Bill Mason

Feb. 14, 1935 - Nov. 17, 2014 Bill Mason of Birmingham, Alabama died peacefully at home on Monday, November 17, 2014 after 79 years of a life well-lived, full of love, friends, art, and academic and professional accomplishments. He was born in Tennille, Georgia on February 14, 1935 to Nonna Lee and George W. Mason. The family moved to Macon, Georgia in 1940, and Bill graduated with honors from Lanier High School, where he was a Beta Club member and star basketball player. He was elected Outstanding Young Man of Macon in 1948. After working for the FBI in Washington, DC, he entered Piedmont College in Demorest, Georgia, was selected for Who's Who Among Students in American Universities & Colleges, served as president of the Protopian Society, and graduated summa cum laude. He was a valued basketball player and subsequently was elected to the Piedmont College Sports Hall of Fame. Bill served with distinction on the Board of Trustees of Piedmont College for many years. After serving in the US Army in Germany, he returned to teach at Forsyth County High School in Cumming, Georgia. To further his studies, he was awarded a National Science Fellowship and Paul Steere Burgess Fellowship to attend the University of Arizona, where he earned a master's degree in botany. He subsequently graduated from the University of Tennessee School of Medicine in 1966, interned at Richland County Hospital, Columbia, South Carolina, and completed a residency in dermatology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1970. Bill established a clinical dermatology practice in Dothan, Alabama where he had many devoted patients who appreciated not only his diagnostic skills and medical expertise but also his kind, caring, and sensible approach to medicine. He was a member of the Medical Association of the State of Alabama, the Houston County Medical Association, the American Medical Association, and was a Fellow of the American Academy of Dermatology. He was president of the Dothan Community Concert Association and a patron of the Wiregrass Museum. He retired from practice in 1999, moving to Birmingham. At Piedmont College, one of Bill's professors insisted that to become a fully educated man, he must take art history. This led to a growing interest and then to a magnificent obsession with art. He and his partner of 50 years, Bobby Scharfenstein, studied art, attended art auctions across the country and, amassed a premier collection of paintings, especially 19th and 20th Century American landscapes, sculptures, art glass, and crystal. Bill served on the Advisory Board and Collections Committee, Birmingham Museum of Art, and he and Bobby founded the Mason-Scharfenstein Museum of Art (MSMA) at Piedmont College in 2011 as a permanent home for their collection-one that continues to grow and provide a rich experience for Piedmont College students and Georgia residents. At opening ceremonies for MSMA, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal thanked Dr. Mason and Bobby for their generous contribution to the arts and culture of Northern Georgia. Bill's life also was filled with an abundance of good friends and rich and memorable shared experiences at their homes in Gulf Shores and the mountains of North Georgia. Bill was a fantastic chef, learning early on at his mother's side and expanding his horizons over time, to the delight of all. But most of all over the years, his many friends relished and treasured Bill's unique and every present sense of humor, his radiant joy in life and art, his quick wit, his corny jokes, his infamous pet names for people, and his great sense of fun and adventure. Life was never dull when friends gather around the table. Bill's other great loves were a series of wire haired fox terriers. Predeceased by his mother, father, and sister Elsie Wammock, Bill is survived by his partner and spouse Bobby Scharfenstein, by his nephew Jimmy and his wife Dillie Wammock , by a niece, and by his friend and beloved caregiver Bryan Underwood. There will be a joyous celebration of Bill's exceptional life on Sunday, December 14, 2014, 1PM, at the Birmingham Museum of Art followed by a reception. The family suggests bright, happy attire and bringing fond memories to share. The family suggests memorials be made to the Mason-Scharfenstein Museum of Art, PO Box 10, Demorest, Georgia 30535 or to Friends of American Art, Birmingham Museum of Art, 2000 Rev. Abraham Woods, Jr. Blvd., Birmingham, Alabama 35203.