L. Gordon Sawyer

L. Gordon Sawyer, 89, a retired advertising executive and Northeast Georgia Historian, died November 5, 2015. He was born in Cedar Vale, Kansas to Louis Sawyer and Ruth Gordon Sawyer. He was preceded in death by his parents and sister.

Gordon founded SawyerRileyCompton an advertising agency, in Gainesville in 1960, and moved it to Atlanta in 1991. His agency was accepted to membership in the American Association of Advertising Agency in 1972, and he served as Chairman of the Atlanta Council, chairman of the Southern Region and a member of the national board of directors. His agency was a principal in BBN Worldwide. He was U.S. president of the national Agrimarketing Association in 1974-75, and in 1989 was named the Agriculture Communicator of the Year.  He served on the national board of the Business/Professional Advertising Association, representing the Southeast. He was the 1990 recipient of the G.D. Crain Award, and was named to the BPAA Advertising Hall of Fame in 1990. He served on the Board of the Public Relations Society of American, Atlanta Chapter, and received its Phoenix Award. Even though he attended Georgia Tech, he was elected to the Public Relations Hall of Fame in the journalism school at the University of Georgia in 1992. He was a recipient of the Silver Medal from the American Advertising Federation.

Active in the Chamber of Commerce activities, Sawyer was a member of the board of directors of the Georgia State Chamber of Commerce for a decade, and served in several capacities with the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce, where he received both a Silver Shovel Award and, in 2008, its Distinguished Service Award.

In other business activities, Sawyer was chairman of the North Georgia Journal (now Georgia Backroards magazine), a director of Pfeiffer Pharmaceuticals, and board chairman of Red Clay interactive, an internet marketing company. Prior to starting his own business, he had worked for the National Broiler Council, the Georgia Poultry Federation, and as a reporter for the Atlanta Constitution.

Active in a number of educational organizations, 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. He did graduate work in journalism and business at Emory University, where he was editor of the Emory Wheel. He was a member of the Sponsoring Committee of the Future Farmers of America Foundation, and received the degree of Honorary American Farmer at the National FFA convention in 1983. He was elected to the Hall County Agribusiness Hall of Fame in 2007. Sawyer taught several courses for the Brenau University Learning and Leisure Institute, and was a recipient of Brenau’s Distinguished Service Award in 2002.

A lifelong Republican, Sawyer was the first person to run locally as a Republican for the State Senate in 100 years. He lost, but then served as chairman of the Hall County GOP in the era when Hall County began voting solid conservative rather than solid Democrat. In 1983, Sawyer was appointed by President Reagan to the Technical Advisory Board for the international trade, advisory to both the U.S. Trade Representative and the Department of Agriculture. He served until 1988.

In his encore career, after his retirement from the advertising agency in 1991, Sawyer became a Northeast Georgia historian and Gainesville talk radio personality on WDUN, and a columnist for AccessNorthGeorgia.com, doing regular commentaries on politics and history under the title of “Common Sense Chronicle.” 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 75^th anniversary commander of the Paul E. Bolding Post 7 of the American Legion, in Gainesville.

In other activities, Sawyer was an Elder in the First Presbyterian Church, of Gainesville, and represented Athens Presbytery at the General Assembly in 1990. He was president of the Kiwanis Club of Gainesville in 1986; and a Hixon Fellow in that organization. In the 1950’s he was chairman of the Hall County Chapter of the American Red Cross. Both he and his wife, Jean are Trustees Emeritus 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.

He and his wife, Jean Osborn Sawyer have been married for 65 years; have three sons: Louis (Kathy) Gordon Sawyer, Jr.; Edwin (Cathryn) Osborn Sawyer, and Robin (Paula) Eugene Sawyer; 11 grandchildren and 3 great grandsons.

Funeral services will be held at 3:00 pm on Monday, November 9, 2015 at the First Presbyterian Church. The family will receive friends on Sunday, November 8, 2015 from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm at the Little & Davenport Funeral Home, and again on Monday, November 9, 2015 in Swetenburg Hall of the First Presbyterian Church after the memorial service.

In lieu of flowers the family encourages donations to The Quinlan Visual Arts Center or Northeast Georgia History Center.

Those wishing to send online condolences to the family may do so at littledavenport.com

Little & Davenport Funeral Home and Crematory, 355 Dawsonville Highway, SW, Gainesville, Ga. 30501 is in charge of arrangements.