American National Bank. He was a clinical professor and a member of the admissions committee for the James H. Quillen College of Medicine at East Tennessee State University, and was on the investment committee for the ETSU Foundation. He established the Reed Chair of Surgery at ETSU in honor of his father, one of Kingsport's early surgeons.

For over sixty years Dr. Reed was a parishioner of St. Paul's Episcopal Church. A great lover of music, he was the Tennessee state champion piccolo player while at Dobyns-Bennett, and he later served as a director of the symphony orchestra board.

An enthusiastic athlete, Dr. Reed played football, basketball, and golf at Dobyns-Bennett and in college. In his later years he especially enjoyed golf and tennis, and he snow skied until age 80, being an honorary member of the Beech Mountain Ski Patrol.

Dr. Reed is survived by his children and their spouses, John and Dale Reed, of Chapel Hill, NC, Lisa Alther, of Burlington, VT, William and Cici Reed, of Weavervile, NC, Michael and Kathy Reed, of Kingsport, and Jane and Greg Shaw, of Charlottesville, VA; seven grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

The family will receive friends 5-7:00 p.m. Thursday at Hamlett-Dobson Funeral Homes, Kingsport.

A memorial service will be conducted at 2:30 p.m. Friday May 7, 2010 at St. Paul's Episcopal Church with The Rev. Edward James Mills, III and The Rev. Ed Osborne officiating.

The family would like to express a special thanks to the following people for their loving care of Dr. Reed: Dr. Lesley Jones, his wonder physician; Dr. Bob Jones, his loyal friend of more than seventy years; and his long-time caregivers, Nina White, Roger Murphy, Manuel Aldana, and the staffs of Asbury Place, Wellmont Hospice, and Comfort Keepers.

In lieu of flowers the family asks that friends send contributions to Doctors Without Borders, P. O. Box 5030, Hagerstown, MD 21741, or to St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 161 East Ravine Road, Kingsport, TN 37660.