Dr. Earle L. Wrenn Jr.

Dr. Earle Lewis Wrenn, Jr., a resident of the Well Spring Retirement Community, died on November 6, 2014, at the age of ninety. He was born in Olive Branch, Mississippi, on September 19, 1924, the son of the late Earle Lewis Wrenn and Linnie Mae Wilkins Wrenn.

Dr. Wrenn is survived by his wife of fifty-eight years, Lynette Boney Wrenn, their children, Dr. Edward H. Wrenn of Pittsburgh, PA (Lynda), Dr. John J. Wrenn of Greensboro (Cathy) and Claire Wrenn Bobrow of San Francisco, CA (Jared), seven grandchildren, Kristen, Patrick and Graham Wrenn, Nate and Callie Wrenn, Juliette and Lewis Bobrow, two step-grandchilden, Jake and Alex Stockman and his sister, Mrs. Martha Dorroh of Caruthersville, MO. His namesake and youngest son, Earle Lewis Wrenn III, died in 1978. He was lost but not forgotten.

Dr. Wrenn graduated from Ruleville, MS High School, Sunflower Junior College, the University of Mississippi and the Johns Hopkins Medical School where he received his MD degree. His postgraduate medical training in surgery was at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, Grady Memorial Hospital (Emory Medical School) in Atlanta and Ohio State University Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. He received further training in Pediatric Surgery at the Children’s Hospital in Columbus, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Children’s Hospital of Boston where he served as Chief Surgical Resident and instructor in Surgery for the Harvard Medical School.

While in medical school he was in the Navy V 12 program. From 1949 to 1951 he served on active duty in the Army Medical Corps.

In 1956 Dr. Wrenn established his practice in Pediatric Surgery in Memphis, TN where he served on the clinical faculty of the University of Tennessee School of Medicine, reaching the rank of Clinical Professor of Surgery. He also worked with the newly established St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital as their first attending surgeon.

He was a member of numerous organizations: Sigma Chi Fraternity, Phi Chi Medical Fraternity, Memphis and Shelby County Medical Society, American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Pediatric Surgical Association, British Association of Pediatric Surgeons, American College of Surgeons and was a founding member of the Lilliputian Surgical Society.

After retiring from practice he and his wife moved to Greensboro, NC, where they are members of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Greensboro.

The family requests that any memorials be sent to the Well Spring Retirement Community Benevolent Fund, the Greensboro Urban Ministry, the Unitarian-Universalist Church of Greensboro or a charity of the donor’s choice.

There will be a Memorial Service at 11 a.m. on Saturday, November 15, 2014 at Well Spring Retirement Community. The family will receive friends following the service.

Online condolences may be made to www.haneslineberryfuneralhomes.com.