Like his siblings, Shelby Wilkes worked on the family farm south of Jackson, Mississippi. And like them, he listened to his parents preach the value of getting an education.
He left Crystal Springs, Mississippi, as his high school’s valedictorian and never stopped learning, becoming Georgia’s first African American retina specialist and a leading state advocate for good eye care.
“He liked medicine,” said his widow, Dr. Jettie Burnett. “He played tennis for a while but returned to reading about medicine. That was what he enjoyed.”
The son of Jessie and George Wilkes, Shelby Ray Wilkes died Dec. 28 in metro Atlanta after being diagnosed with a rare form of cancer in August. He was 74, “and up until then, he was very healthy,” said Burnett.
Wilkes earned a Bachelor of Science in biology from Alcorn State University in three years, then spent a summer in a Harvard University program designed to encourage African American students to focus on medical careers. He headed to Johns Hopkins University, intending to become a cardiac surgeon, but “he wound up working with blood vessels in the eye instead of the heart,” said Burnett.
The two met in medical school, where Burnett was studying ophthalmology. Her parents liked Wilkes, said Myra Burnett, Jettie’s sister. Their mother “campaigned” for Jettie to marry him, assuring her “that he really loves you.” They married in 1975 after finishing medical school. Wilkes did a year of residency in surgery at the University of Rochester School of Medicine before completing an ophthalmology residency at the Mayo Clinic. A fellowship in surgery and diseases of the retina and vitreous, the substance that fills the eye, brought him back to Harvard for further study.
While there, Andrew Young and Maynard Jackson visited the campus, talking about business opportunities in Atlanta with its growing Black middle class. They came to Georgia in 1983 and opened Atlanta Eye Consultants. They struggled, said Burnett. “There was a lot of hustling, but gradually we built our business.”
Wilkes became an expert in diabetic retinopathy, which affects African Americans more often than white people, “probably because of a lack of access to medical care,” Burnett said. Wilkes published numerous articles in scientific ophthalmology journals and was the principal investigator of the first statewide diabetic retinopathy screening study in the country.
He encouraged primary care physicians to do eye exams to discover the disease and to refer their patients to specialists. The disease can be treated with laser surgery. Wilkes spread awareness by talking to church and civic groups, and lecturing medical groups and medical students. He was a member of the American Society of Retina Specialists, giving presentations in Atlanta and abroad.
In 1998 Wilkes earned a Master of Business Administration from the Coles College of Business at Kennesaw State University. He served on the college’s diversity committee and helped set up an international business fellowship program. He was a member of the dean’s council at Emory’s Rollins School of Public Health, and served as an assistant clinical professor of surgery and ophthalmology at Morehouse School of Medicine and Emory University School of Medicine. Wilkes served one term as president of the Georgia State Medical Association.
In the early 2000′s, the couple opened an outpatient eye surgery center — one of Wilkes’ dreams, his wife said — in College Park. Having a retina operation in a hospital was just too expensive for some people; the surgery center was more affordable. It was also the first such facility in Georgia.
“It was a dream of his, mine less so, because I knew the work it would take,” said Burnett. “We had children by then. But I was happy to do it, and I felt so proud that we had a certified center for our patients.” Their son, Martin Wilkes, also a retina specialist, worked alongside his father before moving to Cincinnati.
When he wasn’t working, Wilkes was a deacon at Zion Hill Baptist Church. He taught young people, using Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich” as the basis for a class on building success. Jettie and Shelby traveled widely, sometimes for meetings, other times for pleasure, with Shelby acting as videographer.
In addition to his wife and son, Shelby Wilkes is survived by his brothers Emanuel Wilkes (Columbus, Georgia), William Howard Wilkes (Dallas, Texas), Ceasar Jones (Crystal Springs, Mississippi) and Willie Barnard Wilkes (Moss Point, Mississippi); his sister Maxine Baggett (Jackson, Mississippi); son Andrew Wilkes (Brooklyn, New York), two grandchildren and other family members. A viewing will be held Jan. 10, 1-8 p.m., at Murray Brothers Cascade Chapel, 1199 Utoy Springs Road SW, followed by a wake from 5-7 p.m. A celebration of life will be held Jan. 11, 11 a.m., at Zion Hill Baptist Church, 6175 Campbellton Road SW.
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