Dr. George E. Powers

Dr. George E. Powers, age 86, retired Gulfport dentist, died Saturday, May 15, 2010. He was born on May 27, 1923, at Druid City Hospital, now the University of Alabama Medical Clinic, the second child to be born there. He graduated from Hale County High School in Moundville in May, 1941, and started college at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, pursuing a degree in Journalism. In 1943, he joined the Army and served at various bases in the Southeast and the Panama Canal Zone. Upon his honorable discharge, he attended the University of Idaho at Moscow before returning to Alabama where he graduated in 1947 with a degree in Journalism and worked for two years at the Vicksburg Herald. In 1949, he returned to the University of Alabama to pursue a career in dentistry. At the University, he was a member of Kappa Sigma, Rho Alpha Tau and the Canterbury Club. After receiving his doctorate in dentistry at the University of Alabama, he became a Captain in the United States Air Force. He served for two years in Ashiya, Japan. During the summers while attending the University of Alabama he worked as a lifeguard at the Edgewater Gulf Hotel and became acquainted with and became very fond of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. He returned to the Mississippi Gulf Coast in 1956 and became a practicing dentist in Gulfport and Pass Christian. After Hurricane Camille destroyed his offices in 1969, he confined his practice to Gulfport. He was a member of the American Dental Society, the Mississippi Dental Association and a charter member of the Greater Gulfport Dental Society. He retired from the practice of dentistry in 1992. In 1960, during difficult times in the South, Dr. Powers responded to a personal request made by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and accepted an appointment to serve on the Civil Rights Commission. Preceding him in death were his parents, Thomas Jefferson Powers, Jr. and Clara Young Powers; his sister, Clara Powers Bolton, and her husband, John Merrill Bolton of Montgomery, Alabama. He is survived by his close friend and business partner, Donald P. Jacobs, of Biloxi; two children for which he served as co-guardian, Marilyn and Jordan Kariean, of Gulfport; his extended family, Peter and Rose Rogers, their daughter Rachael and her three children, Kane, Lilli and Quade; his brother, Thomas Jefferson Powers and his wife, Ruth, of Lakeview, Texas; six nieces and nephews, John Merrill Bolton and his wife, Annette, and Thomas Powers Bolton and his wife, Kaye, both of Selma, Alabama, Janette Bolton Flynn and her husband, Rick, of Birmingham, Alabama, Dr. Thomas Jefferson Powers, VI, and his wife, Dr. Diana Powers, of San Mateo, California, Caroline Buie and her husband, Tommy, and Melissa Anthony and her husband, Tony, both of Richardson, Texas; and eleven great nieces and nephews; and extended family, Addie and Rod Kipp of Moundville, Alabama. Honoring Dr. Powers' request, the body will be cremated and private arrangements made by his family and friends. Dr. Powers also requested that there be no memorials or flowers. Bradford-O'Keefe Funeral Home, Howard Avenue, in Biloxi is in charge of arrangements.