By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
DEC. 12, 2025 | Gwinnett County gained another nonagenarian recently, as Bill Atkinson of Lawrenceville turned age 90 on November 29. Bill served for four years as chairman of the Gwinnett County Commission (1972-76), and remains most active as president of the Gwinnett Livestock and Fair Association, which puts on the Gwinnett County Fair each fall.
For 67 years (on December 23 it will be 68 years), he has been married to the former Betty Gunnels of St. Mary. The two met when in college.
The couple have four children:
- Karen is married to Attorney Larry Still and they live in Lawrenceville.
- Debbie lives in Los Angeles, and is also married to an attorney, Gary Fine.
- Jeff lives in Lawrenceville and is married to Lee, a housewife. He is retired from Gwinnett County governmental operations and now specializes in wastewater operations.
- Jayson has a Bethlehem address, and specializes in heavy equipment. He is married to Stephanie, also a housewife..
Betty and Bill have three boys as grandchildren.
This new Gwinnett nonagenarian was born in 1935 on a farm off what was then Atkinson Road near the present day Sugarloaf Mills.
He graduated in 1953 from what was then Bethesda High School, which was the first year that Gwinnett had 12 grades of school. He then went to Berry College in Rome. But he came home to help at home and farm, and worked at General Shoe for two years. He returned later to Berry, where his job there was to care for the college’s Angus cattle. That’s where he met Wayne Shackelford, who also worked with the Angus herd, who was two years ahead of him. Shackelford later was named the Gwinnett County Agent.
Bill says: “Later on, when I was chairman of the county commission, we hired Wayne to be the assistant to the county commission, where he served many years before becoming the commissioner of the Department of Transportation.”
Meanwhile, Bill was joining General Motors in Doraville in the parts department. He ended up retiring from GM after 32 years of service, as the parts department supervisor.
Back in those days, with the United States drafting men for military duty, Atkinson was sent for six months training at Fort Jackson, S.C., and then served for 7.5 years in the Army Reserve.
It was while at GM that Atkinson started farming, raising pure bred Angus and Simmental cattle. He owned 100 acres and rented another 100 acres in the Harbins community. He says: “I have farmed my whole life, starting out by helping on my parent’s farm.” About three years ago he got out of the cattle raising business altogether.
It was in 1970 that Atkinson first ran for election, winning a seat on the Lawrenceville City Council. That followed his running in 1972 for chairman of the county commission, where he defeated Dudge Pruitt of Buford for a four year term. He did not seek re-election in 1976, when Wayne Mason became chairman.
Atkinson for years was a volunteer at the Gwinnett County Fair, working with the livestock area. Later he joined the Fair board, where has served for over 30 years.
Bill had another avocation: he was a Georgia High School Association basketball referee for over 20 years. He refereed for several years tournament games. “Back then, many schools did not have football teams, but even the smallest schools had basketball games.”
Welcome to the world of a nonagenarian, Bill Atkinson!
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