William Kingsley Weatherly Jr., MD

William Kingsley Weatherly, Jr., M.D. died Sunday, August 5, 2012 following a brief illness. He was 79. Dr. Weatherly had a long and distinguished career in psychiatry as a board certified psychoanalyst in a number of hospitals and in private practice for over 40 years, until he retired in 2009. He is survived by his wife and four children. He was born in Athens, Ga., the son of William Kingsley Weatherly and Margaret Elder Weatherly. He attended the Baylor School in Chattanooga and graduated from Georgia Military Academy in College Park. He attended Vanderbilt University for two years on a football scholarship and was a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity before transferring to Emory University where he earned his B.A. in 1953. For two years he served as a U.S. Army Medic, rising to captain, in Augsburg, Germany where he took up skiing on weekends in Austria. He returned to Atlanta and graduated from the Emory University School of Medicine in 1959. He completed two residencies: first in radiology at Grady Memorial Hospital followed by several years teaching radiology at the Emory School of Medicine and later in psychiatry at Emory when he decided to dedicate himself to that medical discipline. Dr. Weatherly was on the attending staff at Parkwood Hospital in Atlanta and did post-residency training at the University of North Carolina-Duke Psychoanalytic Institute. While living in North Carolina, he was in private practice, was on the attending staff of Durham County Hospital, served as a clinical associate in the Department of Psychiatry at the Duke University School of Medicine and as a staff psychiatrist at the John Unstead Hospital. After returning to Atlanta in 1983, he went into private practice with his longtime friend and associate, the late Dr. Conyers Thompson, as well as serving as a clinical associate at Emory University’s Department of Psychiatry, as well as supervisor of the Emory Psychiatry Residents and a consultant to the Veterans Administration Hospital and chief of staff at Parkwood Hospital. Among many leadership positions in professional organizations, Dr. Weatherly was on the board of the Atlanta Psychoanalytic Society; coordinator, Extension Division, of the Atlanta Psychoanalytic Society; and on the faculty of the Emory Psychoanalytic Institute. He belonged to the American Psychiatric Association, the Georgia Psychiatric Association and the Atlanta Psychoanalytic Society. Dr. Weatherly enjoyed participating in the lighter side of his profession, too, quickly – but quietly and with discretion – assessing personalities and foibles he encountered on a daily basis. He regularly attended Movie Mania, an Evening at Emory series, often leading a thoughtful and well-prepared psychoanalytic discussion of a film (Citizen Kane was a favorite) and its characters for an enthusiastic audience. When Kingsley married Jody in 1979, he promised he would never bore her. In their mutual enjoyment of opera, performing and visual arts, he kept his vow. His children – who knew him to be a good listener – did not escape his analytic eye, either, and his role as a counseling physician sometimes crept into his home life. His step-daughters often referred to him as Dr. Kingsley, with an emphasis on Dr., and when he told a son, “You can change,” he did. Kingsley relished the company of close friends, particularly at gatherings featuring great food and fine French wines. He was, in fact, an avid wine collector and studied the history of vineyards and vintages. From his reading chair at home, Kingsley, an intellectual and curious reader, devoured books on history, art and music. He particularly enjoyed classical music and opera, although he was known to like the Bee Gees, Roy Orbison and even the Rolling Stones. Kingsley had an irreverent sense of humor, a gift for vocabulary, and even tried his hand in the kitchen. He was known to dry handmade pasta on a broomstick. Lake Burton was the setting for favorite family gatherings over the years. He never missed an opportunity to watch UGA football on TV regardless of what else might be going on around him. Golf, too, was an ongoing pursuit for Kingsley who said a highlight of his life was playing golf at Augusta National. Kingsley was a founding member of the Atlanta Botanical Gardens and was a life member of the Piedmont Driving Club. Dr. Weatherly is survived by his loving wife of over 30 years, Jody Collins Weatherly; two sons: William Kingsley “Bo” Weatherly III (Karen) and their three children – Sam, Wynne and Will IV – from Charlotte, N.C.; Robert Foster Weatherly and his wife, Vanessa, of Atlanta; and two daughters: Catherine Palmer Norwood of Chattanooga and Dr. Elizabeth Dorsey Norwood of Atlanta. Visitation with the family will be on Wednesday, August 8th at 6 p.m. at H. M. Patterson & Son, Spring Hill Chapel, 1020 Spring Street, NW. A service will be held at 11 a.m., Thursday, August 9th at Peachtree Road United Methodist Church, 3180 Peachtree Road, NW. The family will receive visitors an hour prior to the service. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the The Atlanta Opera, 1575 Northside Drive, NW, Suite 350, NW, Atlanta, GA 30318.