Guy Vise Sr.

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GUY THOMPSON
VISE, SR., M.D.

Dr. Guy Thompson Vise, Sr., died at home at the age of 96.
Services for Guy Thompson Vise, Sr., M.D. will be held at the First Presbyterian Church in Meridian, MS, Wednesday, June 6th at 11:30 a.m. with Dr. Rhett G. Payne, III and the Rev. Richard Martin Vise, Jr., grandson of Dr. Vise, officiating. Burial will be in Magnolia Cemetery with BARHAM FUNERAL HOME in charge of arrangements. Visitation will begin at 10 a.m. prior to the service at First Presbyterian Church.
Dr. Vise lived a very full life: a father of five, a skilled and compassionate physician, a church and civic leader, a businessman, a tree farmer, and a friend and advisor to many who knew his and sought his advice. He served as President of the Southern Mississippi Medical Association, President of the Mississippi State Medical Association, President of the East Mississippi Medical Society, President of the Mississippi Academy of Family Practice, and Chief of Staff at St. Joseph Hospital. He was a Fellow of the International College of Surgeons and was a member of numerous other organizations. Dr. Vise was an avid forester belonging to the Lauderdale County Forestry Association and the Mississippi State Forestry Association. He was an elder of the First Presbyterian Church and taught the high school class for many years. Dr. Vise was also a lifetime member of Kiwanis Club International and served as President of the Junior Chamber of Commerce.
Dr. Vise was born in Decaturville, Tennessee to Lillian and Eli Michael Vise. He obtained his medical degree from the University of Tennessee. Dr. Vise was by necessity a practitioner in most areas of medicine before specialization became the norm for physician training. After obtaining and M.D. degree, Dr. Vise interned at the Southern Baptist and Charity Hospitals in New Orleans. Dr. Vise moved to Meridian and did an additional four years of surgical training at the Matty Hersee Hospital before surgical residencies were commonplace in America. He also worked at the East Mississippi State Hospital. In 1938, he opened a medical office in the Threefoot building in downtown Meridian. As his medical and surgical practice grew, he renovated the Renfroe building on the corner of 4th Street and 22nd Avenue into the Vise Clinic Building, which became a Meridian landmark. The Vise Clinic was the first air conditioned building in the state of Mississippi.
"Guy T." as his wife and friends often referred to him was a constant innovator. In the 1950's, Dr. Vise was years ahead of his time in his denunciation of smoking as a cause of lung cancer, heart disease and other medical illnesses. He also described "secondary smoke disorders" decades before this concept was to surface. At a medical meeting in the 1950's he presented his observation that infants developed pneumonia secondary to cigarette smoke in poorly ventilated homes.
Dr. Vise was preceded in death by his wife, Mailande "Peg" Martin Vise. He is survived by his son, Dr. Guy T. Vise, Jr. and his wife, Margaret, of Jackson, MS; his daughter, Mailande Vise Turner of Pensacola; his son, Dr. Michael Vise and his wife, Annette, of Jackson, MS; a son, Murray Vise of Atlanta, GA; and a son, Dr. Richard Vise and his wife, Betty, of Meridian, MS; eleven grandchildren, Dr. Guy T. Vise, III and Will Vise; Marion Turner, Murray Turner and Martin Turner; Rachel Vise and Mailande Vise; Richard Vise Jr., Duncan Vise, Elizabeth Vise, and Rachel Vise Adams; and 15 great-grandchildren.
The family requests that memorials by made to First Presbyterian Church of Meridian, MS.
Pallbearers will be the seven grandsons of Dr. Vise and Bailey Adams, grandson-in-law.