Robert Tucker Jr. was a family doctor who really did make house calls.
He delivered babies, treated measles and mumps and performed general surgeries. He had a cellphone installed in his car when the devices were uncommon, said his daughter, Suzanne Tucker Plybon of Atlanta.
"I can remember him in the middle of the night literally running down the hallway to go out and deliver a baby," she said. "He was very devoted to his patients, and he loved it."
Dr. Tucker grew up fatherless and poor in Charleston, S.C. He excelled in the classroom and won scholarships to attend Columbia University. He graduated in three years with honors in organic chemistry. He then received scholarships to attended Harvard University Medical School, where he graduated cum laude in 1938. To help pay expenses, he worked in the cafeteria, where he was allowed to eat one free meal a day. It's a routine that stuck with the doctor throughout his life.
"As an adult, he was very disciplined," his daughter said. "He only ate dinner."
Dr. Robert Pinckney Tucker Jr., 94, of Atlanta died April 27 from complications of Parkinson's disease at Ashton Woods in Atlanta. A private service will be held at a later date in Flat Rock, N.C.
Dr. Tucker spent his residencies at Massachusetts General and other Boston-area hospitals. During World War II, he was recruited by the Army for his knowledge of tropical diseases. He spent two years in Africa as a physician with the Army. He served as a flight surgeon for Pan American Airways-Africa Ltd., which created air supply routes to support Allied campaigns in Africa and Europe. While with the airline, he also helped establish hospitals in equatorial Africa, said his son Dr. Robert Tucker III of Atlanta.
"He was unique and varied and saw many parts of the world," his son said. "He saw parts of the world most of us will never have the chance to see and experienced things most of us will never have the chance to experience. He was a self-made man and my wisest teacher."
In the mid-1940s, Dr. Tucker moved to Atlanta and set up a medical practice on Ware Avenue in downtown East Point. The general practitioner chose the area because he wanted to treat workers at the cotton and fertilizer mills. His office stayed open 24 hours a day.
Dr. Tucker developed a reputation for the care and treatment of airline pilots. He was certified with the Federal Aviation Administration to give pilot aeromedical examinations. He served on the governing board for Woodward Academy and the trustees board for South Fulton Hospital. He retired from practicing medicine in 1998.
"He loved practicing medicine," his daughter said. "That's why he did it so long."
In September 1998, a story about his retirement and 50 years of service to South Fulton appeared in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
"If my health weren't deteriorating," Dr. Tucker had said, "I'd put in another five years."
Additional survivors include his wife, Marion Carlson Tucker, and another son, Richard Kellstrand Tucker, both of Atlanta; and eight grandchildren.
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