Dr. Lamar Batts Peacock, better known as “Strut,” sauntered into the 1945 Homecoming Tea Dance at the University of Georgia and asked for a dance with a striking young lady named Jane Bonner. Later that evening, she told her roommates, “I think I’ve met the man I am going to marry.” By December, Lamar gave her his pin and they were married in June 1947.
That dance was especially euphoric for the young man from Albany, Ga., who just four years earlier spent 10 days in an iron lung while stricken with poliomyelitis. After paralysis and months of rehabilitation, he emerged from the illness with the determination to enter the medical profession.
“I had always been healthy as a hog till I went from playing three sets of tennis a day to not being able to do anything,” he recalled. “After I recovered, the severe physical disability and associated emotional trauma I experienced helped me understand how a patient feels.”
He enrolled in the Medical College of Georgia School of Medicine and quickly excelled in his studies. “The faculty was very accommodating and did everything possible to get me through the tough spots,” said the man who graduated at the top of the 73-member class of 1946 and was president of MCG’s chapter of Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society.
Dr. Peacock’s 41-year career in allergy and internal medicine in Atlanta has included tenures as president of the Medical Association of Atlanta, vice president of the Medical Association of Georgia, president of the Southeastern Allergy Association and national president of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. He was a member of the Georgia State Board of Health under three governors.
He attributes his ties to MCG with enabling him to initiate a program to train internal medicine residents at Georgia Baptist Hospital (now Atlanta Medical Center).
Dr. Peacock also credits MCG with giving him the educational foundation for his successful career. “I have been exposed to physicians educated and trained at the nation’s best-known schools and never had the slightest feeling that I was not fully competitive,” he said. “I have to give MCG all the credit for giving me the education that allowed me to accomplish my goals.”
“MCG has just always meant so much to our family,” said Mrs. Peacock. Their son, Dr. Lamar Bonner Peacock, completed his residency at MCG and served on the faculty in the Department of Internal Medicine for over a decade before entering private practice. Their grandson, Ryan Gossage, is a rising third-year medical student at MCG.
The Peacocks’ devotion to the institution is reflected in their unwavering service and support. Dr. Peacock has served as president of both the School of Medicine Alumni Association and the MCG Foundation. They are founding members of the Milton Antony Guild, created to honor MCG’s founder and to ensure the university’s continued success through bequests, trusts and other life income gifts.
For information about making a gift that meets your unique financial needs, contact Tony Duva, vice president for gift planning, at aduva@mcg.edu, or 706-721-1939.
Ellen Gladden Jones