Longtime Charlotte County family doctor J. Wayland Dunn passed away last Wednesday.

Dr. Dunn began his career in 1958 in Southampton County, where he started his own private practice. Two years later he began a private practice in Charlotte Court House, where he would work for 53 years before retiring.

While working in the county, Dr. Dunn was also the medical examiner for Charlotte and Campbell counties, a jail physician for the Charlotte County jail and was the medical director for Britthaven Nursing Home in Keysville for 23 years. Britthaven, which is now Wayland Nursing and Rehabilitation, was later named in Dr. Dunn’s honor.

“He was the most intelligent man that I ever had the pleasure to have a conversation with or know,” said Dr. Dunn’s daughter Samantha G. Dunn-Miller.

“I know that a lot of things I hold dear, like reading, I got from him. And, even though he was such a highly-intelligent man, he was one of the most caring people I ever knew. He loved the outdoors and my children picked that up from him.”

Dr. Dunn also served on the Charlotte County Board of Supervisors and was mayor of Charlotte Court House. That is naming a few of the many organizations Dunn was a part of during his life.

“His practice and his patients were definitely a priority in his life. But, we never felt slighted. I always knew he loved me.”