William Thomas Bryant

William Thomas (Bill) Bryant, age 91, of Milton, passed away August 22, 2020. Bill was born April 21, 1929 in Redan, Georgia to Jesse Thomas Bryant and Annie Slaughter Bryant. As a young boy the family moved to nearby Clarkston where he graduated from Clarkston High School in 1946. Bill earned the nickname “Leapin’ Lena” as the center of the Clarkston basketball team and was also a member of the school football team. It was at Clarkston that he met the love of his life, Martha Garner, and began a romance that lasted over three quarters of a century. On Martha’s 19th birthday, June 10, 1948, the two were married at Druid Hills Presbyterian Church. They quickly settled into their new life together in Avondale Estates. In February 1952, Bill was ordered to report for induction into the United States Army. He completed his Basic and Advanced Infantry Training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and was promoted to Corporal and assigned as a primary instructor in Bayonet and Unarmed Defense at Camp Gordon, Augusta, Georgia. Weekend leaves were spent hitchhiking the 150 miles between Camp Gordon and Avondale Estates to be with Martha. In February 1954, Bill was released from active military service and returned home to await the arrival of the first of their three children that September. Meeting other soldiers from around the country provided Bill a real sense of the world beyond DeKalb County and shaped a purpose and direction which would guide his life.

He began working at the Avondale Estates Colonial grocery store and enrolled that summer as a student at the University of Georgia – Atlanta Division (now Georgia State University) in its business program. He continued working full-time and attending school at night for the next two years. Supporting a young family, working full-time, and attending school proved quite the challenge. Having completed most of his business courses, Bill made the decision, with the encouragement of a loan officer at Decatur Federal Savings and Loan, to build his first speculative home. Several months later, when he presented the keys to the new homeowners, he realized he had found his passion and calling. That first construction loan launched a 65 year career in homebuilding and residential land development. It is estimated that over that span of time, Bill and his partners developed and built over 3,000 single family homes and 1,000 multifamily units, including three golf courses, in Northeast and Central DeKalb, Gwinnett, and Fulton counties.

Bill’s legacy, however, is not defined by the many homes he and his companies built over his career. Bill’s legacy is that of a community builder. Many of his contemporaries said that Bill could look at a raw piece of land and shape it into a beautiful development without a single drawing. In a much larger sense, he had the same clarity of vision in seeing the shape of a beautiful community. He understood that providing families with an affordable, well-built home was but one building block in the community foundation. The home, while a solid financial investment and a great place to raise their families, was hollow without healthy community institutions and employment opportunities. Bill, along with other community-focused homebuilders and community-based lenders, made it a priority to ensure that the families that moved into their homes had active faith institutions, youth programs and social organizations. Bill, through his actions, made sure those building blocks were in place.

Faith played the significant role in Bill’s vision for his life, his family, and his community. It was the solid footing both for his growing family and his faith family.

Bill took great care to raise his children and grandchildren with laughter, love, and the presence of both Martha and Bill and a host of neighborhood and family friends. Holidays were always special, and traditions were central to family life. Cross-country vacations in a packed station wagon with his dear mother-in-law firmly planted in the backseat; Spring Break trips to Colonial Williamsburg; family lunch after church each Sunday; Thanksgiving at the Rehoboth Men’s Breakfast, Annual Turkey Bowl football classic and chaperoning the Rehoboth Youth to the Georgia-Georgia Tech Freshman football game. Bill loved gathering the family at Christmas for the grandchildren’s Christmas play. “Pa” always made time for his grandchildren and great grandchildren, whether it was playing cards or Monopoly, going to cut down their own Christmas trees, or hunting for golf balls that had gone astray from the course. Pa was also a dedicated supporter of his children’s and grandchildren’s many activities, from academic pursuits, to sports and Scouting. The most storied tradition was the Great Christmas Eve Round-up, the “Sleigh Ride”, commenced in 1966. Bill, in need of finding a Christmas gift for Martha, induced his two oldest to accompany him Christmas Eve shopping with the offer of each picking out a Christmas gift for themselves. That tradition lasted for almost 50 years and grew from the original three to seventeen family members spanning four generations. You could always counton a merchant asking Bill to speak with an American Express representative, around mid-afternoon, to confirm someone had not stolen his card. His favorite moment was when he was interviewed by a local news station about the tradition. Throughout all phases of his life as a parent, he emphasized how important our faith is to the life we live.

