Obituary: Lloyd Alan Mendelson

Beloved Lloyd Alan Mendelson, Ph.D. passed away peacefully at age 84 in the early hours of Oct. 18. A native Atlantan, Lloyd was born to Ethel (Isenberg) and Morris Mendelson on Dec. 1, 1940. He had a charmed childhood surrounded by an extended family of southerners imbued with Yiddishkeit and his father’s superb humor inherited by the couple’s only child. He was later mentored by his uncle, Sidney Isenberg, a respected psychiatrist who saw in Lloyd the humanity, humility, and potential of a gifted mental health professional. After graduating from Grady High School, then the University of Georgia where he minored in ancient Greek culture – a lifelong curiosity, Lloyd headed west for UCLA (too far away for his doting mother) to begin studies as a psychologist. There he met Nahid Esfandiari of Tehran, Iran, and married. After receiving his Ph.D. in psychology from Florida State University, the couple settled in Atlanta and had three children to whom they were deeply devoted.

While in private practice – sometimes jogging from his Sandy Springs home to his Buckhead office – Lloyd became a pilot. He was also a habitual backpacker along the Appalachian Trail, once through the Costa Rican jungle, and completed the Colorado 350-mile cycle Ride The Rockies. Ever drawn by Great Nature, he was an early city-settler in Blue Ridge, Ga., where he purchased the family “farm” and with them worked the land and protected the surrounding wildlife wilderness. He retired early from private practice and became the first developer there building creek-side sites on a luxury subdivision he called “Goleega.”

After the passing of his first wife, Lloyd married Phyllis Fraley of Atlanta and though heartbreakingly brief, blessed with an intense, deeply loving last chapter.

Lloyd loved poetry and wrote it, he loved music and played it and on his piano since childhood with the same clear-headedness and sweetness that defined the man.

He is survived by his wife, Phyllis. He is also survived by his children, Lailee (Geoffrey), Shereen (Josh), Mark (Suzy), and grandchildren, Isabella, Sam, Alex, Asher, Max and Ross and his many loving cousins and dear friends.

Phyllis is grateful for the loving care of Lloyd’s family friend, Lucretia Winston, and teammate Cherell Elliot.

Kindly donations in Lloyd’s memory may be made to the Israel Defense Forces.

Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.