Going to an appointment with Dr. Edwin C. Pound required specifics. The well-known plastic surgeon not only needed to know what results the patient wanted, but he had to make sure they were actually there to see him.
“People would call and ask for Dr. Pound, and the next question was ‘Which one?’ and they’d say ‘Edwin,’ and you’d still have to ask, ‘Which one?’ ” said Dr. Edwin “Win” Pound III, a son who lives in Sandy Springs. “So he was Eddie and I was Win, and that’s how we distinguished ourselves from one another in the practice.”
Dr. Pound worked with his father for 10 years at a practice the senior Dr. Pound opened in 1961. Working with his father that long was a treat, Dr. Pound said.
“I tell people I always enjoyed the benefit of his experience, but if I did something he didn’t like, he’d send me to my room,” he said with a laugh.
Edwin Currier Pound Jr. of Sandy Springs died Friday at the William Breman Jewish Home from natural causes. He was 83. He was buried with full military honors Monday at Georgia National Cemetery. A memorial service is planned for 11 a.m. Friday at the Mount Paran Central Church of God Chapel. Carmichael Funeral Home, Marietta, is in charge of arrangements.
A fourth-generation physician born in Forsyth, Dr. Pound graduated from Atlanta’s Boys High School in 1946. He went on to Emory University, where he was an all-star wrestler and was awarded the Bridges Award for being the best all-around male athlete. He graduated in 1950 and enrolled in Emory’s medical school and finished in 1954. His residencies were at Piedmont Hospital and at the U.S. Army Hospital in Fort Lee, Va., where he was a captain. He also taught pathology at the veterans hospital in Durham, N.C.
When Dr. Pound completed his plastic surgery residency at Duke University, the field was fairly new, his son said. He opened his Atlanta practice after training in hand surgery at the old Grace Hospital in Detroit. He was one of a handful of plastic surgeons in the Southeast and was among the early advocates of outpatient plastic surgery, Dr. Pound said of his father. In 1976, Dr. Eddie Pound was part of a practice that opened an outpatient surgery center.
During his career, Dr. Pound was fiercely protective of the specialty field of plastic surgery. He believed a doctor who only took a weekend course in plastic surgery or who wasn't certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery should not call himself a plastic surgeon, his son said.
Dr. Pound’s retirement in 2001 was a reluctant one, said Kay Pound, his wife of 58 years. She said he did not enjoy retirement and found ways to offer his expertise. He had a stroke seven years ago, and for the past year and a half he’d been living at the Breman home. The staff would ask him his opinion on different procedures, and he would gladly oblige, she said.
“One thing he taught me was not to just care for your patients, but to care about them,” Dr. Win Pound said of his father.
Richard Perkins, a friend who lives in Atlanta, said Dr. Eddie Pound was “a very dedicated doctor.”
“He did so many things for people that others had no idea about,” Mr. Perkins said. “There are people who do things and don’t seek their 15 minutes of fame, and Eddie Pound was one of them.”
Dr. Pound is also survived by two daughters, Kaylin Pound and Trina Lou Pound, both of Alpharetta; a sister, Mary Lou Bailey of Cobb County; and five grandchildren.
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