Dr. Harry Waites Faulkner of Covington died July 12 at Atlanta Medical Center. He was born in 1923 in Covington as the youngest child of the late William Columbus and Martha Mae Rowe Faulkner. Harry (or "Suzie" as he was affectionately known by family and friends) graduated from Covington High School in 1941. He entered the U.S. Army in April of 1943 and served in the European Theater (65th Infantry Division, Third Army) from 1944 to 1946. In 1950, he received a Bachelor of Science from the University of Georgia, Athens, where he was elected to membership in the national honor societies Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi. He attended Princeton University Graduate School as a Rockefeller Scholar where he was elected to Sigma Xi, a national honorary research society. Dr. Faulkner graduated from the Medical College of Georgia in 1957. The next year he returned to Covington with his young family to establish a general practice of medicine. In 1960 Harry and his wife Jinx, through the auspices of the Newton County Heart Council, founded the Newton County Stroke Rehabilitation Educational Clinic as a pilot project for the Georgia Heart Association. This was the first rural rehabilitation center in the nation. By 1962, Dr. Faulkner had played a direct role in the organization of five of the seven existing stroke rehabilitation clinics in the state of Georgia. Dr. Faulkner served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Georgia Heart Association as well as the Board of Blue Cross-Blue Shield and also served on the board for the local chapter of the Red Cross. It was through his educational efforts throughout Newton County that the Red Cross blood program was reactivated in the area. He was a director of the Covington Kiwanis Club and a member of the staff of Newton County Hospital. In 1960, he and friend and medical college classmate Dr. Thomas Crews, formed a partnership for general practice in Covington. Two years later, Dr. Faulkner was offered the position of Regional Flight Surgeon for the Federal Aviation Administration, Southeastern Region, where he worked for the next 12 years. He and his family continued to reside in Covington where he served on the Vestry of the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd. Always an avid horticulturist, upon his retirement in 1974, Dr. Faulkner dedicated his time to the study and collection of endangered wildflowers and native azaleas. He amassed an extensive collection in his gardens on Flat Rock Trail, which have long been a source of beauty and joy to neighbors and friends every spring.
Dr. Faulkner is survived by his loving wife of 55 years Jean (Jinx) Kimbrough O’Neal Faulkner of Covington and daughter Laura Elizabeth Faulkner of Long Island, N.Y. He is also survived by nieces and nephews, Mary Gene Elliott of Oxford, Bill and Amelia Everitt and Polly and Charles Simpson of Atlanta, Hamp Vining of Augusta, William Faulkner IV of Albuquerque, N.M., Jim and Brenda Faulkner of Greenville, S.C., and Bob Faulkner of Hilton Head, S.C., along with numerous great-nieces and nephews. In addition to his parents and eight brothers and sisters, Dr. Faulkner was preceded in death by his son Harry Waites (Chip) Faulkner, Jr.
Funeral Services will be held at 11:30 a.m. today, July 16, at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd on Clark Street, with the Rev. Louly Hay and Father Timothy Graham officiating. The family will receive friends at a reception to be held in the Episcopal Parish Hall immediately following the service. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Medical College of Georgia Foundation, Cancer Center, Class of 1957 in Memory of Harry W. Faulkner, 919 15th Street, Room FI 1047, Augusta, Ga. 30912; or to Trees Covington, Inc., P.O. Box 22, Covington, Ga., 30015; or to the American Heart Association, Georgia Chapter, Suite 108-383, 1720 Epps Bridge Pkwy, Athens, Ga. 30606.
