J. Mac Barber, 91, longtime lawmaker, PSC commissioner

J. Mac Barber seldom cashed his paychecks, sometimes climbed through a window to get to his car and always responded personally to callers complaining about their utility bills.

Mr. Barber, 91, died Sunday in Macon. A memorial service for the former Georgia Public Service commissioner is scheduled to take place in Commerce at 2 p.m. Friday at the Commerce First United Methodist Church.

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KIMBERLY SMITH/AJC file

This 1996 photo shows Mac Barber in his office with a stack of calls he said he’d taken from constituents during his current term as PSC commissioner.

Mr. Barber was one of Georgia’s longest-serving elected officials. He served as a member of the Georgia House of Representatives from 1949 to 1973. He was then elected to the PSC five times and briefly served as mayor of Commerce in the late 1980s.

He was also one of Georgia’s most colorful and eccentric politicians. In his latter years on the PSC, Mr. Barber often slept in his office to avoid the long trip home to Commerce.

Mr. Barber often climbed out of his office window to get to his car. His explanation: It was faster than walking around the building.

Mr. Barber became the target of a bribery investigation in 1985 after representatives from a trucking company doing business with the PSC visited his office and handed him an envelope containing $800.

Mr. Barber denied the allegation but resigned his seat. The state Ethics Commission cleared Mr. Barber after investigators found the envelope atop a pile of uncashed paychecks. In a 1996 Atlanta Journal-Constitution interview, Mr. Barber explained that he didn’t cash the checks because he was saving them to fulfill a $400,000 pledge to the University of Georgia in the name of his late wife, Janette.

In 1997, the PSC issued Barber a $302,677.84 check to cover dozens of paychecks he had failed to cash since 1997.

Cas Robinson, a fellow PSC member in the early 1990s who often clashed with Barber, said Sunday, “He really cared for ordinary people. He really leaned hard on utilities to help people when they were facing a time when they could not pay their bills, to be flexible if not forgiving so they wouldn’t have their heat or lights cut off.”

Lauren “Bubba” McDonald, who succeeded Barber both in the Georgia House and on the PSC, was also his neighbor.

“Mac was a different individual,” said McDonald, who recalled Mr. Barber’s habit of driving with stacks of newspapers.

McDonald also described Barber as “kind and courtly.”

“Mac probably never had a harm word to say about anyone,” said McDonald.

Indeed, quite the opposite. Once during a telephone interview, he told the caller, “among reporters, you are the nonpareil … and among people in general.”

Mr. Barber finished that interview saying what he always said on phone calls.

“It’s so very good to talk to you,” he said repeatedly. “… and bye.”