Hollis Jay Wiseman M.D.

Hollis Jay Wiseman, Sr., beloved father, husband, and physician, died in his sleep Tuesday, October 28, 2014. His death, like his birth, was an old-fashioned one. Born at home in his parents’ house on Lafayette Street in Mobile, he died of simple old age at home in bed, surrounded by his children and caregivers. He is survived by his six children--Holly Lee Wiseman, Merrell Thames Wiseman, Valery Wiseman De Laney, Carole Wiseman Norden, Hollis Jay Wiseman, Jr., David Middleton Wiseman, and his six grandchildren. A graduate of Harvard Medical School and a Rotary Scholar at the Kinderspital in Zurich, Switzerland, Hollis was raised by a single mother and his aunt Bessie, after the death of his father at age 5, during the height of the Great Depression. To make ends meet, his mother took in boarders. In later life, Hollis would attribute his tremendous passion for books and learning to his efforts to impress a pretty young boarder, who lent him her volumes of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. Whatever truth there was to the story, he loved books and smart women with equal devotion, marrying one smart woman, mentoring many over his years as a medical professor, and raising three daughters whom he educated with the same care he did his three sons. When he was fourteen, he met the love of his life--his life partner and fellow adventurer, Janice “Teko” Thames--in the choir loft of Dauphin Way Methodist Church. His service in the Navy at the end of the Second World War opened his eyes to the wonders of travel, and the GI bill afforded him the support to graduate from the University of Alabama. After completion of medical school at Harvard University, he and Teko moved to Cincinnati where he completed his internship and residency at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. There they found themselves on the front lines of the fight against polio, Teko as a lab assistant working on the polio vaccine, and Hollis as an intern on the pediatric polio wards. Till the end of his life he would remember the cold terror of walking past the iron lungs, on wards where many doctors refused to serve. Upon their return to Mobile from a Rotary-sponsored fellowship at the Kinderspital in Zurich, Switzerland, Hollis and Teko, now parents of two, soon found themselves on the forefront of another battle. To counter the proponents of school segregation--including then-governor George Wallace--they formed Alabamians Behind Local Education to support the peaceful integration of local schools. Despite the consequences, which ranged from death threats to public excoriation, they and others stood firm in their dedication to justice. Mobile escaped the racial violence of Little Rock and Birmingham, and Hollis and Teko set a lasting example to their children of love and commitment to community.The informing passion of Hollis’s professional life was his quest to reduce the infant mortality rate in Alabama. To have a more direct impact on this problem, he left his private practice in the 1960’s to become director of pediatrics at Mobile General Hospital. When the University of South Alabama Medical School came into being, he became a member of its faculty and founded one of the first neonatal intensive care units in the country. The state of the art facility that now bears his name--the Hollis J. Wiseman Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the University of South Alabama Children’s and Women’s Hospital—has cared for thousands of sick newborns. Yearly reunions are held for the many premature infants who grew to maturity thanks to the expertise of the unit Hollis founded and the physicians that he trained. On his retirement, he and Teko moved to Fairhope year-round, and Hollis found the leisure to pursue the first love of his life--books. As President of the Friends of the Fairhope Pubic Library, he spearheaded the drive to raise money and construct the new Fairhope Public Library building, which opened to immediate acclaim in 2007. He also worked with Teko on her project to construct the Eastern Shore Trail--a multi-use trail that extends over 30 miles from the USS Alabama Battleship, down the Eastern Shore to Weeks Bay.With the death of Teko three years ago, Hollis retired completely from public life. Together the two of them left this shining legacy for their grateful children: a commitment to the primacy of education, the allure of travel, a sturdy political liberalism, an independence of spirit, and a passion for using their gifts, talents and courage in the service of community. A memorial service will be held on Friday October 31, 2014 at Dauphin Way United Methodist Church at noon. The family will receive friends from 11:00 a.m. until noon at the church. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Fairhope Public Library Wiseman Memorial Garden or to the Hollis J. Wiseman Award for Excellence in Pediatrics at the USA Medical School. There will be no interment. According to their long-standing wish, Hollis will be cremated and his ashes scattered with Teko’s over their beloved Mobile Bay. Condoelcences may be offered at www.radneyfuneralhome-mobile.com. Arrangements by Radney Funeral Home, 3155 Dauphin Street, Mobile, Alabama 36606.