Georgia and Georgians - the Digital Library of Georgia

3014 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANSheld this position three years and the company was absorbed by the WesternUnion Telegraph Company, as a representative of which he was given chargeof the office at Lynchburg, Virginia, whence he was soon afterward transferredto Wilmington, North Carolina. For three years he there served as chiefoperator and assistant to the manager of the local office, and he then turnedhis attention to the installing of telephone exchanges for the Western Unionsystem. He built the exchange at Wilmington, North Carolina, this being thefirst established in that state. A year later the Western Union TelegraphCompany sold its telephone interests to the Bell company, which corporationappointed Mr. Gentry its manager at Alexandria, Virginia, where he installedthe telephone exchange and remained in charge of the same three years. In1884 the company transferred him to Atlanta and appointed him managerof the exchange in this city, the same having had at the time less than 400 subscribers. The marvelous expansion of the local business of the Bell companymay be understood when it is stated that at the present time the Atlantaexchange gives service to 24,500 subscribers. ,Concerning the consecutive advancement of Mr. Gentry in this importantfield of public service the following interesting record has been given and isworthy of reproduction: "His personal growth in business circles and hisstanding in the community have been commensurate with the success of thebusiness in his charge. In 1893 he was promoted to assistant district superintendent; in 1907 he was elected vice-president of the company; and inFebruary, 1909, he was elected president of the Southern Bell Telephone &Telegraph Company. He stands today without a peer in the practical management of telephone service. Through his efforts the general offices of theSouthern Bell Company were transferred from New York to Atlanta. Theimportance of this move to Atlanta may be gauged by the fact that the generaloffices in this city employ more than 600 persons, that its pay roll representsan aggregate of slightly more than a million dollars annually and, includingthe Atlanta exchange, the company gives employment to a corps of about1,000 persons. Mr. Gentry's position in the Bell telephone service is onlyone, though the most important, of the numerous offices of which he is thevalued incumbent. He is president of the Cumberland Telephone & Telegraph Company, a thirty million dollar company; president of the AshevilleTelephone Company of Asheville, North Carolina; president of the CapitalCity Telephone Company, of Raleigh, that state; vice-president of the Petersburg, Virginia Telephone Company; vice-president of the Home TelephoneCompany, of Henderson, North Carolina; vice-president of the Virginia &Tennessee Telephone Company, of Roanoke, Virginia; a director of the Southern States Life Insurance Company, and a director of several banking institutions.In Atlanta Mr. Gentry is one of the most valued and popular members ofthe Capital City Club, of which he was president in 1914-15, and isidentified also with the M. & M. Club, the Piedmont Driving Club, the AtlantaAthletic Club, and is vice president of the Brookhaven Country Club.Outside of his home city Mr. Gentry holds membership in the NewYork Club; the Virginia Club of Norfolk; the Seminole Club of Jacksonville,Florida; the Westmoreland Club of Richmond, Virginia; the Pendennis Clubof Louisville; and the Lexington Country Club of Lexington, Kentucky. Bothhe and his wife are communicants of St. Mark's Church, Methodist Episcopal,South, in Atlanta, and he is liberal in support of its various activities, as ishe also in the furtherance of organized and private benevolences and charities.Mr. Gentry accords unwavering allegiance to the democratic party but isessentially a business man and has had no ambition for public office, thoughhe served as a member of the military staff of Governor Terrell, 1903-7, withthe rank of colonel. He is affiliated with several fraternal organizations andas a citizen is essentially loyal and public-spirited.