Gary Garrison (center) died January 16, 2020
He was one of the chapter's five founders. This photo is literally from the founding meeting in 2005, quite appropriately at The Prince of Wales Pub on Piedmont Avenue in Atlanta, now defunct - as are an increasing number of persons in this photo.
There may have been five of us there at the founding but he did all the heavy lifting, he made all the right connections with the Churchill Centre and brought in our first “celebrity speaker”, Dr James Mueller, who lectured on The River War, with all of the high tech A/V below.
As I recall, Mueller (from Alaska) was on a cross-country RV trip with his family and Gary talked him in to routing via Atlanta for a very interesting inaugural talk for us.
Gary became a member of the Churchill Center Board of Govenors. His signature cause there was to make the Centre, and all of its meetings, more affordable and accessible to more members, knowing that we were an aging group and new blood was needed.
Battle of Britain Celebration Georgia Churchill Society 2007
with Flt. Lt. Denis Payne RAF 1940 - first row 2nd from right
He was instrumental in bringing our biggest “celebrity speaker” ever, Churchill granddaughter Celia Sandys to an overflow audience at the Oglethorpe University Museum of Art.
Celia Sandys at the Oglethorpe University Museum of Art
After the loss of his wife Barbara he spent much more time at his Ponte Vedra Beach FL condo, or “the shack” as he called it - and we saw much less of him. It was there he died on January 16.
He was an interesting fellow; always gregarious, sometimes cantankerous, but always rowing the boat toward the sun and away from the darkness.
I am glad to have known him. Bill Fisher