Gerald "Jerry" Ray Sutterfield, 88, sailing was his passion

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By Michelle E. Shaw

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Dr. Jerry Sutterfield had a way of smiling that let his family know he was having a good time. It was a smile that covered his whole face, and crept into his eyes.

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Special Dr. Jerry Sutterfield practiced medicine in the Atlanta area for more than 30 years.

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This smile was most often seen while Dr. Sutterfield was engaged in one of his favorite pastimes: Sailing.

“One of our favorite pictures of him was taken while he was on his boat and he’s just got this huge smile,” said his son Meade Sutterfield of Atlanta. “And it looks like an ad for Coke, but he’d just taken a sip and he turned around with this smile and the can was right next to his face. But you can tell from his smile, he’s enjoying himself.”

Gerald Ray Sutterfield, known as Jerry by all, of Roswell, died Saturday at home of natural causes, his son said. He was 88. A funeral service is planned for 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Sandy Springs Chapel funeral home, which is also in charge of arrangements.

Dr. Sutterfield grew up in Leslie, Ark., and served in the Navy during World War II. During his time in the military he attended medical school and earned his medical degree by the time he was 22, his family said. A year later, in 1947, Dr. Sutterfield married Mary Arden Tucker, and the couple eventually had three sons.

After completing his service, he finished his residency in Atlanta at Crawford Long. In 1955, Dr. Sutterfield began practicing obstetrics and gynecology at Piedmont Hospital, where was later promoted to chief of obstetrics. He retired in 1978, shortly after his wife died, and took up sailing big boats, his son said.

In 1982, Dr. Sutterfield married Carol Gibson, who he’d met years earlier at Piedmont Hospital's labor and delivery department.

“I was the head nurse,” she said. “And in 1982 he convinced me to leave my role in labor and delivery and become his seeing-eye mate.”

Mrs. Sutterfield said her husband’s eyesight was failing, and he wanted her to help him experience the world. The couple split time between their home in the Atlanta area and a second home in Florida where they had a 42-foot sail boat, The Serendip.

While sailing was likely his favorite hobby, there were several other ways Dr. Sutterfield spent his retirement years, his wife said. His love for flowers led him to plant 60 different rose bushes in the backyard of their first home. He also built furniture, taught himself to play the keyboard and building computers.

But this didn’t just start after he retired from medicine, his son said. When his sons were teenagers, he bought each of them an older model car and helped them restore it.

“I was 14 when he bought a Morris Minor Woody station wagon,” said Mr. Sutterfield. “He told me if we could get it running by the time I was 16, it would be mine to drive. We got it running before I was 15.”

Mr. Sutterfield said that was one of the ways his father taught his sons, and spent quality time with them. Dr. Sutterfield’s tinkering with everything from cars to televisions helped influence his son’s career choices, as all three of them are engineers, Mr. Sutterfield said.

“He was a very bright man,” his son said. “He was always very restless and ambitious, and wanted to do things. He could not just sit around.”

Dr. Sutterfield is also survived by his sons Stephen Tucker Sutterfield of Jacksonville, Fla., and James Arden Sutterfield of Atlanta; seven grandchildren; and six great grandchildren.