Robert McNeill “Pud” Avery left this world on February 12, 2022, after a valiant two-year battle with pancreatic cancer. Robert was born at Georgia Baptist Hospital on July 12, 1955. He was predeceased by wonderful parents, Thomas Aiken Avery, Sr., and Vivian McNeill Avery, who loved and raised him to be a loyal and dependable friend. He is survived by his son, Collin, and daughter, Carson, both of whom he adored and who live in Atlanta, as well as his brother, Tom (Debbie), nieces and nephews Maggie, Tommy and Rachel, and numerous cousins from both the Avery and McNeill sides of the family.
Robert attended R. L. Hope Elementary School on Piedmont Road, then attended and graduated from The Lovett School in 1973, where he was a star football player and athlete. He was the only sophomore to start all fourteen football games in the 1970 state championship year for Lovett. After Lovett, he attended Georgia Southern University before graduating from Georgia State University with a business degree. Though he had planned to get his CPA after college and follow in his dad’s footsteps, accounting was never in Robert’s DNA so he proceeded to a long and successful career as a sales executive and entrepreneur in the Atlanta building materials market. His final act in the business was as a co-founder of the highly successful Atlanta Specialty Millworks.
Robert received his nickname, Pud, as an infant from his mom, and like the boy from the old Johnny Cash song, A Boy Named Sue, it made him even tougher and more resilient. And he was always the strongest and toughest guy in his class through high school. Still, his heart was as big as his body was strong, and he was always a great friend as well as a durable competitor. He fit at least one hundred years into his sixty-six year long life, with many ‘best friends’ and a list of stories as long as your arm. If the speed limit was 55 mph, Pud was always going at least 70. He was an icon of a bygone era in the “village” of Buckhead.
A memorial service will be held at H.M. Patterson and Son, Arlington Chapel, 173 Allen Rd., NE, Sandy Springs, GA 30328, on Friday, February 25th, at 2pm. The family will receive friends at the funeral home before the service starting at 1pm. A reception will follow the service at the residence of Tom and Debbie Avery.
