Eugene Harold Shepard Jr., DVM

Published 5:00 am Wednesday, October 1, 2014

    Gene Shepard, Jr., 66, died Sunday, Sept. 21, at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Ga., of complications from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He practiced veterinary medicine at his small animal clinic in Anchorage, Alaska, for over 30 years, forever drawn to the grandeur, serenity, and wildlife God created there.

    A native of Meridian, he graduated from Meridian High School, and Mississippi State University. He earned his doctorate in veterinary medicine from Auburn University.

    He was an avid hunter and fisherman, canoeist, and football fan. He and his dad and brothers fished many a remote spot in Alaska, the South, and off the US Gulf Coast, with one venture taking him to Chile for several months of fishing. He was a continuing student of the Civil War and the Spanish language.

    He leaves to deeply grieve his loss and to cherish his memory, one sister, Melissa Shepard Crutchfield; two brothers, James Hopkins Shepard and David Charles Shepard; and three aunts, Jackie Hopkins Cunningham, Rita Shepard Holladay and Gail Shepard Tomlinson.

    Gene was the son of Eugene H. “Shep” and Olive Hopkins Shepard, both deceased; and the grandson of James Charlie and Marie Byers Shepard and James Lewis and Virginia Jones Hopkins, all deceased and formerly of Meridian.