Long-time North Carolina Medical Society (NCMS) member, and past president (1997-98) Charles L. Garrett Jr., MD passed away Tuesday, Nov. 10. Dr. Garrett is remembered for his leadership and dedication to the NCMS as well as the professionalism and compassion he brought to his position as Onslow County Medical Examiner.
An NCMS member since 1976, Dr. Garrett served on the Legislative Cabinet and the MEDPAC Board as well as serving as NCMS President. He also was active in the NCMS Foundation, serving as a trustee.
According to his younger brother, Brown Garrett, Dr. Garrett had a lifelong love of medicine. He attended the Medical University of South Carolina, worked for the Dade County Medical Examiner’s Office in Florida and the Richland Memorial Hospital in Columbia, S.C. before moving to Onslow County in 1975 to take the medical county examiner position, which he held for more than 30 years. He also served as the state’s southeastern regional medical examiner and helped build the practice of the pathology group that contracts with Onslow Memorial Hospital to provide pathology services and conducts autopsies for a 9-county region.
In an obituary in his hometown paper, the Jacksonville Daily News, Dr. Garrett’s daughter, Edie Garrett Platt said her father “touched so many lives and helped give so many lives closure. He was a gentle, kind, loving man and that’s how he should be remembered.”
We extend our sympathies to Dr. Garrett’s family.