Earl Haltiwanger, 82, doctor, big-band player

Earl Haltiwanger put away his alto sax and clarinet when he enrolled in the Duke University Medical School. After the Atlanta doctor retired, he unpacked the instruments, practiced and paid for lessons to get his chops back.

“He spent a lot of time with his music,” said his wife of 19 years, Anne Montgomery Haltiwanger. Eventually, Mr. Haltiwanger was invited to sit in with a local band called the Sounds of Swing. The group’s forte was swing and big-band music — the likes of Tommy Dorsey and Duke Ellington. When the ensemble’s leader retired, Mr. Haltiwanger stepped in as manager.

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Earl Haltiwanger and his wife Anne Montgomery Haltiwanger played together in the New Horizon Band after his retirement from the Emory University School of Medicine.

“They liked to play at events where people could dance,” his wife said. “They played at Georgia Tech dances, for weddings and retirement towers like ours.”

Earl Haltiwanger, 82, of Atlanta died Saturday from a massive hemorrhage at Piedmont Hospital. A memorial service will be 2 p.m. Tuesday at First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta. H.M. Patterson & Son is in charge of arrangements.

Mr. Haltiwanger briefly attended The Citadel before enlisting in the Navy during World War II. After an honorable discharge, he went to Emory University and then Duke, where he earned a medical degree and completed post-graduate training in urology. In 1957, he was hired as the Veterans Affairs Hospital’s urology chief and as associate professor of surgery with the Emory School of Medicine.

Retirement from Emory in 1986 rekindled Mr. Haltiwanger’s passion for music, particularly the sounds of big band and swing. Mr. Haltiwanger served as a mentor to Diane Herring of Chamblee, a local saxophonist who auditioned for the Sounds of Swing while he was manager.

“I’ve been playing in big bands ever since,” said Ms. Herring, a member of the Usual Suspects, an 18-piece ensemble. “He’s helped me every step of the way.”

Besides the Sounds of Swing, Mr. Haltiwanger played in the New Horizon Band with his wife, a clarinetist.

Mr. Haltiwanger had been active with the Army Reserve medical unit and retired in the mid-1970s as a colonel and commanding officer of a field hospital. A philanthropist, he helped create three endowments at the College of Family and Consumer Sciences at the University of Georgia, said Katrina Bowers, the college’s director of development.

“He invested in the total academic picture — the graduates, undergraduates and the faculty,” she said.

Additional survivors include two stepsons, Gary Pardue of Lawrenceville and David Pardue of Dawsonville; and four grandchildren.