Robert Gary Wainright

September 24, 1952 - September 23, 2026

Robert "Gary" Wainright, 73, of St. Simons Island, GA (formerly of Athens, Waycross, Cochran, Dublin and Camilla, GA), died peacefully at Memorial Hospital in Jacksonville, FL, on Wednesday, September 23, 2026, one day before his 74th birthday. Edo Miller Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangements. A service celebrating Gary's life will be held at Christ Church, Frederica, on St. Simons Island at 11 a.m. on Saturday, October 17, 2026.

Gary was born in Athens, GA, on September 24, 1952, to Robert Elliott "Bob" Wainright and Mary Alice Steuart Wainright, while his father was a forestry student at the University of Georgia. After a few years in Brunswick, the family followed Bob's career in the forest-products industry across South Georgia. Mary Alice was a school teacher and loving mother. Gary lived in Waycross through the third grade and in Cochran for his fourth-grade year. He moved to Dublin in the fifth grade and stayed there until graduating from Dublin High School in 1970.

In Dublin, Gary showed the curiosity and nerve that would define his life. As a senior, he was named a National Merit Scholar and captain of his high school golf team. He had fond memories of growing up playing golf at the Dublin county club. The summer before, he had traveled to Atlanta to attend the Elkins Radio School, graduated, and went straight on the air. During his senior year he worked the graveyard shift at WMLT, opening each broadcast with a tagline of his own invention: "the Wainright, uptight, out of sight, shine a little light, make the night a little more bright show, on super WMLT." He spent his summers behind the microphone at WYNR in Brunswick and later carried his love of radio to the campus station in Athens.

Gary attended the University of Georgia, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Classics, including a period of study in Greece, and his Juris Doctor from the UGA School of Law. He began practicing law in Camilla, GA, where he met Rebecca Louise "Becky" Schwegman. She moved to GA to get out of the snow and ice in Indiana with a full scholarship to complete her masters in speech pathology at UGA. Becky was voting in Camilla and an elderly lady taking the ballots wrote down her name and phone number and gave it to my dad so he could call her to go on a blind date. She told Becky there was a handsome young lawyer in town but didn’t tell her about her plans to play Cupid. Our family was created in part to this sweet lady playing match maker. Gary moved his practice to St. Simons Island, the island where his mother's family had deep roots. He grew up spending his summers at their family cottage on East Beach crabbing with a piece of chicken on a string and a dip net. The two were married in 1981. For the rest of his career he practiced real estate and estate planning law, helping families protect their homes and provide for the generations to come. Also a passion to protect the golden isles through serving on “Save the Beach” and the Optimist Club.

Through his mother, Gary was a grandson of George Calvert Steuart, who was the last child raised on Black Banks and Saint Claire Plantation on St. Simons Island. He was also a descendant of James Gould, builder of the island's first lighthouse circa 1811. A dedicated genealogist, Gary traced that line back to the Steuart clan of Scotland and beyond.

Gary and Becky had two sons, Reeve Joseph Wainright and Robert John "Bobby" Wainright, both of whom survive him. Reeve and his wife Adriane Musgrove Wainright live in St. Simons Island and Broxton, GA. Bobby lives in Greenville, SC. Gary's grandchildren are Becklynn Eugenia Wainright and Callan Reeve Wainright. Gary was preceded in death by his mother, Mary, in 1978; his father, Bob, in 2013; and his wife, Becky, in 2017.

Gary is also survived by his brother, Jeffery Steuart "Jeff" Wainright of St. Simons Island, GA, and Jeff's children, Jeffery "Steuart" Wainright, Jr. and "Hannah" Bradley Wainright. His other surviving siblings are his sister, Amy Kathleen Wainright Warren of Leesburg, GA, her husband, Thomas "Tommy" Warren, and their children, Steuart Warren and Tommie "Taylor" Warren; and his sister, Lois Lynn Wainright Knox. He also leaves behind Becky's family of Indiana and Ohio, who remained dear to him: Brenda Sheldon, Wayne Sheldon, Zak Sheldon, Austin Sheldon, Steve Schwegman, Cindi Schwegman, Mike Schwegman, Vanessa Schwegman, Frank Schwegman, Judy Schwegman, Missy Eckhoff, Bill Eckhoff and Liam Eckhoff.

The son of a forester, Gary was an environmentalist long before it was fashionable. He loved the land, water and wild places of the Georgia coast and countryside. He treasured the poetry of Sidney Lanier, whose "The Marshes of Glynn" celebrates the very landscape Gary called home. As a writer, he explored both those marshes and the myths of ancient Egypt and Greece.

Gary possessed a rare and brilliant mind and was, by any measure, a genius. He studied Latin, Greek and the Romance languages, and he had a command of English vocabulary and the origins of words that few could match. His learning ranged across mathematics, science, history, the arts and the humanities, and his appetite for knowledge never waned. He lived by the Golden Rule and believed deeply in our duty to care for the planet and for one another.

Above all, Gary was a devoted father and a constant presence in his sons' lives. He cheered from the stands at their games, coached their youth baseball teams, chess club, and made time for shared meals and special occasions that became cherished family memories. He had a genuine nature, a quick wit and an infectious smile and laugh that he sometimes could hardly control. He was a wonderful father and grandfather, and his family misses him greatly. He spent his life shining a little light, and he made the world a little more bright.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial contributions be made in his name to the St. Simons Land Trust, in honor of the marshes and wild places he loved. Tribute gifts may be made online at sslt.org/donate/tribute-gifts, by phone at (912) 638-9109, or by mail to St. Simons Land Trust, Attn: Tribute Gifts, P.O. Box 24615, St. Simons Island, GA 31522.