Waldo Emerson Floyd, Jr., MD, Macon, Georgia, passed away on Thursday, April 20, 2017. He was preceded in death by his father, Dr. Waldo Emerson Floyd, Sr., his mother, Laura Lavinia Hilliard Floyd, his sister, Virginia Lee Floyd Tillman, and his wife of 64 years, Helen Joann Peterson. He was born in Statesboro, Georgia on October 29, 1929. He graduated with honors from Statesboro High School at the age of 16 in 1946. He attended Virginia Military Institute and graduated from Emory University in 1950, where he was a member of Sigma Chi Fraternity.

That year, he married Helen Joann Peterson in Ailey, Georgia. They attended Johns Hopkins, where he received his M.D. degree in 1954 and she a Master's degree in Education. He was appointed Hopkins Exchange Surgery student at Harvard Medical School in 1953 and lifetime president of his graduating class at Johns Hopkins Medical School and was honored at his fiftieth reunion.

He was the first orthopaedic surgery resident in Georgia training at Georgia Baptist Hospital and at the Medical College of Georgia. Subsequently, he served as Lt. Cmdr. in the U.S. Navy at Charleston Naval Hospital. He taught at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. He moved to Macon in 1961, establishing his practice of orthopaedic and hand surgery which is now known as OrthoGeorgia. Dr. Floyd pioneered reconstructive hip and hand surgery in Georgia. His two sons are orthopaedic surgeons.

Dr. Floyd was a diplomate of the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery and earned a Certificate of Added Qualification in Hand Surgery at the age of sixty, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, the American Society for Surgery of the Hand, the American Association of Hand Surgeons, the American College of Surgeons, the International College of Surgeons, the Society of Colonial Wars, the St. Andrews Society of Savannah, the Society of the Cincinnati, the Macon Rotary Club, the Idle Hour Country Club, the Highlands Country Club, the Gideon Society, the Ailey Methodist Church, and the First Presbyterian Church of Macon. He was a Freemason.

He was president of the Georgia Orthopaedic Society, and he was president and a founding member of the Georgia Society for Surgery of the Hand. Dr. Floyd was on the Board of Councilors of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons for six years. He was honored by the Bibb County Medical Society as Doctor of the Year in 2008. He was a Professor of Surgery at Mercer University School of Medicine, instrumental in the school's founding and on the admissions committee.

Dr. Floyd could talk about anything, and he never met a stranger. He was an authority on wiregrass Georgia and Alabama genealogy. In his spare time, he loved carpentry, quail hunting, fishing, working with his hands, and being with his family. He would travel on most rural roads in Georgia and share anecdotes about the individuals named on the bridges. He was a man of God who taught his children to trust in Jesus Christ. He was a gifted physician and surgeon worthy of emulation and a lover of poetry who could recite endless poems. He was loved by family, friends, and patients.

He is survived by his daughters, Susan Lee Floyd Causey (Harold), Joanna Marie Floyd Jones (Casey); and his sons, Waldo Emerson Floyd III, MD, FAOA (Kathy), and John C. P. Floyd, MD, FACS (Leigh Anne). The sons are the fifth generation of Floyd medical doctors. Other survivors include ten grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

Services will be held on Sunday, April 23, at 2 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church with the Rev. Chip Miller officiating. Burial will be private in Ailey, Georgia. In lieu of flowers the family requests that donations be made to the Peterson Memorial Cemetery Fund, PO Box 7, Ailey, GA 30410.

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Snow's Memorial Chapel, Cherry Street, has charge of arrangements.