Jesse Hill: A life in photos

Obituaries

A photo gallery of the life and times of Jesse Hill, a pioneering business executive and civic insider who had a hand in the major issues and projects of Atlanta for the past 50 years.

Jesse Hill Jr. was a pioneering insurance executive and civic insider who had a hand in the major issues and projects of Atlanta for the past 50 years.

Hill helped finance and advise civil rights leaders, including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.; served as confidant to the city's first black mayor, Maynard Jackson; and tackled assignments as diverse as the launch of MARTA and the integration of the Atlanta public schools and the University of Georgia.

Hill, seen here between Coretta Scott King and Andy Young, was born in St. Louis to a mother who worked in a laundry steam room and was a neighborhood leader for the Urban League. His grandfather sold ice and watermelons in summer and coal in winter. "I learned from her to be industrious," Hill recalled in a 1995 interview, "and he taught me to be enterprising."

After receiving his graduate degree from the University of Michigan in 1949, Hill, seen at the far right of the Rev. Jesse Jackson (center) and Coca-Cola President Donald Keough (left), moved to Atlanta's Butler Street YMCA and signed on with Atlanta Life, his only employer until his retirement.

Hill shares the spotlight with presidential candidate Jimmy Carter in 1976. Hill often advised students as they spun plans for demonstrations or political actions. He also organized successful voter registration drives in Atlanta throughout the late 1960s and 1970s.

Politicians from Andrew Young to former Atlanta Mayor Sam Massell credit Hill with helping them get elected. As Young said: "If Jesse takes up something, he will not let it go." By 1973 Hill had become the president and chief executive of Atlanta Life. Hill (left) stands with former Senator Herman Talmadge at a press conference.

In 1977, Hill was elected president of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, the first African-American to hold such a position in a major U.S. city. He also was elected as the first black member of the Board of Trustees of the Commerce Club, the elite venue of Atlanta's previously all-white power structure. Here, he accepts the CEO of the Year Award from the Atlanta Business Leaders.

Standing next to a bust of Alonzo F. Herndon, founder of Atlanta Life, Hill told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 1989 that insurance was an expression of the goal of economic health and self-sufficiency. "I think the quest is the spirit of our founder ... who was a former slave. He launched this quest, and frankly, I want to carry that tradition."

But by the mid nineties, business at Atlanta Life had stagnated and operating income dwindled. Under pressure from the board, bolstered by outside directors, Hill saw his duties reduced. He was forced into retirement in 1995.

Hill, who spent 15 years as chairman of the board of the King Center, receives the MLK Jr. Humanitarian Award in 1996 from Coretta Scott King (right). Hill's wife, Azira (left), was also honored.

In 2003, Hill along with Pete Correll (left), chief executive of Georgia-Pacific, co-chaired a city commission on renaming Atlanta's airport in the aftermath of former Mayor Maynard Jackson's death. Through the commission's work and the quiet lobbying of Hill came a compromise: both former mayors' names now grace Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

Together with his wife of 50 years, Azira, Hill also worked to provide training in classical music for young African-Americans. He himself was more of a jazz man, he said in a spring 2006 interview, though he enjoyed classical music."But mostly I work to help kids find opportunities in whatever area of music or arts they choose."

Hill encouraged the creation of programs in black colleges, including Clark Atlanta University, to teach business and entrepreneurship to new generations of young African-American men and women. He also worked to help young people acquire venture capital for new businesses. Here, he joins hands with Azira to sing " We Shall Overcome" during the 77th birthday observance on Dr. Martin Luther King.

In 2007, Hill was honored with the Shining Light Award, an annual award given through a partnership of Atlanta Gas Light Co. and WSB Radio. Here, he claps his hands as the gas light is lit outside of the Big Bethel AME Church on Auburn Ave.

If Hill's life had a theme, it was that African-Americans -- indeed, all people -- could find dignity, worth and self-improvement in business. He once told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "I think my determination to make a quest for human dignity has to be tied to the quest for economic dignity, and vice versa."

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Jesse Hill Jr. was a pioneering insurance executive and civic insider who had a hand in the major issues and projects of Atlanta for the past 50 years.

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