The Honorable Maurice H. Hilliard Jr., 84, awoke at sunrise that first Saturday morning in April, 2016. Morning dew clung to the first budding blooms of spring as he walked outside his Roswell home.
He hoisted himself into his Honda pickup truck and motored onto the same Roswell streets he’d protected since before they were paved. Hilliard set his course south for Atlanta’s Landmark Diner, where he ate breakfast with old friends. Sam Massell was there, the former mayor of Atlanta and founding president of the Buckhead Coalition. So was Eldrin Bell, Atlanta’s former police chief; Robert McMichael, once sheriff of Fulton County and later a U.S. Marshal; and another dozen or so retired leaders of metro Atlanta communities. The group has regularly met on Saturday mornings since sometime back in the 1970s.
“Dad is an old-school guy,” says George Hilliard, Maurice’s eldest living son and former owner of the Roswell Tap, among other establishments. “My dad is like a founding father in Roswell. A living legend. There are hardly any guys like him left.”
The ones that are were at breakfast that day.
It was 10:30 a.m. when Maurice finished breakfast, said his goodbyes in Buckhead and returned to Roswell. On his way home, he popped into The Roswell Tap on a whim, walking up the path to the restaurant’s front door, past the stately old oak tree in the front yard. With the door creaking closed behind him, the retired judge walked unknowingly into a dark new era for his family.
At the link below, read the rest of the story about how Hilliard and his family were changed forever on that day.
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