Dr. Leon C. Hamrick, Sr., a tireless servant to his country, community, church, family, and to the medical profession and his patients, died September 7, 2014 at St. Vincent's Birmingham. He was 88.
At the time of his death, Dr. Hamrick was Chairman of Lloyd Noland Foundation. Since 1972, he had been at the helm of that Foundation, during decades when it was operating Lloyd Noland Hospital and Clinic and, in more recent years, as it became a leading provider of services for the elderly and chronically ill through Noland Health Services.
Dr. Hamrick was born in Ludville, Georgia, a small community nestled in the beautiful and remote wooded foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. He grew up living a happy but modest life with his parents and four siblings, in a home without running water and electricity, in a tiny community where the center of activity was the country general store operated by his grandfather, father, and two uncles.
With World War II raging, Leon Hamrick joined the U.S. Navy while still in his teens, embarking on service to his country as a Pharmacist Mate serving in the European and Pacific Theatres. On June 6, 1944 – the legendary D-Day that marked the mass landing of Allied forces in Normandy, France – 18-year-old Hamrick was helping to evacuate the wounded off the Normandy beachhead. Nine months later, in a harbor off the war-torn island of Okinawa, he was aboard a ship under fire, with enemy kamikaze suicide planes swarming above.
After the war he pursued higher education, including earning a medical degree from Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta. After an internship at Columbus City Hospital in Columbus, Georgia, he sought and was granted a residency in surgery at Lloyd Noland Hospital in Fairfield, Alabama. After he completed the residency, his decision to stay on as a surgeon at Lloyd Noland set the stage for his steady path of leadership that led to his becoming the hospital's Medical Director and head of the Lloyd Noland Foundation. In terms of his medical specialty, Dr. Leon Hamrick was a surgeon – a very skilled one.
In terms of how he addressed patient care, to his patients he was a surgeon, their family doctor, and their friend. It wasn't unusual for him to make house calls; there were Sunday mornings when Dr. Hamrick would go to the homes of a few patients to check on them just before he went to Sunday School and Church. The reverse was also true; there were times when Dr. Hamrick would invite patients to drop by his own home when he was supposedly off duty, so that he could dispense what he called "kitchen table treatment" – handing out a few pills to address an upper respiratory infection, or maybe even suturing up a minor cut. An avid gardener, Leon Hamrick also treated many of his patients to fresh vegetables from his garden.
The medical reach of Dr. Hamrick extended far beyond his own medical practice and far beyond the walls of the hospital where he practiced. He taught over one hundred young surgery physicians during his long tenure with the Lloyd Noland Hospital surgical training program and later as Clinical Professor, Department of Surgery, University of Alabama, School of Medicine. A leader in Alabama public health and organized medicine, he served as Chairman of the State Committee on Public Health that was overseeing the state's public health programs, Chairman of the policy-making Board of Censors for the Medical Association of the State of Alabama, Chairman of the State Medical Licensure Commission, and a founding Director of Mutual Assurance Society of Alabama – now ProAssurance, a medical malpractice insurance provider. Among the many honors he received was being inducted into the Alabama Healthcare Hall of Fame.
From the time he was growing up in Talking Rock, Georgia, Leon Hamrick was a devout Christian and a member of the Methodist Church. Just as he was a leader in the medical profession, he also became a leader in his church. He became Lay leader of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church. He served on the board that governed operations of overseas mission work for the entire United Methodist Church around the globe – the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church. He was a member of the World Methodist Council. His home church was Canterbury United Methodist in Mountain Brook. Leon Hamrick was a church leader in the same mode that he was a physician leader; his style was low-key but strong, quiet but decisive; he was one who through his own example was able to lead others in healing wounds, mending bridges, and ministering to others. There were occasions when he honored requests to deliver messages to church audiences both large and small, sometimes verbally and sometimes in written form. In a 1985 Easter message published in the Christian Advocate, Dr. Leon Hamrick wrote, "If we would but commit ourselves totally into His hands, what a difference we could make in the church and what a difference we would make in our suffering world."
The life of Dr. Leon Columbus Hamrick, Sr., will be celebrated at Canterbury United Methodist Church with visitation in the Church Parlor from 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. followed by the memorial service in the Sanctuary at 11:00 a.m.
Dr. Hamrick deeply loved his family. He beloved wife of 57 years, Frances "Bunny" Brannan Hamrick, died in 2006. He is survived by five children including Dr. Leon C. Hamrick, Jr., Martha Hamrick Boshers (Russell), Mary Hamrick Bostock, Catherine Anne Hamrick, and Peggy Hamrick (Greg Bass), ten grandchildren, one great-grandchild, his sister, Bonnie Ray, and a host of treasured nieces and nephews.
The family suggests that in lieu of flowers that donations in Dr. Hamrick's memory be made to any of the purposes and programs at Canterbury United Methodist Church, 350 Overbrook Road, Birmingham, Alabama 35213-0699
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