Frank R. Thies Jr.

Frank Ramsay Thies, Jr., of Charlotte, died Tuesday, January 10, 2012, at Charlotte’s Presbyterian Hospital, the same hospital in which he was born 82 years ago, on February 8, 1929, the only child of the late Frank R. Thies, Sr., and Eleanore Louise Arhelger.

He attended Charlotte city schools and was a graduate of old Central High School. He graduated from Davidson College and obtained the degree of Master of Arts from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Mr. Thies was President of Thies Realty & Mortgage Company, a firm founded by his grandfather. He was a Trustee of the Nalle Clinic Foundation and had served for half a century as a Trustee of the Myers Park Civic Commission. He was a founder of Charlotte Latin School, in the belief that excellent liberal arts education is essential for those who must assume the mantle of leadership in future generations; and he served for a decade as the first Chairman of that institution's Board of Trustees. He founded Southeastern Savings Bank, serving as Chairman of the Board of Directors and, for a time, as President; and he served as a founding director of The Scottish Bank. He was a member of Charlotte Country Club, Charlotte City Club, and the Carriage House Club at Litchfield Plantation, South Carolina.

He loved his family and friends, his Country, and his God. He served with pride in the U.S. Army Adjutant General's Corps during the Korean War. He attended Christ Episcopal Church. Loved as well by his family and friends, he was an extraordinarily compassionate, generous, and gentle man, ever courteous, with great strength of character and abiding faith. Much cherished also are his ready sense of humor, his felicitous sharing of his deep knowledge of and love of literature and history, as well as many happy times together at the beach cottage he designed and built in the 1960’s at Garden City, S.C.

Mr. Thies was predeceased by his beloved wife of nearly 50 years, Janet Rich Thies. He is survived by their children: Frank R. Thies, III, of Spartanburg, South Carolina; Mary Janet Thies Hawkins and her husband, George, of Charlotte; F. Boyce Thies, of Charlotte; J. Lawton Thies, of Chicago; and Charles Rich Thies, of San Francisco; by granddaughters Caroline Ramsay Hawkins, Mary Padgett Hawkins, and Julia Banister Hawkins; by his dear friend Nancy Cheatham Riggsbee; and by brother-in-law Dr. Charles B. Rich, Jr., and wife, Marsha, and sisters-in-law Lyttleton Rich Hollowell and husband, Tom, of Charlotte, and Ann Boyce Gyger and husband, Roland, of Geneva, Switzerland. He is survived also by nieces Mary Denton Lunsford, Elizabeth Denton Shah-Kahn, Jennifer Rich, and nephew, Charles B. Rich, III, all of Charlotte, and by nieces Eve Gyger and Rebecca Gyger DuPont, both of Geneva, Switzerland, and Alexandra Gyger Roy, of Savigny, France.

A Service of Remembrance will be held at two o'clock in the afternoon on Friday, January 13, 2012, at Christ Episcopal Church, with The Reverend Lisa Saunders officiating. The family will receive friends in the Blue Room following the service. Interment in the Thies family plot at Elmwood Cemetery will be private.

The family wishes to thank Dr. Stuart J Garner, the staff at Presbyterian Hospital, and Mr. Thies’ other physicians for their care and their friendship.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be sent to Charlotte Latin School, 9502 Providence Road, Charlotte, N.C. 28277, to Christ Episcopal Church, 1412 Providence Road, Charlotte, N.C. 28207, or to the Nalle Clinic Foundation, c/o Foundation for the Carolinas, 220 North Tryon Street, Charlotte, N.C. 28202.