After Cecil Malone graduated from law school at Emory, he had a couple of choices. He could look for a job as an attorney, or he could continue his career as a homebuilder. He chose the latter.
“He was already building homes,” said Cecil Cyrus “Cy” Malone III, a son who lives in Atlanta. “He had a company already, so he chose to keep going in what he was doing.”
Cecil Malone started what is now the Malone Construction Co., in 1946, the year he returned to Atlanta after serving in the Army during World War II. He’d first gotten a taste for homebuilding with an uncle when he was younger. Plus, he had a mind for knowing how things should go together, said Edie Twomey, a daughter who lives in Atlanta.
“He loved the idea of figuring things out, putting things together, following a plan,” she said. “And if there was an impasse, he could kind of flip it over and look at it from another angle. That’s what made him good at what he did.”
Cecil Cyrus Malone Jr., of Atlanta, died Friday at the Fountainview Center. He was 92. His body was cremated, and a memorial service has been planned for 11 a.m. Tuesday at Northside United Methodist Church, Atlanta. H.M. Patterson, Spring Hill Chapel, is in charge of arrangements.
Mr. Malone’s homebuilding career blossomed into a commercial venture in the ‘50s, when he began building out office buildings. He built the offices in the building historically known as 2 Peachtree Street, his son said, and made a name for himself during that job.
“It was during the rise of sheetrock, if you can believe that,” Cy Malone said, of his father. “He had guys who were really good at hanging it, and that was a much faster way to put up a wall than plaster, which was traditionally used during that time.”
Cecil Malone went on to build offices in the Equitable building, executive suites in the Georgia Power building and for the Coca-Cola Co., his son said. Mr. Malone also counts the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University and the renovation of the Little White House in Warm Springs, among his professional credits.
“I think for him it was more the process, and the people he worked with that he enjoyed so much, “ his daughter said. “He may have enjoyed that more than the end product.”
Mr. Malone’s company continues to build in metro Atlanta, and is run by another son, Kirk Malone, his brother said. Cy Malone, who is an attorney, said their father never officially retired, but stayed very interested in the goings-on at the company he started.
“With age he had to slow down,” Cy Malone said. “But he would go in from time to time, to tell them how much better things were when he was working every day. Because that’s what you do when you get older, right?”
Mr. Malone is also survived by another daughter, Liz Meek of Midland, Texas; nine grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
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