Francis (Hank) Keiter Moll, Jr. MD

MOLL, JR. – Francis (Hank) Keiter Moll, Jr., M.D., age 91 of Lawrenceville, GA, passed away on Wednesday, December 27, 2023. A memorial service will be held 11:00AM, Saturday, Feb. 3, at St. John Neumann Catholic Church, 801 Tom Smith Road, Lilburn, GA 30047. Dr. Moll died peacefully of natural causes and was surrounded by his wife and children. He will be remembered well for his 46 years as a dedicated physician, service to country, clever wit, and love for dogs. Following in the footsteps of his father and brother, he graduated from Wesleyan University and Thomas Jefferson Medical School. Dr. Moll retired at the age of 71 after enjoying a long and diverse career as an orthopedic surgeon in the military, an academic with Geisinger Medical Center and The Hughston Clinic, and private practice settings. He served in the United States Armed Forces for more than 25 years, deployed by the Navy to Vietnam in 1965 and by the Army to Iraq in 1991. Dr. Moll was preceded in death by his parents, whom he adored, Dr. Francis Keiter Moll, Sr., M.D. and Margaret Agnes (Seigel) Moll; and brother, Dr. Joseph Henry Moll, M.D. He is survived by his loving wife of 67 years, Sophia Lucille (Urbanowicz) Moll of Lawrenceville, GA; daughter, Maggie Beane of Snellville, GA; sons and daughters-in-law George and Catherine Moll of Covington, GA, Francis and Diana Moll, III of Davie, FL; daughter and son-in-law, Lisa and Steve Sperling of Lawrenceville, GA. He is also survived by nine grandchildren and their spouses, Francis Moll, Oliver Moll, Joshua and Alessandra Beane, Charles and Isabella Moll, Sophia and Antonio Ziegler, Thomas and Allyson Byelick, George Moll III, Eve Moll, and William Byelick; two great grandchildren, Isabelle and Nolan Beane. Arrangements by Tim Stewart Funeral Home, 300 Simonton Road SW, Lawrenceville, Georgia 30046. 770.962.3100. Please sign the online guest registry at www.stewartfh.com. Dad’s Story Francis Keiter Moll, Jr. (1932-2023)Francis Keiter Moll, Jr. (1932-2023) Our father, Hank, was born in Pottsville, Pa., during a time when the people in that part of our country labored for and prospered from mining coal. Dad’s home doubled as the office and family residence of Dr. Francis K. Moll, Sr., a prominent hometown physician. His mother functioned as nurse, lab tech and office manager. Dad respected and idolized his parents. Their three-story brick row house stood next door to St Patrick’s Catholic Church, across the street from the United Presbyterian Church, and two doors down from Yuengling Brewery on picturesque Mahantongo Street. The beautiful neighborhood was the epicenter of commerce in Pottsville. A steady flow of patients visited Dad’s house—fellow townsfolk, friends, and neighbors. The home office, laboratory and pharmacy were magical, filled with futuristic machines and gadgets and stocked with flasks, bottles and vials of assorted smells and colors. It also housed one of the region’s first X-ray machines, which resembled something off an aircraft carrier’s wheelhouse more than a medical device. It so heavy that Grandpa had to buttress the floor with railroad ties to support its mass. Sometimes, on cool autumn days when the air was dry, the iron, gothic machine would shower sparks from its Jacob’s ladder just like in Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory. Dad’s early years were filled with life experiences that prepared him well for medicine. He received an undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University and medical degree from Jefferson Medical School. Dad often-time reminisced about his college days at Wesleyan, where he was a member of Sigma Nu, played football, wrestled, and tried out for the choir but didn’t make it. During his fourth year of medical school, Dad enrolled in the U.S. Navy Medical Senior Program and married the love of his life, Sophia Urbanowicz. Dad did a transitional internship and orthopedic residency at the Philadelphia Naval Hospital. He spent his fourth year of residency at the Alfred I. Dupont Childrens Hospital, where he gained specialized training in pediatric orthopedics. By the end of his residency, Mom and Dad had four children: Margaret, George, Francis, and Lisa. Upon graduation, LCDR Moll deployed to Vietnam for 14 months with a Marine Corps detachment. While in Vietnam, Dad joined up with his brother, Joe, where they made history. The Department of Defense, as a policy, did not assign siblings to the same detachment or war zone. Despite this policy, the brothers performed multiple surgeries together in Saigon. Joe, like Dad, was an orthopedic surgeon, but he served with the U.S. Army. After Vietnam, Dad returned to Philadelphia, then transferred to the San Diego Naval Hospital where he took on most of the pediatric orthopedic care. He excelled in scoliosis and corrective osteotomy surgeries. While in San Diego, Dad met Jan and Josephine de Waal. The Molls and the de Waals fast became lifelong friends. Dad enjoyed his days in San Diego where he took up running and rowing, two endurance activities that weren’t mainstream at the time. Very few people ran like Dad, and even fewer rowed a long, skinny 27-foot boat that weighed only 31 pounds and propelled by two 11-foot oars. Dad rowed with senior mentor, Kearney Johnson, at the San Diego