ATLANTA – Former Atlanta Mayor and business leader Sam Massell died Sunday at the age of 94.
Massell, who led the city from 1970 through 1974, was Atlanta’s first and only Jewish mayor and the city’s last white mayor.
Later, he founded the Buckhead Coalition, a business group, and headed it for more than 30 years.
Massell was known as a champion of collaboration and inclusion, said Andre Dickens, Atlanta’s current mayor, who put Massell on his transition team after Dickens was elected late last year.
“He paved the way for better representation of women and minority participation in city government,” Dickens said. “Sam always said that we can get more done through a conference call than through confrontation.”
Massell also played a key role in bringing heavy rail transit to Atlanta.
“MARTA would not exist but for the dedication and persistence of Massell, who convinced the Georgia legislature – and later voters – to approve the local-option sales tax the continues to fund MARTA to this day,” MARTA officials wrote in a statement. “MARTA was fortunate to have such an ardent supporter, and we remain forever in his debt.”
This story is available through a news partnership with Capitol Beat News Service, a project of the Georgia Press Educational Foundation.