John Rutherfoord Handy MD

John R. Handy MD died quietly September 5, 2024, in Augusta Georgia, at the age of 93. During the last years of his life, he was very well cared for by the team at Harrington Park Health and Rehab. His wife and daughters shone in their devotion during his last years. 

John Handy married Mary Helen Musser in 1955 after dating throughout high school and college. Their 69 years of marriage created 4 children, 7 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren. He was a widely read intellect, a wit, seeker, iconoclast, contrarian, even curmudgeon. He was honest to a fault, not afraid to state the difficult-to-hear. 

He was born and raised, with 9 siblings, in Richmond Virginia, during the Great Depression and World War II. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in biology from the Virginia Military Institute in 1954 and received his medical degree from Duke University School of Medicine in 1958. He did his internship and residency in Medicine at the University of Michigan, finishing with a fellowship in rheumatology at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville in 1962. He served 1962 thorough 1964 as Captain in the US Army Medical Corps as Chief of Cellular Physiology at the USA Medical Research & Nutrition Lab in Denver Colorado, where he performed early work in the identification of parathyroid hormone using the newly invented tool of radioisotopes. 

Dr. Handy joined the Department of Medicine faculty at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond from 1964 through 1967, and subsequently, the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta in 1967. He opened an Internal Medicine and Rheumatology private practice in 1969, practicing medicine in Augusta for 35 years, until retiring in 2004. He remained an Associate Clinical Professor at the Medical College of Georgia from 1969, and in 2002, became a Clinical Professor of Medicine. He was a lifelong learner, continuing to attend and participate in medical conferences and journal club long into his retirement.

Dr. Handy’s devotion to medicine was on full display at the start of the AIDS epidemic, when mode of transmission of this new, deadly disease was not known, accompanied by great fear and avoidance in the medical community. He was one of the first and only physicians caring for people with AIDS. His social consciousness was illustrated by his early membership and participation in Physicians for Social Responsibility, actively protesting the 20th Century possibility of nuclear war. 

When in his 40’s and 50’s, John Handy loved the South Carolina beach and ocean fishing. In his 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, he raised cattle solo. He was generous, socially and financially contributing to the raising and education of nephews and nieces from families less fortunate than his and giving his time to leading Boy Scout troops. He was one of a kind, with an impact on most who met him or were fortunate enough to love him.