Rowing Club and competed in numerous regattas along the California coast. Dad took our family on epic hikes in Torrey Pines, sailed our catamaran on the rough Pacific, bodysurfed at the Coronado Beach Officer’s Club, and led us on memorable after-dinner walks with our friends around Lake Murray. Dad was transferred back east to Annapolis, Md., where he was an orthopedic surgeon for the United States Naval Academy. He rowed with the midshipman, taught his children how to sail on the Severn River, and was among the earliest to perform arthroscopic surgery using eyepiece scopes. After serving in Annapolis, Dad resigned his commission with the Navy and began his time as a civilian doctor in Woodbury, N.J., with colleagues from his Naval residency days. He soon decided to pursue academic medicine and joined the faculty at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pa., where he took great delight in teaching orthopedic residents. The family enjoyed a Norman Rockwell-type home and community on the banks of the Susquehanna River, close to Shenandoah and Pottsville, Mom and Dad’s hometowns. Like the house in which Dad grew up, our family room couch was often used as a hospital bed where Dad removed fishhooks and splinters, cleaned and dressed lacerations for our childhood friends, and where he pierced the ears of some of the neighborhood girls. It wasn’t uncommon after a Friday night football game for a coach to bring an injured player to the house for Dad to examine. The family picked up and moved to St. Petersburg. Fla., where Dad practiced as an orthopedic surgeon for 12 years. Within a few years he successfully established his own private practice with Mom at the front desk and Maggie as Dad’s medical assistant. Dad continued running on the beach and rowed up and down the intercoastal in a modified River Shell boat. He eventually left private practice and a legion of adoring patients and devoted employees and once again joined up with the United States military, but this time it was with the Army. He was assigned to Fort Benning, Ga., and soon deployed to Saudi Arabia in Desert Storm. Dad was the most senior forward-deployed medical officer in the theatre and the tip of the spear for the 3rd Infantry Division. He returned from Desert Storm and assumed Chief of Surgery at Fort Benning. He retired from the Army with more than 25 years of military service combined. Still eager to practice medicine, Dad transitioned to the Hughston Clinic to head up its satellite office in bucolic Eufaula, Ala. Whenever he wasn’t working or running, Dad and any of his nine grandchildren often took long walks through the woods behind his house accompanied by any number of neighborhood dogs. He befriended mutts and thoroughbreds, a spotted Dalmatian and chocolate Labrador, but his favorite was Baron, a black Lab. Dad was a great lover of dogs and dogs loved Dad. Dad retired from orthopedics at the age of 71 and moved to Lawrenceville, Ga., where he spent years mentoring and attending to his nearby grandchildren. He replaced orthopedics, running and rowing with yardwork, walking the rolling hills of nearby parks and his steep driveway, and pushing weights at the YMCA. Dad resumed his responsibilities as a homebased orthopedic surgeon in service to Joshua, his grandson, and Josh’s injured wrestling and football teammates. Dad and Mom hosted many Sunday dinners, holidays, and gatherings for the family in their beautiful home on Pughes Creek. Dad invited Sophie’s two sisters Helen and Adele to live with them as they got on in years and needed assistance. Dad thoroughly enjoyed their company and assisted Mom in their care. It was during this time of his life when Dad became a Catholic at the age of 81. He was a devoted parishioner at St. John Neumann Church and attended Mass regularly with his beloved Sophie. Anyone who knew Hank, knew he was a gentleman, educator and scholar, and that he possessed a curious wit. His legacy will be his life of service. His work ethic was evident to all who knew him, and he never had a prideful boast about the people he served. He served them quietly and effectively all of his life. Dad was old school and a great ambassador for the well-mannered gentleman of his era. Dad never asked anyone to do anything he wouldn’t do or hadn’t already done himself. We grew up watching him answer all calls of duty in the service of his patients, his country, and his family. Those calls came at all hours of the day and night, and in all the seasons of his life. Dad lived 91 years, despite serious medical issues which he gracefully overcame time and time again. All those years of running and rowing, reading, and tinkering, undoubtedly helped Dad maintain his quality of life against all odds. He will be missed and remembered as a patriot, dedicated teacher-physician, runner and rower, lover of dogs, master of puns, and devoted son, husband, and father. Rest in Peace, Dad.

Francis (Hank) Keiter Moll, Jr. MD

November 26, 1932 - December 27, 2023

What We Do

Flowers & Gifts

Plan Ahead

About Us

Resources

Obituaries

Grief & Healing

Contact Information

Francis (Hank) Keiter Moll, Jr. MD

November 26, 1932 - December 27, 2023

What We Do

Flowers & Gifts

Plan Ahead

About Us

Resources

Obituaries

Grief & Healing

Contact Information

365 Days of Grief Support