Dr. James Freemont had a thirst for knowledge. He wanted to know as much as he could about one thing or another, a quest which sent him back to school when many his age would be angling towards retirement.
The year he turned 65, Freemont earned a masters’ degree in health administration from the University of Phoenix. The following year he completed the California-based Helms Medical Institute’s program on medical acupuncture for physicians.
“Neither of those were things he needed to do,” said Jonathan Freemont, of Atlanta, his youngest son. “But they were things he wanted to do. He wanted to expand his thinking. He loved learning.”
The elder Freemont also loved his career as an OB/GYN, the majority of which was spent delivering babies at the former South Fulton Medical Center. His family said the doctor delivered more than 7,500 babies during his 39 year career.
Freemont’s eldest son, and namesake, James M. Freemont Jr., said his father delivered his last baby at the end of March, the day before he went into the hospital.
“He wanted to work until the day he died, and he did just that,” said Erma Raye Freemont, his wife of 47 years. “He worked on Friday, and passed on Saturday.”
James McKinley Freemont Sr., of Douglasville, died at home from cardiac complications. He was 70. A funeral was held Thursday at Cascade United Methodist Church. Murray Brothers, Cascade Chapel, was in charge of arrangements.
At the time of his death, Freemont was chair of the Atlanta Medical Center, South Campus medical staff advisory committee. He was also a member of the Atlanta Medical Center execitive committee, and a key figure in the consolidation of Atlanta Medical Center and South Fulton Medical Center, according to a hospital spokeswoman. Freemont was the chief of medical staff at the former South Fulton Medical Center from 2008 until the merger.
With plans of becoming a bacteriologist, Freemont majored in the field during his undergraduate studies at Southern University, in Baton Rouge, La. It wasn’t until he’d been discharged from the Army, after two years of service, and worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for a year, that medical school appeared on his radar, his wife said.
“I believe he planned to continue working at the CDC, until somebody mentioned that he should consider medical school,” she said. “So he went right on over to Emory.”
Freemont, a native of Monroe, La., graduated from Emory University’s medical school in 1973 and completed his residency at Grady in 1974. It was then that Freemont met Dr. M. George Hood at then-South Fulton Medical Center.
“He was my best buddy,” Hood said. “He was very carefree and could make fun, or light humor, out of a number of things. Overall, he was a tremendous fellow.”
Freemont served in leadership positions, was on numerous committees and held memberships in several medical-related organizations, including local, state and national medical associations. But if anybody asked Freemont about himself, those things would be the last he’d mention, if he mentioned them at all, said his eldest son, who also lives in Douglasville.
“Through all that he accomplished in life, he remained a grounded person,” James Freemont Jr., said of his father. “He was a good person, good friend, good father, good husband, first. He was a man with an extraordinary sense of humor, who also spent a lot of time in prayer and meditation. For him, all of his accolades came second.”
In addition to his wife, and two sons, Freemont is survived by his daughter, Joi Freemont of Douglasville; sister, Vernetta Freemont-Johnson of Dallas, Texas; brothers Billy Freemont of Houston, Texas, Frankie Freemont of Atlanta and Hamid Freemont of Chicago, Ill.; and one grandson.
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