Gary Eubanks

Gary Franklin Eubanks, 68, of Marietta died Tuesday, August 27, 2013, of complications of brain cancer diagnosed in March 2012. A memorial service will be held Friday, August 30, at 2:00 p.m. at First Baptist Church of Marietta with Dr. Bill Ross officiating. The family will receive friends after the service in the Fellowship Hall. A private burial service for the immediate family will be held earlier at Kennesaw Memorial Park. Mr. Eubanks was born in Marietta to the late Hazel and J. Robert Eubanks. The family moved to Atlanta when he was five. Mr. Eubanks graduated from the Westminster Schools in 1963 and earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1967 and a law degree from the University of Georgia School of Law in 1971. While at Georgia, Mr. Eubanks served on the staff of the Georgia Law Review and was a co-founder and the first editor of The Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law, which was begun with the support of former U.S. Secretary of State and UGA Law Professor Dean Rusk. During law school, Mr. Eubanks met his wife, Virginia, who was on the staff of the law library. They were married on July 31, 1971, in Athens, then moved to Falls Church, Virginia. Mr. Eubanks worked as an attorney for Southern Railway in Washington, DC, from 1971 to 1974. The Eubankses returned to Marietta where he practiced law for 31 years with Donald Smith and Hap Smith, and others in the firm now know as Smith, Tumlin, McCurley & Patrick, P.C. Mr. Eubanks was counsel for the Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority from 1985 to 2005. He served on the Cobb County Law Library Board for 13 years. While practicing law, Mr. Eubanks also managed family real estate, beginning with the East Marietta Shopping Center, which had been built by his father. Mr. Eubanks acquired additional properties and in 1994, he formed Wharton Management, Inc., which manages commercial retail and office space primarily in downtown Marietta. Mr. Eubanks was proud to see the business continue into the next generation when his son, James, joined Wharton in 2007. Mr. Eubanks was an active member of Marietta First Baptist Church for 39 years, and served in many leadership roles, including Chairman of the Trustees, Chairman of the Board of Deacons, Chairman of the Property Committee, and vice-chair of two Pulpit committees. He was a former board member and Chair of the Board of Baptists Today. Mr. Eubanks was a member of the Rotary Club of Marietta for 39 years, and served as its President from 1989-1990. Mr. Eubanks had a life-long love of trains and streetcars and found many ways to pursue this interest. During his law career, he and his partners converted the former trolley barn location that once housed the trolleys of the Atlanta Northern Railway Company that ran from Marietta to Atlanta into a law office at 94 Church Street, currently occupied by his former partners. In 2009 he was able to connect two of his properties in downtown Marietta with a pedestrian bridge over the CSX railroad, the only private pedestrian bridge on the entire length of the railroad from Atlanta to Chattanooga. Mr. Eubanks also found and partially restored a 1922 Cincinnati curved-side streetcar similar to those that ran on the Atlanta Northern Railway Company from Marietta to Atlanta from 1905 to 1947. He collected stock certificates and bank notes of pre-1894 Georgia railroads and published his collection along with those of other collectors in a book called Georgia Railroad Paper: Stock Certificates, Bonds, and Currency Issued by Railroads Operating in Georgia 1833-1932. He served on the board of the Southern Museum of Civil War & Locomotive History in Kennesaw and was elected to membership in the Lexington Group, a non-profit educational organization concentrating on all aspects of transportation, particularly railroads. Mr. Eubanks and his wife were avid travelers, and particularly enjoyed the opportunity to ride trains in different countries across the world, including much of Canada, Western Europe, Russia, and Australia. After Mr. Eubanks's cancer recurred last November, he had surgery at MD Anderson and participated in a clinical trial there, hoping to advance research into this deadly form of cancer. In addition to his wife, Virginia Jones Eubanks, Mr. Eubanks is survived by his daughter, Catherine Eubanks-Carter of New York City and her husband, Steven Carter, and their children Reese and Savannah; and his son, James Eubanks of Marietta and his wife, Julie Eubanks, and their children Charlotte, Thomas, and Vivian. Mr. Eubanks is also survived by his sisters and brothers: Mildred Massengale of Fayetteville, Laura Brown of Marietta, Robert Eubanks of Marietta, and T. Marshall Eubanks of Clifton, Virginia. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that those who wish may make donations in Mr. Eubanks's memory to Baptists Today, P.O. Box 6318, Macon, GA, 31208, or to the Southern Museum of Civil War & Locomotive History, 2829 Cherokee Street, Kennesaw, GA 30144. www.mayeswarddobbins.com

Gary Eubanks

February 15, 1945 - August 27, 2013