Georgia and Georgians - the Digital Library of Georgia

GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS 3013kind. Every possible bit 'of information was given with the result that thecompany at once gained the confidence of the commission, and between itand our officials there has never been any friction. "What the telephone company is worth to Atlanta would be hard to figure; but with its great buildings* its army of employes, and its great disbursement of money, anyone canreadily see that it is one of the great assets of the city. This is the publicside of the man who is at the head of this great corporation. On the personalside, his kindly and genial temperament enables him to make friends of allwith whom he eome's in contact,, and it is strictly within the limits of truthto say that no man in Atlanta enjoys a larger personal popularity than thispresident of a great and important corporation, and one need not be afraidto state that he is the only man in the United States who occupies a similarposition and enjoys the same degree o'f popularity."As emanating from his native state the following estimate is speciallyworthy of perpetuation in this connection, the article being an editorial thatappeared in the News-Leader of Richmond, Virginia, on the 26th of February,1909: -"Yesterday the Southern Bell Telephone Company elected W. T. Gentrypresident. This is a fitting caption to a brilliant business career, and thelogical result of the long and extraordinary service Mr. Gentry has given tothe Bell telephone system in the South. That it is a system at all is largely,if not chiefly, due to Virginians. About twenty-five years ago this young man,without fortune, with precarious health and with an empty sleeve, withoutknowledge of the telephone except what he could teach himself while meetingheavy personal responsibilities, began work in a little office in Alexandria,which he managed while performing his duties in the telegraph office there.He found the telephone little more than a curious experiment; his constructive talent, boundless energy and commanding executive ability developedand applied it, and now, having served in and passed through every grade,he is at the head of this vast organization that, with thousands of men andenormous capital, has woven over the South a network of wires more intricatethan the labyrinth that serve night and day the business, the convenience andthe pleasure of our people. From a scientific experiment, a possibility butlittle more substantial, apparently, than Prosperous vision, he has built upand is now aft the head .of one of the most potent factors of development.Virginians are and ought to be proud of this Virginian and his great work."To the many who knew 'Tom' Gentry in his boyhood days, and lovedand respected him because of his big heart and the resolute spirit and exhaustlessenergy that made him, in spite of his slight form, his feeble health and hisempty sleeve, the cleverest pupil, the most fearless horseman, the best boxer,the best ball player and the best shot among his school fellows and associates,the great work he has accomplished is a matter of gratification, but not asurprise. In the success of the man all recognize the fruit of those highqualities.that the boy demonstrated."Mr. Gentry was a lad of about seven years at the inception of the warbetween the states of the North and the South and when his father enteredthe Confederate service as a soldier the boy was senti to the home of hismaternal grandfather, Thomas M. Mansfield, of Southwestern Virginia, wherehe remained until the close of the war and where he attended school. Herehe meti with an accident, his left arm having been caught in a piece ofmachinery and having rendered necessary the amputation of the member.In 1865 he returned to the parental home, at Gordonsville, where he completedhis educational discipline by attending a local academy. Possessed of distinctive scientific and mechanical tastes, the youth quickly acquired a workingknowledge of telegraphy, and at the age of twenty years he was found incharge of the Southern and Atlantic Telegraph Company, operating betweenCharlotte, North Carolina, Norfolk, Virginia, and "Washington, D. C. He