Charles J. Kramb visited Georgia and came to stay

A construction supplies salesman who’d lived all his life in Michigan, Charles J. Kramb took a shine to Georgia after someone recommended Callaway Gardens as a vacation spot. When holiday time rolled around, Mr. Kramb and the family went there. They did it 15 times over the years, said his daughter, Anne Marie Ziem.

Then in 1983, when the Michigan economy made living there untenable, he made it official. The family moved to Georgia. Not only was he a part of suburban Atlanta’s population explosion, but with a new building supplies business, he spent his second career making a home for it.

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Charles Joseph Kramb was a quiet philanthropist to an impressive list of charities.

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“Michigan was in a recession,” Ms. Ziem said. “Nothing was going on, building wasn’t going on. We had always come to Callaway Gardens for vacation, and he loved Georgia. He thought he might come down here and look around and see if there was a place he wanted to live.”

Mr. Kramb moved right to Marietta and lived there until he died at home last week of pulmonary hypertension. He was 77. The funeral Mass is scheduled for 10 a.m. today at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Marietta.

From 1980 to 2000, metro Atlanta’s population spread out and nearly doubled in size, from 2 million people to 4 million. Mr. Kramb became a poster child for metro Atlanta’s explosive suburban growth.

When he moved to Georgia, he’d already had a career. But at 51, he started a new one.

When Mr. Kramb got to Marietta he thought about different businesses, then opened his own building supplies company. Mr. Kramb was the first distributor here of a weatherization wrap that is now standard, said his son, Paul Kramb. Paul Kramb is now a vice president in the business his father built, Material Building Specialties.

Ms. Ziem said her father loved sports. Georgia’s weather was a boon to his tennis and golf playing. “He had a million bowling balls,” she said.

He was fastidious about attending church, and his children are only now learning about his quiet philanthropy to an impressive list of charities, said Paul Kramb.

“The majority of the charities, the only one that knew about them is Mom,” he said.

“He left his mark wherever he went. He was a strong Christian man, he didn’t give up on anything. He had the strength, no matter what the circumstances were, to get through and muddle through in a positive fashion.”

That showed in recent months. He’d been through economic ups and downs before, but “I think this was the toughest, and still is the toughest we’ve been in. Obviously, it was fairly stressful, but he looked at it as he did everything,” Paul Kramb said. “He always bounced back with his perseverance.”

Ms. Ziem concurred. “Even at the end, his brain was really sound,” she said. “He was still on top of all the financial decisions, giving us orders from his bed.”

No matter what happens with the construction market, Paul Kramb said his father’s Georgia legacy will remain. “My kids are Atlanta born, and that’s where we’ll stay,” he said.

Mr. Kramb’s other survivors include his wife of 53 years, Josephine; daughters Margaret Mary Nichols of Macon, Barbara Anne Cantrell of Marietta and Susan Marie Baxter of Acworth; sons Philip J. Kramb of Marietta and Patrick J. Kramb of Canton; and a brother, James W. Kramb of Milford, Mich.