John Rhodes Haverty MD

Dr. John Rhodes Haverty passed away at age 87 on January 24, 2014. He was born in Atlanta, a fourth generation native Atlantan. His early education was in Atlanta and Greenville, S.C. He graduated from Baylor Military School in Chattanooga in 1943 and went on to attend Princeton University, serve in the U. S. Navy for 2 years, and then return to Princeton where he graduated in 1948. In 1953, Rhodes graduated from The Medical College of Georgia and then interned at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. He then spent two years as a Pediatric Resident at St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia and then charge resident in Pediatrics at Grady Memorial Hospital from 1956-1957.

Following his training, he entered the private practice of pediatrics until 1968 when he was appointed the first Dean of the new School of Health Sciences at Georgia State University where he served until his retirement in 1991. He was a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, an Associate Faculty Member in Pediatrics at Emory University Medical School, and Associate Head of Pediatrics at Crawford Long Hospital and President of the Medical Association of Georgia. He was also a member of the Fulton County Medical Society (now the Medical Association of Atlanta), the American Medical Association and the Atlanta Clinical Society. While at Georgia State, he was involved with the field of accreditation, serving the Board and Executive Committee of the Southern Association of College and Schools. He was later a member of the Board of the Council on Postsecondary Accreditation and the American Medical Association’s Committee on Allied Health Education and Accreditation, serving as its chairman in 1982. He was a member of the National Board of The Association of Schools of Allied Health Profession, serving as its President in 1974. He served for eight years on the National Board of Medical Examiners and was active in many of the Allied Healthy fields, among which was the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants where he was President from 1976-1978. He was honored by becoming a Distinguished Lecturer and Clinical Professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo, a Wear Fellow at Wichita State University and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Health Sciences and Services in 2004. He served on the Atlanta Red Cross Board, most recently as an Honorary Member, since 1969. He was a member of the Board of the Georgia Health Foundation since its inception, a member and President of the Board of the Village of St. Joseph, a member of the Atlanta Rotary Club for over 40 years, a member of the Board of Directors of Haverty Furniture Companies, Inc., a member of the Board of Trinity School and a member and chairman of various committees to accredit educational programs in colleges and universities across the United States.

He is predeceased by his daughter, Kathleen Amanda Haverty, and leaves behind his wife, Elice Dittler Haverty, his daughter, Lisa Frances Haverty Withers and husband James, his son, John Rhodes Haverty, III,and his wife Wendy, his grandson, Michael Joseph Haverty and his wife Kristin, and his great-grandson, August Jackson Haverty, all of Atlanta. His step son John Dittler Shlesinger and his wife Sara and their children Abby and Michael, and his brother Martin Dodenhoff

Visitation will be on Friday, January 31, 2014, from 11:30 until 2 o’clock at The Piedmont Driving Club, 1215 Piedmont Avenue, N.E., Atlanta, GA 30309.