George Gilmore Martin, 77, passed away peacefully in Jacksonville, Florida, on December 30, 2021.
Born on March 4, 1944, in Jacksonville at St. Luke’s Hospital, where his father, Dr. Paul Howard Martin, was later chief of orthopedics. George was the first of three children. He attended West Riverside Elementary, The Bolles School, and graduated from Robert E. Lee High School in 1961. He attended college at Emory University and graduated with a B.A. degree in 1965. At Emory, he was on the Dean’s list and was in student government, various academic honorary societies, and the Alpha Tau Omega social fraternity.
On September 18, 1965, he married Julia (Judy) Ruth Sams. In December 1967, he graduated from the University of Florida Law School with a Juris Doctor degree. In January 1968, they moved to Jacksonville. While establishing his career in ownership of real estate interests in Duval County, he taught mathematics at Andrew Jackson High School and science at Jeb Stuart Middle school. On September 16, 1965, he and his mother, Caeli Gilmore Martin, purchased Whiteway Corner in Riverside Avondale from the estates of A.A. and A.K. Nasrallah. Later, he worked as a collection attorney for the Barnett Banks of Florida, filing a record number of over 4,000 lawsuits in one year. After which, he became the President of Dixie Mortgage Company.
In 1982, he and his family moved to Floyd County, Virginia, where, on their 60-acre farm, they raised horses, Fox Terriers, and their three sons. While there, he developed several residential subdivisions, founded a mortgage banking company, and as an attorney, obtained at trial a record verdict against the Appalachian Power Company in a power line condemnation case. There, he was also chairman of the Floyd County Republican Party, President of the Floyd County United Way and the Floyd County Ruritan Club, Chairman of the Board for the New River Valley Workshop, and Senior Warden of St. Peter’s Anglican Catholic Church.
In 1991, he and his family moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where he founded and was President of the Premier Atlanta Mortgage Company, which helped over 1,000 of its clients improve their finances through a no closing cost mortgage program that his company was the first to devise in the USA, and which is now commonly used everywhere. In Atlanta, he was a member of the Episcopal Cathedral of St. Philip, Chairman of the Trustees of the Emory Alpha Tau Omega chapter, and a member of the Peachtree chapter of the Chaîne des Rôtisseurs.
In 1995, he and his wife established a second home in Jacksonville and bought a riverfront condominium in the Broadview Terrace in Riverside, and split their time between Atlanta and Jacksonville, where he began the redevelopment of Whiteway Corner. In 2017, the Martins retired from their Mortgage business in Atlanta and moved to Jacksonville where George became the President of Whiteway Corner, Inc. In Jacksonville, he was a member of the San Jose Country Club, the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, the Holy Trinity Anglican Church, the Meninak Club, the Men’s Garden Club, the Friday Musicale, and the Northeast Florida Chaîne des Rôtisseurs.
George loved chess, boating, reading books, the Florida-Georgia football game, and classical music. His hobbies included designing his own clothes, collecting movies, music recordings, cufflinks, vintage men’s ties, vintage French fine wines, and Corvettes.
George is predeceased by his parents, Dr. Paul Howard Martin and Caeli Gilmore Martin. He is survived by his wife, three sons – Paul Lewis Martin (wife Marion), Reeve Howard Martin, and Dr. Jacob Gilmore Martin (wife Céline), and three grandchildren – Ware Lewis Martin, Howell David Martin, and Louella Grace Martin.
Burial will take place at the Alta Vista Cemetery, 521 Jones Street in Gainesville, Georgia on Friday, January 7, 2022, at 12:00pm, with a graveside service conducted by the Reverend Alex Sherrill and the Reverend John Cromartie.
A memorial service is also being planned in Jacksonville. More up-to-date information can be found at https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/jacksonville-fl/george-martin-10508956.
Please share online condolences with the family at www.wardsfh.com. Ward’s Funeral Home is honored to serve the family of George Gilmore Martin.
