Dr. Walter N Minor

Walter N. Minor, MD, 88, of Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina, died peacefully on Wednesday October 23, 2019.

Visitation will be Wednesday, October 30, 2019 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. in Karrer-Simpson Funeral Home.

Graveside service with full Military Honors will take place at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, October 31, 2019 at Hillside Cemetery in St. Clair.

A visitation and funeral were also held in Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina.

Walt was born September 19, 1931 in Port Huron, Michigan.

He was preceded in death by his wife of 52 years, Virginia Adelaide Minor; his two infant daughters, Marie and Michelle; his mother, Dorothy W. Minor; and his father, Earl N. Minor.

Walt is survived by his children, Michelle of Fuquay-Varina, NC, Michael (Kim) of Key West, FL, Dwight (Cindy) of Greensboro, NC, David (Carol) of Twining, MI, Karen (Charles) Curtis of Wake Forest, NC; daughter-in-law, Sandie Minor of Fuquay-Varina, NC; grandchildren, Eric, Thomas, Christopher, Isaac, Ashlyn, Nicholas, Abby, Samantha, Ryan and Sydney; great-grandchildren, Berkeley, Landon and Morgan; a sister, Francine Warsalla of Port Huron; and several nieces and nephews.

Walt worked at Mueller Brass Company following high school in 1949, and also worked on a Great Lakes Freighter as a coal tender. He met his future wife in Manistique, MI. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1951 serving in the 11th Airborne Division. He was married to the love of his life, Virginia, at Fort Campbell, KY in 1951. He later worked as the county welfare director in Alger County, MI and Social Services Director in Schoolcraft County, MI. Walt completed his undergraduate degrees in chemistry and mathematics at Central Michigan University. He graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School and started practice in Manistique, MI. Dr. Minor began practice in Fuquay-Varina in 1975, and built a large family practice based on his love and compassion for his patients. Dr. Minor also served Wake County as a Medical Examiner. He also served the FAA as an Aircraft Accident Investigator and FAA Flight Surgeon. Dr. Minor was an accomplished pilot, golfer, baseball player, trumpet and organ player as well as an avid supporter of Fuquay-Varina High School Athletics, offering free player physicals and team medicine.

Dr. Minor served in the U.S. Army Reserve as a commissioned officer. He re-entered active duty in 1990 serving as an Army Physician with the 44th Medical Brigade and Womack Army Hospital. He later served as the 18th Aviation Brigade Flight Surgeon. Dr. Minor served in Florida with Hurricane Andrew relief efforts and most proudly as a deployed Army physician in Operation Desert Storm working in his most personally important mission of treating and caring for our country’s deployed young soldiers in combat. Dr. Minor retired from military service as a Lt. Colonel, and the U.S. Army’s oldest active paratrooper in 1994. He returned to family practice, retiring completely in 2010.

Dr. Minor was most proud of his children and grandchildren. He was a busy physician but always on the sidelines for football, band concerts, baseball or any other activity his kids and grandchildren were involved in. He loved all his patients, especially his elderly patients serving multiple nursing and rest homes in Wake and Harnett Counties. He happily made house calls up until retirement and accepted cherry pies or anything chocolate as payment from any of his patients that could not pay.