Frank Mitchell Wiygul Jr.

Frank was born on May 12, 1923 in Shannon Mississippi to Frank M. Wiygul and Mabel Gordon Wiygul. The Shannon of the 1920’s and 30’s was shaped by hard times and the Great Depression, but he always remembered the terrains of his childhood vividly and with great fondness. Frank observed that his family didn’t have any money but they didn’t know that because no one else did either. His father ran the town drugstore and his mother was an iron-willed educator, which perhaps helps explain his lifelong interests in public health and continued learning. He lost a younger brother to an infection that would today be easily treatable, which in retrospect may also have influenced his career choice.

After graduating from Shannon High School he started college at Sunflower Junior College but left to serve in World War II as an infantryman in France and Luxembourg. As part of C company of the 10th Army Division’s 54th Armored Infantry Battalion he helped liberate Europe after the Normandy invasion. He seldom spoke about his service until his later years, and his stories from that time were typically self-effacing and often picaresque.

After the war Frank finished his degree at the University of Mississippi, and must have cut a pretty dashing figure riding his Harley Davidson back and forth between Shannon and Oxford. He enrolled in what was then the two-year medical school at Ole Miss and under the tutelage of Dr. Arthur Guyton, a legendary physiologist, he went on to receive his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1951. He did his post-graduate training in pediatrics in New Orleans, Louisiana,, where he was on the faculty at the Tulane Medical School, and San Antonio, Texas. In 1956 he married Nell Thomas of Booneville, Mississippi. They settled in Jackson, Mississippi and had three boys – Mitch, Robert (Julia) and Tom (Catherine).

His greatest professional interest was health care delivery to people who needed it. There were plenty of those in Mississippi, and after a stint in private practice he worked for many years with Dr. Alton Cobb and others to help develop the structures and organization that eventually became the modern Mississippi State Department of Health. He recalled that in his early years he would sometimes prescribe pot liquor (the liquid greens were cooked in) and cod liver oil for dehydrated babies, because that was what people had. He divided the rest of his medical career between the health department and the University of Mississippi’s Medical School, where he taught in the family practice section until his retirement in 1989.

He received several teaching awards, and also ran what Nell called his front porch clinic for neighborhood children and the occasional dog or cat. He said they all worked about the same.

Frank was known for his kindness, sense of humor and intellectual curiosity. His shelves were always well stocked with history and philosophy, as well as fiction of greater or lesser literary value. At various times he flew light planes, made wine in the basement, gardened, fished, hunted, worked his hobby farm, kept a woodworking shop, and wrote poetry with varying degrees of success. He loved a sports car, including on one occasion a fire engine red 1966 Porsche that only ran sporadically but you could hear coming from about four blocks away.

He and Nell were partners for over 50 years in gardening, traveling, raising a sometimes unruly family and spoiling their much beloved grandchildren. Especially after his retirement he and Nell enjoyed traveling with his sister Mabel Jane and brother-in-law Jim. His Christmas and birthday cards with hand drawn cartoons were well known within the family, particularly those featuring family pets and their observations on the card recipient.

Frank was a dedicated caregiver in Nell’s battle with dementia, and after she passed away in 2013 he returned to his mainstays of gardening, fishing and reading. For the two years before his death he was in nursing care at St. Catherine’s Village in Ridgeland, but still enjoyed getting out to the lake there to fish. The family would like to thank the staff at St. Catherine’s for their kindness and care for Frank.

Frank was predeceased by his wife Nell and his siblings Clayton Wiygul, John G. Wiygul, and Mabel Jane McCluer. He is survived by his brother Glenn (Sherry), sons Mitch, Robert (Julia) and Tom (Catherine), grandchildren Thomas (Blair), Emma, Rachel, Caroline and Amelia, and a flock of nieces, nephews, friends and admirers.

There will be a memorial service at 11 AM, Tuesday August 29 at Galloway Memorial United Methodist Church, 305 Congress Street, Jackson. Visitation will be at 10 AM.

In lieu of flowers the family would suggest a donation to the Sierra Club or American Red Cross .

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.parkwayfuneralhomeridgeland.com for the Wiygul family.