Dr. James Brooks Sweet, age 85, died on July 22, 2019 in Pensacola, FL.

Jim was born in Darlington, PA on March 28, 1934. He graduated from Carrick High School in Pittsburgh, PA. Jim went on a 4-year athletic scholarship to Lafayette College playing both football and track. After graduation, he joined the US Navy flight program in Pensacola, FL where he met his wife, Gayle Laird, the love of his life. He retired as a Captain (O6) from the US Navy and US Public Health Service (USPHS). He earned degrees from Lafayette College, University of Pittsburgh, and New York University. While in New York, he completed his residency from the USPHS at Staten Island in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMS). He later became the Chief of OMS at the Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD, contributing over 25 professional articles and received the J.D. Lane Award from the USPHS. In 1980, Jim became the Chief of OMS at the USPHS hospital in Nassau Bay, TX where he later retired. While there, he was a consultant to NASA treating many astronauts.

Following retirement from USPHS, Jim was a professor at the University of Texas, Health Science Center and Texas Medical Center in Houston, TX teaching students and residents. He was also an attending physician at Ben Taub General Hospital and a consultant at the Veteran's Administration Hospital. He was a Fellow of the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons and a past member of both the Texas and Houston Societies of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. He was president of Omicron Kappa Upsilon in Houston, TX from 1993-1994. In 2002, Dr. Sweet became a Professor Emeritus in OMS awarded by the University of Texas. His biographies are included in the Marquis Who's Who in America, The World, The South and Southwest, and in Medicine and Health.

Jim retired in 1995, moving to a home which he and Gayle built on the water at Sweet Street in Navarre, FL. He obtained a realty license and developed and managed rental properties until 2016 when he and Gayle moved to their final home at Azalea Trace Life-Retirement, an ACTS Community in Pensacola, FL.

Jim is preceded in death by his parents, Reverend Lufay Anderson and Margaret Jean Brooks Sweet.

He is survived by his loving wife of 60 years, Gayle Laird Sweet; his three children, James Brooks Sweet II, Laird Anderson Sweet (Silvia), Bradley Stephen Sweet (Rebecca); seven grandchildren, Keegan Alexander Sweet, Logan Trask Sweet, Ashlin Taylor Adam (Darren), Jaxon Trevor Sweet, Autumn Paige Sweet, Colton Clark Sweet, and Thomas James Sweet; brothers, Lufay Anderson Sweet II and John Paul Sweet (Penny); and many cousins, nephews and nieces.

Funeral Cortege will depart Harper-Morris Memorial Chapel, 2276 Airport Blvd., Pensacola, FL 9:30am Friday, July 26, 2019 for a graveside service at 10:00am at Barrancas National Cemetery, NAS Pensacola, FL.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Parkinson's Disease Foundation, 1359 Broadway Ste 1509, New York, NY 10018.