Traveling, particularly with family and friends, was a staple for Bill and Martha, visiting many places throughout the United States and Canada and across Europe and Asia; attending Super Bowls, World Series, and other major sporting events; and road tripping to numerous antique shows. Colonial Williamsburg held a very special place among these many destinations, and was a place that Bill and Martha would visit often, many times with their grandchildren, creating countless memories and inspiring a love of travel in their grandchildren that will live on for generations to come. Colonial Williamsburg would also serve as an inspiration for the homebuilding and development business, from architecture to street names. Bill understood that a community with strong families was a healthy community.

In 1949, Bill and Martha helped organize and charter Rehoboth Presbyterian Church, which served the community between Decatur and Tucker. Bill always reminded church leaders of the importance of serving the young people in the church and its surrounding neighborhoods. Rehoboth built the area’s first church gymnasium and, by 1963, Rehoboth had the largest Kindergarten program in the area. Bill, and his brother Don, coached boy’s baseball and basketball teams in the Tucker and Clarkston youth and church leagues and men’s softball teams. Bill and Martha served as youth group leaders for Rehoboth’s high school students. When neighboring Shallowford Presbyterian Church wanted to build a ball team for men’s and boy’s church softball leagues, Bill’s company provided the clearing and grading for the new field. Bill understood that a community with strong and active faith institutions was a healthy community.

When Bill and Martha’s own three children entered DeKalb County Schools, Bill and his companies were active partners in helping the PTA, the sports booster clubs, and by supporting teachers and administrators. Bill’s new home developments complemented the rapid expansion of new elementary and high schools as DeKalb’s school population grew. Bill and Martha opened their home to host the construction of homecoming floats and year-end school

parties. While Bill was never able to complete his university degree, he made sure that his three children, and his grandchildren, had the opportunities to pursue college and graduate degrees. He affectionately referred to his seven grandchildren as the SevenED corporation. Bill understood that a community which had strong schools and libraries nurtured a culture of lifelong learning necessary for a healthy community.

As Bill’s company grew, it also created employment opportunities for scores of young men and women in the community. Bill reached out to his brother Don and their high school friend, Charlie Brown, to form the leadership team for the growing concern. Over the years many of the youth that they coached or mentored at church, and others, entered and learned the homebuilding and real estate business under Bill’s tutelage and enjoyed successful careers. The trio also found opportunities for countless numbers of high school students to work summers and afterschool to earn spending money. Those students went on to become doctors, lawyers, ministers, teachers, veterinarians, concert promoters and business leaders. Bill understood that providing employment pathways within the community created a healthy economy.

Zig Zigler once said that “success is the doing, not in the getting; in the trying, not the triumph… If we do our best, we are a success.” In every sense of the word, Bill was a doer and a trier; he leaves a legacy of success.

Bill was predeceased by his parents, his mother-in-law Ann H. Garner, his sisters Frances Bryant Giles and Jean Bryant Burrell, and his son-in-law Darryl Guttery. He is survived by his wife of 72 years, Martha Garner Bryant; his brother Joseph Donald Bryant (Sue) and sister Peggy Bryant Sheppard (Walter); his son Wm. Bradley Bryant and daughter-in-law Kay Cook Bryant; his daughter Sarah Bryant English and son-in-law Timothy J. English; his daughter Jane Bryant Guttery; grandsons Wm. Benjamin Bryant (Kristen) and Boyd Thomas Guttery (Olivia); granddaughters Katherine Cook Bryant, Caroline Elizabeth English, Sarah Ellen English, Martha Elyse Guttery , and Hannah Hope English; great-grandchildren Wm. Michael Bryant and Elizabeth (Ella) Charlotte Bryant; and a host of nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Thornwell Home for Children, Clinton, SC. https://thornwell.org/.

A graveside service will be held on Thursday, August 27, 2020 at Luxomni Baptist Church Cemetery in Lilburn, Georgia at 11:00 AM.