Mr. Lawrence (Landy) Ponder Jr.

Landy was born on December 24, 1965 in Atlanta, Georgia. He was a 1984 graduate of Griffin High School where he played tennis and basketball. He received a degree in Education from Auburn University, where he was a member of Sigma Chi Fraternity. He was a Life Loyal Sig, an honor bestowed upon him by friends while attending Auburn. He later earned his Master of Education at the University of West Georgia. Landy taught in the Griffin-Spalding School System for 19 years, the last 17 at Beaverbrook Elementary.

An avid outdoorsman, he was a former member of the Griffin Gun Club and Social Shooting Club, where he enjoyed competing and providing instruction in skeet and sporting clays. In 2004, Landy won the Class A Georgia and National Sporting Clays Championship.

He was a member of DeVotie Baptist Church.

Landy is survived by his wife, Kim; parents, Dumas and Anne Ponder of Griffin, Georgia; sister and brother-in-law, Elizabeth and Jay Dykstra of Franklin, Tennessee; parents-in-law, Charles and Jo Mills of McDonough, Georgia; brother- and sister-in-law, Greg and Amy Mills of Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina; and Uncle Landy’s precious nephew and nieces, Jake and Madison Dykstra and Ansley Mills.

Funeral services will be held on Wednesday, August 17, 2011 at 4PM in the chapel of Haisten McCullough Funeral Home. The Rev. Dr. Spencer Frye and Rev. Ken Haag will officiate. Interment will follow in Oak Hill Cemetery. Family will receive friends on Tuesday evening from 6-8 PM at the funeral home.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to:

The Christian Women’s Center, P.O. Box 803, Griffin, Georgia 30223;

Tisch Brain Tumor Center – Angels, DUMC Box 3624, Durham, North Carolina 27710 (Make checks payable to Duke University – 12BT in memory of Landy’s Gray Matters!) or

The Center for the Visually Impaired (CVI), 739 West Peachtree Street, N.W. Atlanta, Georgia 30308.

To pay condolences online to the family, please do so at www.haistenmccullough.com.