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Isabella Tobin said it often: If you graduated from Spelman College, you needed to give back.Pay it forward, she'd say.Help other students experience the joy and pride of earning a degree from the historic black women's college.For decades, she set a worthy example.

People who knew or came across Joi Chestnut say her name was a perfect fit.She worked in customer service at the Publix in Ansley Mall, off Piedmont Avenue. Jean Wells of Atlanta has shopped at that location for several years, partly because of Ms. Chestnut.

Harrisburg, Pa. — U.S. Rep. John Murtha, an influential critic of the Iraq War whose congressional career was shadowed by questions about his ethics, died Monday. He was 77. The Pennsylvania Democrat had been suffering complications from gallbladder surgery.

When it comes to sports, 1966 was a year of firsts for Atlanta.It was the first year of the Atlanta Falcons. The first year of the Braves.And it marked the inaugural year of the Atlanta Steeplechase, a premier event co-founded by John Wayt Jr.The Atlanta native grew up in the Buckhead area.

When Iris Bolton started a nonprofit community counseling center in Sandy Springs in 1971, one of the early volunteers offering help was her friend Anna Morley.Mrs. Morley spent countless hours in service that spanned a couple of decades. She greeted clients and offered compassionate advice over the telephone to those in need.

If you’ve ever eaten at a Waffle House, you can thank Roswell architect Clifford Nahser for the boxy, ubiquitous yellow building.Co-founder Joe Rogers Sr. asked him to help design new restaurants from the prototype diner he opened in Avondale Estates in 1955.

George Howell didn't think he should serve as chairman of the board of trustees at The Paideia School. He didn't think of himself as a leader. So when school officials broached him with the idea, he humbly declined.They wouldn't hear it, though. Mr. Howell had a respected record, set in the 1980s when he served on Paideia's board of trustees.

A longtime fireman who spent eight years as chief of the Miami Beach fire department has died in Cumming.Braniard Dorris, 68, died from complications from Alzheimer's Disease.Dorris, a south Florida native, worked in fire services for 31 years. After beginning work as a West Miami policeman and fireman, he joined the Miami Beach fire department, where he worked for the next 28 years.

Jack Elkins grew up on a farm, so his love for the rural life cut deep.He thought this country should never become overdependent on food produced elsewhere. He held a special affinity for small family farms, their heritage, place in society and the so-called global economy.

George Haley had an amazing speaking voice.When he was a kid, he would give speeches to various organizations and groups."He just had an unbelievable speaking voice and his parents encouraged him," said his daughter, Susan Haley Brumfield of Atlanta.

By the time John H. "Jack" Ruffin Jr. became the first African-American chief judge of the Georgia Court of Appeals, he had been a pioneering civil rights lawyer who integrated the Augusta school system and a distinguished jurist for two decades.Mr. Ruffin, who retired from the Court of Appeals at the end of 2008, died Friday at age 75 after collapsing at his home in Atlanta.

Only 1 in seven people lives to be 100 years old.Lucile Weaver, of Atlanta, beat the odds by five years.The only other people in her family that lived to, and beyond, the century mark were her paternal grandmother and her great-grandmother. She outlived two sisters and two brothers.

Charles Key didn't showboat when he played the piano. His job, he said, was to accompany the singers. To let them shine."He was the accompanist and that's what he did," said Charlie Waller, executive director of the Southern Gospel Music Association.

Kay Mercer and Lyn Worrill, mother and daughter, were close in life and, at the end, close in death."They had a somewhat electric relationship, a few sparks now and then, as mothers and daughters often do," said Mrs. Worrill's husband Jack. "But they enjoyed doing many things together -- like the trip to England the two of them made, with both of them coming back with a taste for scones, crumpets and clotted cream.

All her life, Viretta Brady expressed herself in a variety of mostly abstract art forms: sculpture, drawings, paintings, ceramics, mixed media and photography. She didn't try to sell any of her works, but she did present some of them to friends as gifts.

Dr. Frank Ostrowski had been a pacifist all of his adult life.The roots of his pacifism might stem from time spent at Cretin-Derham High, a Catholic military high school in St. Paul, Minn. It was during World War II. School officials would read aloud the names of alumni who'd died while serving.

During World War II, Alvin George served on the 73rd Bomb Wing of the U.S. Army Air Corps.He flew more than 30 missions over Japan as a CFC gunner on B-29s.As a civilian, the Clarkston native nurtured his interest in the aircraft that helped the Allies defeat the Axis powers.

Kenneth Cory was a fitness buff.Last summer, at 65, he became certified in CrossFit, an intense strength and conditioning program. It's heavy on weightlifting, cardio and calisthenics.In the gym, he was "The Man". Whippersnappers liked to challenge his physical prowess.

Kristen Thompson of Atlanta knew her way around the kitchen.At Augusta State University, the popular junior may have perfected some dishes. She was known for laying out spreads that reminded students of home.Patricia Thompson of Atlanta said she'd told her daughter she couldn't afford to be the campus chef.

Lu Trump had been a registered nurse for decades when she decided to embark on a new career.She'd always collected antiques, a hobby that began in the 1950s when someone gave her a gift of apothecary jars. From there, her love for collecting grew to include iron doorstops, dolls, figurines and early American furnishings.

Whether Gar Fritts was advising businesses about marketing or management strategies or hospitals about comprehensive health care for the elderly or clergymen on laying down their business-side burdens, people listened and got positive results.Mr. Fritts got his start in the consulting business in Chicago in 1960, built on that experience as an economic development advisor in the Philippines for two years, then restarted his consulting career in Atlanta.

With his camera, Ken Gehle could make the world stand still and look beautiful. He was a professional photographer who delighted his advertiser clients with spot-on interpretations of their marketing themes. He took great satisfaction himself in his artistic renderings of scenes from nature, which he made available as prints suitable for framing on his Web site, kengehle.

In 1971, President Richard Nixon announced national legislation to fund a war on cancer.After signing the National Cancer Act, Nixon turned to shake the hand of Dr. Alva Letton. At the time, he was president of the American Cancer Society, an organization that he, ultimately, served for 50 years as a volunteer.

The courts had ordered the desegregation of the University of Georgia.Then-Gov. Ernest Vandiver knew there might be trouble, and he didn't want racist protests to erupt at the flagship university. He sought to nip trouble in the bud. He turned to his legal counsel, Henry Neal, someone who looked younger than his true age.

In 1988, the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials needed a president to replace suspended Fulton County Commissioner A. Reginald Eaves. He had been convicted of extortion charges.The group met at the Sheraton Hotel on West Peachtree Street.