Dr. Fitzhugh Mayo died on November 11, 2017, at his home at Westminster Canterbury in Winchester, VA, two weeks after celebrating his 94th birthday with family. He was born in 1923 to J. H. Fitzhugh Mayo and Elizabeth Gwathmey Mayo in Norfolk, Virginia. He was married on May 1, 1948, in Virginia Beach to Betty Frost Woodhouse, his wife and partner for 65 years.
Hugh, as he was known, spent his early childhood on a farm in Maryland, and later attended Virginia Episcopal School. His Class of 1944 at Virginia Tech was interrupted by World War II, and from 1943 to 1946 he served in the Army First Infantry, including a post in Nuremberg during the war trials. At Virginia Tech, he was a member of the VTCC and the German Club. After completing his civil engineering degree with honors after the war, he worked as a professional engineer in heavy construction and mining, but then felt called to medicine. In 1955 he graduated from the Medical College of Virginia and practiced as a family doctor in Virginia Beach. In 1970 he was recruited to Richmond to become the first chairman of the Family Practice Department at the Medical College of Virginia, with a mission to place family doctors in communities where they were needed. He was the first president of the Association of Departments of Family Practice and received several awards related to his work. In 1989 he and Betty returned to Virginia Beach where he became Vice President at Tidewater Health Care (later Sentara) and was an active founding board member of an aquaculture business in North Carolina. He maintained a keen interest in people throughout his life, and a love of family, dogs, and sailing.
Dr. Mayo is survived by his four children: Bill Mayo and his wife Barbara, of Blacksburg, VA; Frost McLaughlin and her husband Bill, of Winchester, VA; Rob Mayo and his wife Christa, of Washington, NC; and Dale Mayo Reynolds and her husband Bill, of McLean, VA. He is also survived by his seven grandchildren: Will and Rachel Mayo; Elizabeth and Anne Claire McLaughlin and Marianne McLaughlin Huxley; Robert and Isabel Mayo; and his two great-grandchildren, Emery and Reid Mayo. He was preceded in death by his beloved wife Betty, and his sisters, Cary Worsley and Mary Potter Cassidy.
A family graveside gathering will be held in Virginia Beach, VA, at a later date. In lieu of flowers it was Dr. Mayo’s wish that contributions be made to the VCU Department of Family Practice and Population Health. Memorial contributions can be made online at https://www.support.vcu.edu/give/familymedicine (click on Harris-Mayo Chair in Family Practice in the drop down box) or by check, payable to the MCV Foundation, Box 980022, Richmond, Virginia 23298. Please note “Harris-Mayo Chair in Family Practice” in the memo line of your check.