A consummate professional retires

After more than three decades on the job and 10,000 autopsies, Dr. Charles Garrett, the state's southeastern regional medical examiner, is hanging up his scrubs.

"Someone asked me the other day whether I was serious about retiring," Garrett said. "I asked them, ‘I canceled my malpractice insurance, does that sound serious enough to you?'"

Garrett - who has worked on every high-profile murder case in southeastern North Carolina in the last 32 years - will go to work part-time as a disciplinary hearing officer for the N.C. Medical Board. He also plans to work on private medical cases.

"I've still got a lot of homicide cases to testify in, too," Garrett said.

Even with all his post-retirement plans, his wife of 43 years, Ann, is looking forward to her husband being at home more.

 "He has a lot to do around the house," she said. The Garretts have a garden and greenhouse full of orchids, and Garrett said he hoped to slip away some and put his boat into Northeast Creek.

The Garretts have one daughter, two grandchildren and one great granddaughter.

"That little girl is the light of my life," Garrett said.

Family, friends, local officials, members of law enforcement and Onslow Memorial Hospital staff gathered Tuesday at a retirement party to honor Garrett.

The hospital presented him with a shadow box that encased a plaque, a scalpel, a pair of scissors, a set of clamps and a liver knife.

"Dr. Garrett is widely respected in law enforcement for his work in forensic medicine," said hospital spokesman Tim Strickland.

Garrett said he will miss working with police to solve homicides.

"Autopsies are fascinating," he said. "They are like puzzles."

Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown, who has had a public dispute or two with Garrett over the years, said Garrett has always been a consummate professional.

"We are going to miss him," Brown said.

Strickland also said Garrett was well-known in the community beyond his work.

Garrett is an avid birdwatcher who has traveled all over the United States to spot birds, and he has catalogued more than 600 species since 1989. He is the chairman of a committee reviewing candidates to hire a new priest at St. Anne's Episcopal Church. And he also cooks meals for the church's various food ministries.

When Garrett was board certified as a pathologist in 1971, he was only the 200th person to have been certified in the country.

Today, there are 14,000 board certified pathologists, according to the American Society of Clinical Pathology.

Garrett began his career in Miami, conducting more than 30 autopsies a day.

In his 32 years as the state's lead southeast regional medical examiner responsible for nine surrounding counties, Garrett has seen significant changes in crime patterns.

"Believe it or not, there used to be a lot of killings in Atlantic Beach," he said. "The circle there, which used to be filled up with bars, has been cleaned up."

The same goes for Court Street in Jacksonville, Garrett said.

And people are now shooting each with larger caliber pistols, Garrett said.

"In the 1980s there were a lot of small-caliber pistols like .22s and .25s," he said. "Now, everyone is carrying .380s, .45s and semi-automatic pistols."

Garrett said the bullets people use to shoot each other have gotten bigger, but one thing is the same - alcohol is involved in almost every violent death.