Timothy Lawrence Prince, MD

Timothy Lawrence Prince, husband, father, brother, and physician, who travelled the world, played a lot of Scrabble, and as one friend said, “was a quiet force of love” to others throughout his life, died on Wednesday, January 17, at AdventHealth Orlando hospital. He was 68.

Tim, who had been diagnosed with cancer a year and a half ago, died after having surgery to repair a broken hip.

Tim attended Our Lady of Assumption Catholic School in Atlanta as a young boy, and was the valedictorian of his Marist School class in 1973. He earned his BA “with highest distinction” from the University of Virginia in 1976, then went on to earn his MD from Emory University in 1980. He became a nephrologist after completing his clinical and research fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston in 1987. That year, he joined what is now called Nephrology Associates of Central Florida and retired in 2022, after his cancer diagnosis. “He was the moral compass of our group,” said Dr. Jeff Cohen, relaying a sentiment expressed at a recent gathering of his partners. He volunteered at Grace Medical Home during the last years of his professional life.

Tim loved travel and physical challenges. He hiked 550 miles along the Camino de Santiago in Spain with his wife, Robin; biked 80 miles from Orlando to New Smyrna Beach with his son, Andrew and daughter-in-law, Andreina; walked numerous Turkey Trots with his son, Jonah; and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro with Andrew and his daughter, Lilly. “It’s probably the hardest and most boring thing I’ve ever done,” Tim said of climbing the tallest mountain in Africa. He prayed the Rosary to pass the time as he journeyed toward the summit.

A life-long Catholic, Tim was an altar server at Our Lady of the Assumption and attended St. James Catholic Cathedral for weekly Mass when he and his family moved to Orlando. In October 1998, Tim attended a Cursillo retreat weekend, which involves “transference of Christ’s value to others in one’s family, school, place of business, etc.” He credits that weekend for bringing him closer to Christ.

Tim was born on July 15, 1955, in Atlanta to David and Fay Prince. David was an electrical engineer who wrote a pioneering text on computer graphics and worked for Lockheed Aerospace for many years, and Fay was a homemaker.

In May 2022, Tim “started having vague abdominal discomfort,” according to his journal, and was later diagnosed with a rare cancer that originates in the bile duct. He had surgery to remove a tumor on his liver in August 2022. For months after the surgery, he fought off several infections, going septic twice. Despite no detectable signs of cancer in the last several months of his life, his liver continued to deteriorate. On January 9 this year, Tim fell in his home and fractured his right hip. After weighing all the risks, he and his family opted for surgery to repair the hip. Tim had surgery on the morning of January 17, and died that night in his hospital room. An official cause of death was not available at the time of this writing.

Tim is survived by his wife, three children, and two grandchildren, Lucas and Nicko. He is also survived by two brothers, Steve and Nick, and a sister, Becky. He also had three nieces: Kathleen Lorey; Courtney Bradshaw; who has a son, Asher; and Jordan Neel; and a nephew, Michael Allen. Anyone who is moved to can donate to the Grace Medical Home.

A funeral service for Timothy will be held Tuesday, January 23, 2024 from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM at St. James Catholic Cathedral, 215 N Orange Avenue, Orlando, FL 32801. Following the funeral service will be a committal service from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM at Woodlawn Memorial Park & Funeral Home, 400 Woodlawn Cemetery Road, Gotha, FL 34734.