DR. WILLIAM KIRK JR.
Sept. 22, 1952-Jan. 10, 2017
Dr. William Smith Kirk Jr., 64, of Goldsboro, N.C. passed away at peace Jan. 10, 2017, in Greenville, N.C.
Born Sept. 22, 1952 in Salisbury, N.C., he was the son of Lois Jean Smith and the late Dr. William Smith Kirk.
He attended Salisbury High School where he was quarterback for the football team. Dr. Kirk studied at Wheaton College where he also quarterbacked and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He completed his residency at Vanderbilt University in 1978.
Dr. Kirk was highly respected as an oral surgeon in the Charlotte area for 35 years. He had a lifelong dedication to education, coaching and publishing. Outside of his work, he loved gardening, golf, boating and spending time with his children and grandchildren. He had recently relocated to Goldsboro to join Triangle Implant Center Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery to simplify his life and return to a small-town life.
He is a native of Salisbury and a third-generation dental provider. Collectively, the Kirk family has provided dental care in general, orthodontic and surgical dental care for over 91 years. Dr. Kirk was a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill School of Dentistry and received his oral and maxillofacial surgery training at Vanderbilt University. During his years in Charlotte, he maintained an active solo practice with hospital procedures performed primarily at Carolinas Medical Center-Mercy, and Novant Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte. He helped develop MRI imaging protocols of the temporomandibular joint (TMJ) with the Department of Radiology, CMC-Mercy in the late 1980s.
Dr. Kirk specialized in orthopedic surgery of the jaw joint and surgical and non-surgical management for patients with TMJ disorder. He served as president of the American Society of TMJ Surgeons from 2003-05 and has published numerous papers in the peer-reviewed surgical literature and chapters in surgical texts.
Dr. Kirk expressed great pride in the accomplishments of his four children: Jason, Ben, Taylor and Katie. Jason obtained his BA in journalism and international studies at UNC-Chapel Hill and PhD in political science at the University of Pennsylvania and is associate professor at Elon University. Ben obtained his BS, MS and PhD in aerospace engineering at the University of Texas and is branch chief in the engineering directorate at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston. Taylor graduated from Texas A&M University with a BS in agronomy and is superintendent of the track and grounds at Circuit of The Americas in Austin. Katie earned a BS in economics (summa cum laude) at East Carolina University and was a scholarship athlete for the Lady Pirates golf team 2011-2015. She completed her MS in economics at ECU and is working for BB&T as a bankcard portfolio analyst.
Along with his father, he is preceded in death by his brother-in- law, Tom Spicknall.
Those left to cherish his memory are his mother, Lois; sister, Peg Spicknall; brother, Tim Kirk and wife, Kim; children, Jason and wife, Deepa, Ben and wife, Lindsay, Taylor and wife, Meg, Katie and grandchildren Jenna, Arun, Lauren, Uma, Collin, Cade and Allison; and niece and nephews, John, Susan, Ryan and Davis.
A memorial service will be held today at 4:30 p.m., in the Summersett Memorial Chapel, Salisbury.
Summersett Funeral Home is serving the Kirk family. Online condolences may be made at www.summersettfuneral.com.
(Pd)
Published in Obituaries on January 15, 2017 10:22 AM