John L Currie

john currie

John Lauchlin Currie II

October 14, 1942 – April 22, 2015

 

Surrounded by his five children, Dr. John L. Currie passed into the arms of his Lord on April 22, 2015 at St. Joseph’s in Asheville, NC after a long illness.

 

Dr. Currie was born October 14, 1942, the fifth child of Wilbur Hoke Currie and Elizabeth Louisa Woltz Currie of Carthage NC.  He was baptized as an infant and was a member of the Carthage Presbyterian Church.  He graduated from Christ School in Arden, NC in 1960.  While at Christ School Dr. Currie was head prefect as a senior, earned letters in football, basketball and baseball and was named as the most outstanding senior athlete in 1960. He was awarded the Morehead Scholarship and matriculated to the University of North Carolina where he pledged Beta Theta Pi.  At Carolina he completed his undergraduate studies in 1963 and his MD in 1967.  After his internship and residency at the University of Pennsylvania, he served in the United States Air Force for two years before returning to join Chapel Hill OB-GYN. Later he completed a fellowship in gynecologic oncology at Duke, and then joined the medical faculty at UNC-CH.  In 1987 Dr. Currie became Chief of the Division of GYN-Oncology at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, and later was named Chairman of the Department of OB-GYN at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical School in New Hampshire.  He served academic and surgical appointments at the University of Connecticut, Vanderbilt and finished his medical career by establishing a GYN-Oncology practice at the John B. Amos Cancer Center in Columbus, GA.

 

In 2001 Dr. Currie graduated from Vermont Law School and was entered into the state of New Hampshire Bar.

 

Dr. Currie was married twice, first on June 8, 1967 to Madeline Dell Gray in Charlotte.   Their children John Angus Lauchlin and Lauren Elizabeth were born in 1971 and 1974, respectively.

 

On March 17, 1985 Dr. Currie married Terre Pauline Holden in Chapel Hill.  Their children Caroline Rebecca-McIver, Katharine Holden and Wilbur Douglas Woltz were born in 1986, 1987 and 1989, respectively.

 

Dr. Currie lived a life full of family, friends, service, music, art, carpentry, Montreat, skiing and travel.  From an early age and throughout his life he found great joy in music.  Among his many bands were The Harmony Grits, Piney Mountain Boys and Jim McCoy Trio in Chapel Hill, the Fogey Mountain Boys in New Hampshire, Tarnished Brass in Montreat and Berry Pickers in Asheville.  For several years he was organist at Lebanon (NH) United Methodist Church.  In Montreat he wrote and direct four summer musicals beginning with “Little Stranger How Do You Do” in 1961 and culminating with “Rock, Roll & Pray, Montreat” in 2014.

 

He was preceded in death by his parents, stepmother Margaret Willcox Currie, his Aunt Mary Lynn Currie and eldest sister Mary Elizabeth Currie Shoenfelt.

 

He survived by his son and daughter in law John (Gus) and Mary Lawrence Currie of Manhattan, KS, daughter and son-in-law, Lauren and Will Uppington of Hillsborough, CA, daughter Caroline Currie and fiancé Suzanne Edman of Palo Alto, CA, daughter KC Currie and fiancé Lena Charron of Jamaica Plain, MA, and son Wilbur Currie and girlfriend Taylor Heist of Montreat, NC, grandchildren Jack, Virginia and Mary-Dell Currie and Lizzie, Lauchlin and Charlie Uppington, his sisters Katharine Currie Neil, Ann Currie McCullough, Dr. Ruth Douglas Currie and Lynn Currie Wallace, and brothers Rev. Thomas Willcox Currie and Wilbur Hoke Currie, Jr as well as legions of beloved nephews, nieces, cousins and friends.

 

The family wishes to thank the wonderful nurses and care givers of the St. Joseph’s ICU and his niece Lynn Gilliland for their faithful stewardship of Dr. Currie in his last days on earth.

 

A Celebration of Life will be held at Gaither Chapel in Montreat on Saturday, April 25, 2015 at 3:00 PM with a reception to follow.  On Sunday afternoon at 2:00 PM there will be a graveside service at Cross Hill Cemetery in Carthage.

 

In lieu of flowers memorials may be made to the Wilbur Hoke Currie Craft Center Endowment Fund of the Mountain Retreat Association, PO Box 969, Montreat, NC 28757.

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  1. Our hearts are full of sorrow, missing our fabulous friend JohnL. Life will not be the same without him. Don’t think we can sing ‘Mountain Dew’ with a dry eye ever again. We knew JohnL would want us to pay it all forward…we will, but we’re gonna miss th

  2. John was an unforgetable and much-loved presence. He excelled in everything he did and he enriched the lives of others by being present in theirs. Jan and I express our most sincere condolences to all his family, especially Gus who was a friend and classm


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