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| Sam Massell accepts the Four Pillar Award, flanked by those who took part in the program, from right to left, Michael Paris, president & CEO of Council for Quality Growth, emcee Atlanta City Council President Ceasar Mitchell, former Gov. Roy Barnes, former U.S. Sen. David Gambrell, Atlanta Fine Homes CEO Jenny Pruitt, Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens, Juanita Baranco and Georgia State University President Dr. Mark Becker. For a photo gallery of the event, go here. |
The native Atlantan and 53rd mayor of the city, was lauded during an almost three-hour ceremony that featured presentations by present Mayor Kasim Reed, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes, former U.S. Sen. David Gambrell, Atlanta Fine Homes CEO Jenny Pruitt and Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens.
Two additional highlights were a musical tribute to Massell by his daughter and well-known songstress Melanie Massell and a video tribute to Massell’s life, business and public service career entitled “Public Service, Civic Pride”.
Melanie Massell sang three songs: “God Bless America” in honor of her father’s sense of patriotism, “I Did It My Way,” in honor of the way her father has lived his life, and “It’s Buckhead,” a new song written to honor Massell’s community he serves and loves.
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| Sam Massell with his daughter Melanie who sang three songs in tribute to her father and his life and work. |
The master of ceremonies for the event, held in the Georgian Ballroom of the Georgia World Congress Center, was Atlanta City Council President Ceasar Mitchell. The Four Pillar Award was presented to Massell by well-known Atlanta real estate attorney Doug Dillard, who is the 2012 chairman of the Council for Quality Growth.
For 23 years, the Council for Quality Growth has annually recognized an outstanding individual whose accomplishments embody the Four Pillars of leadership and success: Quality, Responsibility, Vision and Integrity. They are the four principles on which the council was founded in 1985.
The 2011 Four Pillar Award recipient was another Buckhead leader R. Charles “Charlie” Loudermilk Sr., who with Massell founded the Buckhead Coalition. Massell continues as the first and only president of the Buckhead organization of 100 business leaders.
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| Massell posed before the ceremony with members of his family, left to right, son-in-law Jack Jacobs (daughter Melanie's husband), wife Doris and daughter Cindy. |
Mayor Reed in his welcome remarks said of Massell, “He has never stopped delivering for Buckhead, for Atlanta and for the state.”
Speaking to the first pillar of “Quality”, Gov. Barnes quipped about Massell’s designation as the mayor of Buckhead. “He names himself. He serves for life. There are no re-elections,” Barnes said, adding that is something he could wrap his arms around.
Barnes praised Massell as fostering the “intersection of business and politics” to create a quality community environment in Buckhead and Atlanta. “This all happened because of people like Sam Massell,” he stated. “Oh, if we only have more like him on the way.”
Former Sen. Gambrell, who spoke to the pillar of “Responsibility”, told the audience, “Sam has made a life’s work of making quality growth in the city of Atlanta.”
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| Massell with Buckhead developer David Allman, who is chairman of the Buckhead Community Improvement District which Massell helped start to promote quality development. |
Gambrell said that when he first met Massell, “Sam was a member of a family that was changing the skyline of Atlanta.” He praised Massell for upholding “his promises to fairness and equality” in Atlanta government.
Gambrell and other speakers pointed to Massell’s record in Atlanta politics of appointing the first female member of the Atlanta Board of Alderman (now City Council) and the first African American department head. Also, before avowed liberal Democrat Massell made the change, there were no Republican primaries in Atlanta elections.
“Sam keeps on keeping on,” Gambrell added. “He is a man of all seasons.”
Pruit spoke on “Vision” and how Massell has envisioned Atlanta and Buckhead as leading business centers and communities of thriving neighborhoods. She pointed to Massell’s various careers in real estate (where he won several awards), politics, the travel industry and now in association management as president of the Buckhead Coalition.
“Because of Sam’s leadership, people have not perished, they have flourished,” Pruitt stated.
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| Council for Quality Growth Chairman Doug Dillard makes the presentation of the award (in his hand) to Sam Massell. |
Olens spoke to Massell’s “Integrity” and how he has always stuck to his principals and has always been a strong promoter of quality growth for Buckhead, Atlanta and Georgia.
When it finally came time for Massell to speak, he joked about being asked once what was the best way to get in to see him when he was mayor of Atlanta. He said he told the person “bring a plaque and have a pretty girl present it.”
The presenter of the symbolic Four Pillar Award was not a pretty girl, but instead the imposing figure of a powerful attorney, Doug Dillard, flanked on stage by a cast of dignitaries looking out upon and audience of about 800 friends who came to support the presentation.
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| Massell gives a thumbs up |
Massell appeared both humbled and impressed.
“I am very impressed that these gentlemen and ladies would show up for this event in my honor,” he said. “The bottom line benefit to the receipt of an award like this you have bestowed upon me tonight, is that it motivates the man or woman honored, to strive to do better to live up to its expectations.”
‘I am not going to let you down…and, I am not through yet,” he concluded, referring to his continuing role in community service and leadership.
For a photo gallery of the event, go here.
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