In Memoriam
Ernest Perry Buxton III, M.D.
Ernest Buxton
Bucky Buxton
1963 graduation
From the Daily Press;
NEWPORT NEWS - Ernest Perry Buxton, III M.D. died March 15, 2015, age 73, in Newport News, Virginia of pancreatic cancer. He was born September 12, 1941, in Richmond, Virginia, son of the late Dr. Ernest Perry Buxton, Jr. and the late Anna Heath Williams Buxton, both of Richmond.
He was predeceased by his sister Jane Buxton Paddock. Dr. Buxton graduated from St. Christopher's Episcopal School in Richmond, Yale University, and the University of Virginia School of Medicine. He did postgraduate medical training at Vanderbilt University, University of North Carolina, and Duke University medical centers. He was proud to have brought the subspecialty of Gastroenterology to Newport News and started the gastrointestinal laboratory at Riverside Hospital in 1974.
With Dr. John R. Stephens he founded Peninsula Gastroenterology in 1976 and practiced his subspecialty in Newport News until his retirement in 2007. He survived and recovered considerably from a serious cervical spine injury in 2011. In addition to numerous medical organizations, he was a member of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church and the Warwick Rotary Club, and served on the Board of Directors of the Peninsula Fine Arts Center.
Besides his devotion to his family, other interests included international travel, golf (especially with G.G. and with his grandson, Trip Gilmore), studying history and science, and classical music, especially opera. He is survived by his wife of 50 years, Georgia (G.G.) Saunders Buxton, of Newport News, his daughters Georgia Saunders Buxton Barnes and her husband Larry of Raleigh, NC, Elizabeth Buxton Qualls and her husband Todd of Cary, NC, and Courtnay Buxton Gilmore and her husband Spencer of Newport News, his grandchildren Georgia Shepard Barnes, Anne Lassiter Barnes, John Spencer Gilmore, III, Carter Buxton Gilmore, Elliott Buxton Qualls, and step-grandson Joshua Thomas Qualls. He is also survived by his sister Anna (Anne) Buxton Blabey and her husband Richard of Cooperstown, NY, and their children Tom Blabey, Margaret Young and Anna Smith, and by his late sister Jane's children, Virginia Shaw and Guy Paddock. Memorial gifts, if desired, may be made to St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Warwick Rotary Club, Peninsula Fine Arts Center, the Golf Museum at James River Country Club or the Mariners' Museum.
Published in the Daily Press on Mar. 17, 2015
from Steve Wilson:
Bucky was a wonderfully kind and trusting individual. His patients and friends could not say enough nice things about him. While others accomplished their achievements with ambition and taking command, Bucky led with a soft, courteous and caring disposition. His wife of almost 50 years was the light of his life. He dealt with some awful adversity and always smiled his way through it. As an example, he fell when getting out of bed for a bathroom visit and broke his neck rendering himself paraplegic. Through considerable will power he completed an extensive rehabilitation to return to playing golf. Just as he was getting to enjoy retirement without a visit to the rehab clinic, he was struck with this horrible, quickly terminal cancer of the pancreas.
Steven K. Wilson, MD, FACS, FRCS
Editor-In-Chief ISSM Video Journal of Prosthetic Urology
from Bob Barker:
A few days ago Ron Allison honored me by asking me to write a note in honor of Bucky Buxton. I feel inadequate for the job but here goes: Bucky was, as am I, a gastroenterologist, who appears to have suffered the misfortune of beating me to the finish line by dying of pancreatic cancer. Of the eight of us who inhabited the double quads at Silliman, Dan Aron appears to have come in first.
As you may know, Dan was also a physician. In addition to Bucky, Dan, and me, Steve Wilson and Ron Allison also went into medicine. Somehow I feel that this does not bode well for us surviving M.D.s. Bucky was not just a 'Southern gentleman,' but a gentleman in the best sense of the word. He maintained a modest, quiet, unassuming, and gentle demeanor . His attire was always appropriate, as was his language.
The love and respect with which he was beheld by his family is reflected in letters sent by his daughter to keep us apprised of the course of his illness, and suggest that the kindness and consideration for others which he exhibited in public, were practiced at home as well. We will all miss him.