Dr. Albert Austin Pearre, Jr.

Beloved Frederick physician, Dr. Albert Austin Pearre, Jr., 91, fondly known as “Budgie,” died on January 20, 2026, at the Old Braddock home he adored, surrounded by his children and grandchildren. He lived, in his own words, “a markedly wonderful life.”

The only son of Dr. Albert Austin Pearre, Sr. and Eleanor Gould Pearre, Budgie was born at Frederick Memorial Hospital on August 3, 1934. Along with his two older sisters, he enjoyed a charmed childhood on Upper College Terrace, fishing in nearby Culler Lake, playing basketball at the YMCA and celebrating his birthday each year with dozens of neighborhood pals, many of whom remained dear friends to the end of his life.

Boxes of postage stamps, cigar bands, baseball cards and insignias attest to Budgie’s boyhood zeal for collecting, curating and archiving, early evidence of his organized and discerning nature. As his fourth-grade teacher at Parkway Elementary accurately assessed, Budgie could do anything he put his mind to.

After completing his high school career at the Hill School in Pottstown, PA, where he captained both the baseball and basketball teams, Budgie turned down Harvard to follow in his father’s footsteps and attend the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville.

At UVa., Budgie “put his mind to” excelling at everything. Outside the classroom, he led a robust collegiate life as a member of the IMP, ODK and Raven societies and St. Elmo fraternity and served as Vice President of the College. Most notably, he distinguished himself as a three-year starting center for the Virginia Cavaliers basketball team.

With his signature understatement and ironic sense of humor, he delighted in citing his greatest athletic claim to fame as having been both the first player to be introduced, and the first player to foul out, in the inaugural game at The University of Maryland’s Cole Field House on December 2, 1955.

After graduating with a B.A. in English from UVa. in 1956, Budgie once again followed in his father’s footsteps and decided to pursue a career in medicine. In 1960, he graduated from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and returned to UVa. to complete his residency.

In March of 1961 on a fateful last-minute blind date, Budgie met the love of his life, Joanne Insley, a striking and vibrant widow with two young sons. Six weeks later, in the only impulsive move of his life, Budgie proposed to her. As he always said, it was the best decision he ever made. They married on June 17, 1961, in Joanne’s hometown, Fredericksburg, Virginia.

In 1962, Budgie and Joanne packed up their station wagon and moved to the West Coast where Budgie served in the U.S. Navy as a Medical Officer at the Naval Ordinance Testing Station in China Lake, California. In October of that year, they added a daughter to their family. In 1964 they eagerly returned to Charlottesville where Budgie completed his residency and cardiology fellowship and served as Chief Medical Resident from 1965-66.

After welcoming a third son in 1966, Budgie and Joanne moved to Frederick. They bought their home in Old Braddock and Budgie established a private medical practice that would go on to span a remarkable 51 years.

During that time, he remained at the forefront of instituting modern standards of intensive care and recruiting specialists to the area. He and Joanne enjoyed entertaining and welcoming new doctors and their families to the growing Frederick medical community.

Additionally, he served as President of the Heart Association and Frederick County Medical Society and as Chief of Staff of Frederick Memorial Hospital. He was a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and a proud recipient of the Samuel P. Asper Award for Excellence in Medicine. His practice, Internal Medicine Associates, became the longest-running practice in Frederick.

In the final decades of his career, while managing a busy practice, and distressed by changes in the field of medicine eroding the personal doctor-patient relationship he valued so highly, Budgie also rose to the challenge of caring for Joanne after she was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. He kept Joanne at home under his loving care for 19 years until her death on August 3, 2012. No one knows how he did it, but he did, with support from daytime caregivers and a close-knit circle of friends and co-workers who became a second family to him.

After his retirement in 2017 at the age of 83, ever humble and gracious, he reminded everyone that he still had not beaten his father, who practiced for 52 years. Budgie continued to enjoy competition and camaraderie on the golf course and around the card table at Holly Hills Country Club, as well as good times with his fellow members of Club 18. He loved his grandchildren and followed with pride and joy their varied interests and accomplishments.

He also resumed his boyhood hobby of collecting, devotedly clipping the obituaries of former patients from The Frederick News-Post and placing them in a file folder that grew too full to shut. An exemplar of care and compassion who took a genuine and heartfelt interest in everyone he met, Budgie followed his patients’ stories to the very end.

He was deeply loved and admired and will be deeply missed.

Predeceased by his parents and oldest sister, Eleanor Pearre Abbot, Budgie is survived by his sister Nancy Pearre Lesure, of Frederick and his four children, Tom Payne (Lu Ann Homza) of Williamsburg, VA; Robert Payne of North Hollywood, CA; Insley Pearre (Steve Wilson) of Los Angeles, CA; and Austin Pearre (Lisa) of Jefferson, MD, as well as by five grandchildren, Isaac Wilson of Los Angeles; Eliza Wilson of Brooklyn; Forrest Pearre of Frederick; and Colin and Lindsay Pearre of Jefferson. He will also be remembered as a wonderful uncle by his niece and three nephews.

Budgie’s family is grateful to the caregivers and nurses and to Frederick Health Hospice who helped him in his final years and days, and to his legion of friends, colleagues and patients who helped make his life wonderful.

The family will receive visitors at Keeney-Basford Funeral Home, 106 East Church St. in Frederick on Saturday, January 31, from 1-4 PM. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to The Community Foundation of Frederick County and Federated Charities of Frederick.