GAINESVILLE - The funeral service for Gordon Sawyer - retired advertising executive, northeast Georgia historian and WDUN commentator - will be held Monday.
Sawyer, 89, died Thursday.
He founded Sawyer RileyCompton, an advertising agency, in Gainesville in 1960, and moved it to Atlanta in 1991. During his career, Sawyer was active in a number of state and national professional organizations.
Locally, he was active in and served in a number of capacities with the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce and was a member of the board of directors of the Georgia State Chamber of Commerce for a decade. In 2008, he received the Distinguished Service Award from the local chamber.
Sawyer was a graduate of Georgia Tech, served as Trustee of the Tech Alumni Association, and was an executive-in-residence in the Tech Continuing Education department 1990-92. Sawyer taught several courses for the Brenau University Learning and Leisure Institute (BULLI) and was a recipient of Brenau’s Distinguished Service Award in 2002.
A lifelong Republican, he was the first person to run locally as a Republican for the state Senate in 100 years and was a former chairman of the Hall County Republican Party. In 1983, he was appointed by President Reagan to the Technical Advisory Board for international trade, advisory to both the U.S. Trade Representative and the Department of Agriculture. He served until 1988.
After retiring from the advertising agency in 1991, Sawyer became a northeast Georgia historian and began his commentaries on WDUN and wrote a column for AccessWDUN, doing regular commentaries on politics and history under the title “Common Sense Chronicles.” He authored several books including: The Agribusiness Poultry Industry: A History of Its Development; Gainesville 1900-2000 (a photographic history); Northeast Georgia: A History; James Longstreet-Before Manassas and After Appomattox; Richard Kidder WWII Survivor, and Characters, Crazies and the Culture of Northeast Georgia. A World War II Navy Veteran, Sawyer was the 75th anniversary commander of the Paul E. Bolding Post 7 of the American Legion in Gainesville.
He was also active in the Kiwanis Club of Gainesville and the First Presbyterian Church of Gainesville. In the 1950s he was chairman of the Hall County Chapter of the American Red Cross. Both he and his wife Jean are Trustees Emeriti of the Quinlan Visual Arts Center in Gainesville. He had been a member of the board of Governors of the Chattahoochee Country Club, a director of the North Georgia Community Foundation, a director of Sautee-Nacoochee Community Association and President of the Skylake Property Owners Association.
The funeral Monday will be at 3 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church of Gainesville.
(A complete obituary can be found on the AccessWDUN Obituaries Page.)
