KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Dr. John Dougherty Jr., a renowned East Tennessee neurologist who would go on to speak openly about his own challenges with a form of dementia, died July 10 at age 80.
During a decades-long career of teaching, treatment, mentoring, science and advocacy, Dougherty started the Knoxville Neurology Clinic, a day program for dementia patients at the former St. Mary's Hospital in North Knoxville and later established the Cole Neuroscience Center at University of Tennessee Medical Center.
It was Dougherty who told an ailing Lady Vols head coach Pat Summitt that he thought she had a form of Alzheimer's Disease. He would later recall that she suspected the same.
Dougherty ended up on the board of the Pat Summitt Foundation, which strives to one day conquer the disease that felled Summitt in 2016.
With compassion, respect and honesty, the doctor treated more than 35,000 patients in his life. He also was a champion of early detection of neurological problems.
Toward the end of his life, he came to realize that he himself had developed Lewy Body dementia, a common form of dementia that affects thinking and movement. Dougherty spoke about it several years ago on Emory Healthcare's Your Fantastic Mind video series. The series is available on YouTube.
Survivors include his wife of 50 years, LeAnne; and son, Andrew and daughter-in-law Ellie.
Dougherty, besides being a devoted husband, dad and grandparent, loved travel, boating, cycling, UT sports, pork chops, art and "practicing mindfulness through meditation," his obituary states.
As they confront their own grief and the thought of life without John Dougherty, his family hopes the public will think about "the ongoing needs of our community and organizations continuing his legacy, such as the Tennessee Memory Disorders Foundation, led by Dr. Monica Crane, and Alzheimer’s Tennessee."
