James Buford Madison III

A funeral service will be held at 2:30 p.m. on Friday, October 23, at First United Methodist Church, 125 N. Interlachen Avenue, Winter Park.

Dr. Madison was born in Washington, D.C., on December 30, 1932, the son of James B. Madison Jr. and Virginia Guyer Madison. He worked his way through undergraduate and medical school and spent his life providing for his family, practicing orthopedic surgery and giving back to his profession and community.

He earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Miami in 1955 and a Doctor of Medicine from Tulane University School of Medicine in 1959. While an undergraduate he was an SAE fraternity brother, and initiated into Alpha Epsilon Delta, the national premedical honor society. He interned at Miami’s Jackson Memorial Hospital and the University of Miami School of Medicine, then completed his residency in general and orthopedic surgery, including a year at Variety Children’s Hospital in Miami. He was licensed in multiple states, board-certified by the American Board of Orthopedic Surgery in 1967 and later named a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons.

Before settling in Winter Park he moved his young family to Ecuador and served with the Project HOPE, a US ship based global outreach initiative to provide healthcare and train healthcare workers. He directed the program in Cuenca and taught as a visiting professor of surgery at the Universidad de Cuenca. The medical faculty honored his work in traumatology and orthopedics. He was a member of the Rotary Club of Cuenca; and also participated in Project HOPE’s orthopedic outreach in Peru. He sponsored US citizenship for several Ecuadorians. Spanish was spoken fluently in the Madison household for many years afterwards.

In 1965 he established his practice in Winter Park as a founding partner of what became Madison, Mackey, Rogers, P.A. He served as President of the medical staff at Winter Park Memorial Hospital from 1979 to 1980 and as Chairman of Orthopedics from 1982 to 1985. He remained on the staff of Florida Hospital for more than four decades and retired in 2007. His professional memberships included the Florida Medical Association, which conferred life membership after 35 years; the Florida Orthopedic Society; the Southern Orthopedic Association; a founding fellow of the American Back Society; and the Pan American Medical Association.

Beyond the operating room Dr. Madison dedicated himself to civic service. He was a director and later President of the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce, and in 1991 the Chamber named him Citizen of the Year. He served six years on the city’s Lakes and Waterways Board. He sat on the advisory board of First Florida Bank in Orange County, worked with the Arthritis Foundation’s patient-education efforts, and gave medical coverage to events including the 1985 Pan American Field Hockey Tournament and the 1986 Pan American Junior Athletics Championship in Orlando, and sporting events at local high schools. The Florida Medical Association presented him its A.H. Robins Community Service Award in 1990. Casa de Mexico of Central Florida acknowledged him for his medical care of Mexican laborers and farm workers. Dr. Madison volunteered many years of his time with Shepherd’s Hope, which provides free, high-quality healthcare to uninsured patients. He gave back to his community without display.

He was a skilled and knowledgeable sailor. The family sailboat, Don Quijote, carried he, his family, and friends on countless days along Florida’s coasts, the Keys, and the Bahamas. He completed Coast Guard Auxiliary training in basic seamanship and held a Coast Guard captain’s license to operate passenger-carrying vessels. In spite of his nautical acumen and experience, he and the Don Q had intimate relations with a number of sandbars, coral reefs and docks. Any mishaps were always due to somebody else’s poor judgement, and he earned the lighthearted sobriquet of Sea Wolf. Ballast often came in the form of Heineken beer, and it was not uncommon at the beginning of an extended cruise for the Don Q to be “bow heavy”.

He was equally at home in the operating room, serving on a board or committee or sailing the high seas.

Those who knew him remember a man that was intelligent, quick-witted, hardworking and driven. He enjoyed working with his hands and was fond of tinkering and rebuilding. His skills as a surgeon were appropriated into countless wood and mechanical projects, sometimes to the dismay and chagrin of his family.

He met his wife and mother of his four children, Wanda Sue Valentine, in New Orleans. They were married in November 1956 and remained a devoted couple for 37 years prior to her death in 1993. He was also predeceased by his second wife, Janine Johnson Madison

Dr. Madison is survived by his beloved, Susan Hamilton, his younger brother, Mike Moore (Doe), his four children, Elyse Anderson (Steven), Jim Madison (Dori), Stacey McNamara (Tom), and Kristi Meyers (Brad); his stepchildren, Read Hayes, Neal Hayes (Sandra), Dale Hayes (Kathy), and Anne Marie Blay, 20 grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Shepherd’s Hope, which provides free health care to uninsured patients in Central Florida, at shepherdshope.org or by mail at 455 9th Street, Winter Garden, FL 34787.