November 28, 2023, 96, La Grange —
Dr. Mel Berlin died at home on Tuesday, November 28, 2023.
Mel was born on September 2, 1927, in Mobile, Alabama to the late Al and Yetta Berlin. Mel and his parents moved several times in his youth, but he called Savannah, Georgia home. After graduating from Savannah High School in 1945, Mel headed north to attend Duke University. After a year of college, he volunteered for the U.S. Army and served his country in the South Pacific. Mel always spoke of his time in service as a pivotal chapter in his life and development. After his time in the Army, he re-enrolled at Duke and with only three years of undergraduate studies, was admitted into Duke University Medical School where he graduated in 1953.
Mel met his beloved wife, Mary, in the Duke University Chapel Choir and the couple was married in Mary’s childhood home in La Grange, NC on the Winter Solstice in 1952. In 1955 Mel returned to Savannah with Mary and their new baby, Jack, where he worked as the first chief medical resident at Memorial Hospital. Two years later, Mel hung his appropriately sized shingle on the front of his private practice just before their second child, Kathy, arrived. Just like stair steps, two years later, Mel and Mary’s family was completed with the birth of their third child, David. Absolutely nothing rivaled the love and pride Mel felt for his family.
In 1979 Mel and Mary made the bittersweet decision to close his practice and returned to Duke where he joined the Athletics Department as the first family medicine physician caring for athletes, coaches, and staff. Duke Athletics was most certainly as his second love and with the legacy of incredible coaches and players, Mel and Mary traveled extensively to tournaments around the world.
After practicing medicine for 40 years, Mel retired from Duke in 1998 and he and Mary made a new home in Hubert, NC. They were immediately welcomed by their neighbors along Peninsula Manor and loved living on Queen’s Creek. Mel was an avid reader and fisherman and Hubert proved to be an excellent home for both hobbies. Mel served on the board of the Onslow County Public Library for several years and found great joy through volunteerism. If he wasn’t reading or watching old ball games the victories were preserved- you could find Mel and Mary out on their dock. He’d throw the cast net for shrimp, then bait her hook. She’d catch a few pinfish, then bait the crab pot.
In 2018 Hurricane Florence tore through Eastern North Carolina and Mel and Mary’s home, leaving them evicted but with an opportunity to make a new path. They relocated back to Savannah and were grateful to be more centrally located to all three of their children. Last month, he and Mary made their way back to La Grange and were happy to make a new, final home right across the street from where they were married.
Mel was known for his fierce loyalty and devotion. He was a remarkable diagnostician, and his patients, friends, families, and neighbors were always grateful that he was only an email or phone call away. He answered to a variety of terms of endearment from friends and family including Blitz, Melvin, Dr. B, Doc, Doctor Berlin sir, Poopah (or Pahpoo), Pop, and Daddy.
Mel is preceded in death by his parents and son-in-law, Chris Wegmann. Mel is survived by Mary, his wife of over 70 years; his three children, Jack Berlin (Leslie), Kathy Wegmann, and David Berlin (Louise); five grandchildren, Lauren Wiggs (Trey), Jack Carr (Hallie), Lindsey Berlin (James Hale), Greg Berlin, and Melody Berlin (Brandon Boyer); and six great-grandchildren, Emmett Wiggs, John Wiggs, Adeline Carr, Jack Lawrence “Law” Carr, III, Eleanor Carr, and Callaway Boyer. The family will celebrate Mel’s incredible life on Friday, December 1, 2023, at 2 p.m. in the chapel of Rouse Funeral Home. Family will greet friends in the hour before the service, as well as at other times at home. Committal will follow at Fairview Cemetery, La Grange.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that you consider a donation to the Iron Dukes or La Grange United Methodist Church in Mel’s memory. Obituary lovingly submitted by Mel’s family.
Online condolences may be expressed at www.rousefh.com.
Arrangements are entrusted to Rouse Funeral Home, La Grange.
