John Fitzpatrick Kirby, II

CHARLOTTE " In a life cut too short by cancer, John Fitzpatrick Kirby, II passed from this life into the next on Wednesday, September 24, 2014. Jack, 63, was born on October 12, 1950 in Atlanta, Georgia. He grew up in Charlotte and was a 1968 graduate of Myers Park High School. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte where he received the prestigious Aphrodite Anderson Prize for mathematics, and Clemson University graduating with a Masters degree in Mathematical Sciences. He retired from BB&T Leasing Corporation as Vice President with 28 years' service. Jack was a life-long member of Carolina Golf Club where he spent much of his youth learning to play the game. He held almost every leadership position at the club, including president, multiple times over the past 37 years. He helped initiate and oversee the restoration of his beloved Donald Ross course during the last 10 years. A true southern gentleman on and off the course, Jack loved the game of golf and was an accomplished golfer who played courses from St. Andrews to Pebble Beach. He also loved playing his mandolin with bluegrass pickers around Charlotte and beyond. And some may have known him as the "Soup Man" at the Urban Ministry Center. Jack was preceded in death by his parents John W. and Frances Carr Kirby and is survived by his wife Anita H. Kirby; sisters Bonnie Wilkes and husband Jim of Walnut Cove, NC, Kathy Harmer and husband Mike of Huntersville, NC, and Harryette Ahlstrom of Davidsonville, MD, nieces Carrie Harmer, Ashley Woolwine, Emily Douglas, Abbey Benfield, Kirby Ahlstrom, and nephew Tate Harmer. Jack was a member of Sardis Presbyterian Church, 6100 Sardis Road, where a funeral service will be held at 2:00 p.m., Monday, September 29, 2014. Visiting with friends and family and a reception will immediately follow the service at the Sardis House building located behind the church. A "Celebration of Jack's Life" will be held at Carolina Golf Club, 2415 Old Steele Creek Rd, at 5:30 p.m., Thursday, October 2, 2014, where we, his friends and family, will hoist our glasses and toast the well-lived life of our husband, brother and friend and the things he loved best: his family, his friends, his golf and club, and his music. Memorials may be made to Urban Ministry Center, 945 N. College St., Charlotte, NC 28206, instead of flowers. Arrangements are by J. B. Tallent Funeral Service, www.TallentFuneralService.com. 9/29/2014 02:00 PM Memorial Sardis Presbyterian Church 6100 Sardis Road Charlotte