Ned Hansell loved history, and from 1968 on he lived it as well, residing in one of Roswell's antebellum architectural treasures, Mimosa Hall, built in 1847.
He represented the fifth generation of Hansells to occupy the house, and in doing so for 44 years he lived there longer than any who preceded him.
His daughter, Sally, now the sixth-generation Hansell to call Mimosa Hall home, said her father had central heat and air-conditioning installed in the mid-1980s but was content to leave Mimosa Hall's kitchen and the bathrooms as they were from when they were updated in the 1930s by famed Atlanta architect Neil Reed.
"Dad said there's no place he would rather be than in Mimosa Hall," she said.
Miss Hansell said her father twice took decisive steps in the early 1980s to preserve Roswell's historic character.
First, she said, he bought Holly Hill House, built in 1846, because of a rumor it might be turned into a restaurant. Then, when part of the property of the Primrose Cottage — built in 1839 and Roswell's first permanent private home — was to be converted into a parking lot, her father hired an archaeologist who found evidence on the site of a long-ago terraced garden, thus blocking the paving proposal.
Roswell Mayor Jere Wood said Mr. Hansell carried on a long family tradition of maintaining the best of Roswell's past. "Ned conducted himself with an admirable modesty," Mayor Wood said, "and he did things in a behind-the-scenes way so as not to put his signature on all he accomplished."
Charles Edward Brodnax "Ned" Hansell, 82, died of congestive heart failure Tuesday at his home. A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday at Roswell Presbyterian Church, with burial later at Oakland Cemetery. Roswell Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
With degrees from Emory University and Harvard Law School, Mr. Hansell began his law practice in Atlanta with the family firm, Hansell & Post, which later merged with the Jones Day firm.
Ann Salo of Atlanta, a partner of Mr. Hansell for 17 years, called him a Renaissance lawyer, "the likes of which you don't find much anymore."
"He could draw up a will on Monday, advise a corporate client on an employee benefit plan Tuesday, negotiate a settlement between fractious partners on Wednesday, and so on," she said. "He was a generalist who gave his heart and soul and his keen intellect to everything he did."
That included the causes he held dear, including working as an Oglethorpe University trustee to improve the school's academic standards; helping to found Orchestra Atlanta, now called Atlanta Philharmonic; and encouraging bright Asian young people to study in America as an East-West Foundation trustee.
On numerous occasions, he and his late wife, Sylvia, who died in 2009, opened their home and its gardens for receptions to celebrate and raise funds for these and other worthy endeavors.
Also surviving are three grandchildren.
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