As founding president of the Buckhead Coalition, currently celebrating its 25th anniversary, Sam Massell adopted as its mission from the outset to “nurture the quality of life of those who live, visit, work or play in this northern quadrant of Atlanta.”
This, he admits, pretty much lets them do anything.
He built a brand for the Buckhead community as meaningful as one for any product, and it was done without a slick logo or catchy phrase. A former mayor of Atlanta, Massell, 85, insists the tool is leadership from a multitude of sources. He points out that Buckhead is fortunate to have 40 neighborhood civic groups, 17 parent/teacher associations, nine business clubs and many other organized groups with rosters of elected volunteers leading the way for prosperity.
A quarter-century for the coalition may sound like a long time, but the Buckhead Rotary Club is in its 62nd year, and the Buckhead 50 Club just had its 80th birthday. However, this isn’t reason enough to claim greater success than some other parts of our city. In fact, Buckhead, in comparison, is a youngster in Atlanta’s geography.
Having served as president of the 15,000-member National League of Cities, Massell knew that supplements to local governments were needed, and he structured the coalition to serve this purpose.
A few random illustrations: Being the first organization in the U.S. to place automated external defibrillators where people congregate — churches, hotels, office buildings, etc. — rather than just on ambulances that couldn’t get to a victim in time through urban traffic; successfully lobbying MARTA to operate a daily bus — The Peach — between Buckhead, Midtown and downtown, the first time in 33 years a patron could travel this route without making a transfer; negotiating with Gov. Sonny Perdue and Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed the construction of the missing north/south ramps between Ga. 400 and I-85 to improve the flow of highway traffic and reduce surface street congestion; and publishing a major annual community directory — the Buckhead Guidebook — which, rather than serving as a typical profit center, shares its ad revenue with local nonprofits, totaling $110,500 to date.
In fact, the coalition, as part of its ongoing celebration of its “first” 25 years, has published a booklet listing 180 samples of different initiatives it has undertaken since its inception. These represent about 800 actual actions and, in his usual spirit of cooperation, Massell explains the purpose of the list is to provide a primer from which others can extract ideas. It is in this vein that he has spoken to many community leadership groups.
Many will agree that if Massell keeps making the effort, he’ll score even more as long as the game is in play. It can also be said, however, that just based on the count of trophies and plaques — numbering close to 100 in his offices — Massell is more than ordinary, and Atlanta benefits from his persistence.
Sandra L. Gordy, a Buckhead resident, is president and CEO of American-Superior Inc. in Atlanta.
