Q: I enjoy reading your column in the paper and learning lots of trivia questions and answers. Who was Sam Moss? There’s a building named for him in DeKalb County. It’s quite large and close to the train crossing I’m often stopped at. Can you find information about him?
—Nancy Davis, Tucker
A: This was a tough one to track down, but thanks to Quinn Hudson with the DeKalb County School District, here's the answer. The Sam A. Moss Service Center on Montreal Road in Tucker is named for a longtime DeKalb County educator and employee. Moss was a vocational agriculture teacher at Tucker High School in the late 1940s before he accepted a position to head the Division of Maintenance in the county office, according to "A Quarter Century of Education in the DeKalb School System 1947-1972" that Hudson found. Moss oversaw "responsibility for the following areas: upkeep of facilities, purchasing, distribution of supplies and material, inventories, and in-service training for custodial staff" in his new position. His title changed to Supervisor of Maintenance, Operation & Equipment under superintendent Jim Cherry, who later created the position of deputy superintendent. That was filled by Moss in 1961, and when Cherry was recuperating from a heart attack in 1971, Moss became acting superintendent. Just about one month after Cherry returned to work, Moss suffered a heart attack and died on Jan. 8, 1972.
Q: Can you tell me more about the Masters? How did it begin?
A: Renowned Atlanta-born golfer Bobby Jones provided the drive behind the Augusta National Golf Club and the Masters. He, along with Clifford Roberts and course architect Alister MacKenzie, built the club and its famous course in the early 1930s and came up with the Augusta National Invitation Tournament, as the Masters originally was called. The tournament was first played in 1934, but didn't become known as the Masters until 1939. This year's tournament begins April 10 and concludes April 13.
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