BUREN E. WELLS

Buren E. Wells, M.D. Buren E. Wells, a resident of Dothan, passed away Wednesday, August 12, 2009, at Southeast Alabama Medical Center. He was 81. Funeral services will be held 3:00 p.m. Sunday, August 16, 2009 at First Baptist Church of Dothan with Dr. Johnny Fain, Reverend Bob Gross and Reverend Homer Davis officiating. Burial will follow in Memory Hill Cemetery with Byrd Funeral Home on West Main Street directing. The family will receive friends at the church from 1:00 to 2:45 p.m. prior to services. Buren E. Wells was born in Moody Hospital in Dothan, Alabama on November 13, 1927. He grew up in Ashford, Alabama and graduated from Ashford High School in 1945. He graduated from the University of Alabama in 1950 where he was a member of the Pi Kappa Phi Fraternity. Toward the end of World War II he served in the United States Air Force. In 1952 he married Jane Olive Chalker of Dothan. He graduated from the University of Alabama Medical School in 1955 where he was honored with membership in the Alpha Omega Alpha Honorary Medical Society. After a year of resident rotating internship in 1955, he served a three-year surgery residency from 1956 to 1959 at the University of Alabama Medical College and an additional year of surgery residency at Lloyd Noland Hospital from 1959 to 1960. He was certified as a Diplomat of the American Board of Surgery in 1962 and was a Fellow in the American College of Surgeons. In 1961 he moved to Dothan, Alabama where he began his medical practice. He was a member of the Houston County Medical Society, the Medical Association of the State of Alabama, and the American Medical Association. He served as Secretary of the Alabama Chapter of the American College of Surgeons. He also served as President of the Alabama Chapter of the American College of Surgeons from 1986 to 1987. In 2005 the Medical Association of the State of Alabama and the American Medical Association honored Dr. Wells for serving fifty years in the practice of medicine. He was a member of the Dothan Kiwanis Club and served as President of the Dothan Kiwanis Club and as Lt. Governor of the Alabama District Kiwanis Clubs. He was also on the Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America. Dr. Wells was a member of First Baptist Church in Dothan, where he was a Sunday School teacher in his earlier years and a Deacon, greeter, and faithful member of his Sunday School class and church. He was honored in his last years by being elected as a Deacon Emeritus. He loved his church and his church family. Dr. Wells had many hobbies: tennis, the study of French, camping, canoeing, ham radio, hiking, traveling, following business trends, and gardening, where he became a Master Gardener. He enjoyed his hobbies, the practice of medicine, his patients and colleagues, and Alabama football. He was a devoted husband, father, grandfather, and friend. He was preceded in death by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Max Buren Wells, and his grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. William Edmon Wells and Mr. and Mrs. Beechamp Asbury Bruner. He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Jane Chalker Wells; three children: Olivia Wells Crockett and her husband Dr. Frank, Dr. Buren Earl Wells, Jr. and his wife Jean, and Dr. MaryLynn Wells Parker and her husband Alan; and twelve grandchildren: Thomas Crockett, Catherine Crockett, Elizabeth Crockett, James Crockett, and John Crockett; Evelyn Wells, Lillian Wells, Buren Earl Wells, III, and Janie Wells; Zachary Parker, William Parker, and Mary Elizabeth Parker. He is also survived by his sister-in-law Mary Ann Cook, a niece-in-law, Carla Bullard Riley and her husband, Scott; nephews-in-law, Mark Bullard, Ben Chalker and his wife, Mary and David Chalker and his wife, Kelley and James Chalker and his wife, Astrid and numerous cousins and relatives. Serving as pallbearers are grandchildren: Thomas Crockett, James Crockett, John Crockett, Buren Earl Wells, III, Zachary Parker, and William Parker; and nephews Commander James Chalker and Mark Bullard. Honorary pallbearers are Clyde Wells, Dr. James Wells, Dr. Theron Wells, Rev. Homer Davis, Durrell Whiddon, Bob Hall, W.C. Folkes, Tom McClendon, Richard Ramsey, J.T. Radney, Bobby Bottoms, Dr. Roy Driggers, Earl Dove, Jimmy Grant, Phil Shealy, Steadman Shealy, R.D. Wright the Dothan Kiwanis Club, the Sunday School class of Dr. Wells at First Baptist Church, and the West Main Medical Center office staff past and present. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the First Baptist Church Community Ministries, or the First Baptist Church Library, 300 West Main Street, Dothan, AL 36303 or a charity of your choice. Byrd Funeral Home on West Main Street, (334) 793-3003, is in charge of arrangements. Sign the guest book at www. dothaneagle.com