Thomas (Tommy) Willingham Tift Jr.

Thomas (Tommy) Willingham Tift, Jr passed away peacefully on October 1, 2021 at the age of 94 years old. Tommy was born in Atlanta on January 8, 1927 to Thomas Willingham Tift, Sr. originally of Tifton, Georgia and Catherine Terrell Tift originally of Greenville, Georgia. His mother was the niece of Joseph Meriwether Terrell the Governor of Georgia from 1902 to 1907. He was a member of a well-known fourth generation Georgia family and was the grandson of Henry Harding Tift, the founder of Tifton, Tift County Georgia and Bessie Willingham Tift for whom Tift College in Forsyth, Georgia was named. He was also the great great nephew of Nelson Tift the founder of Albany, Georgia and Asa F. Tift who built, lived and died in what is now the Hemmingway House Museum in Key West, Florida. His family has a rich history of seafarers dating back to the late 1700’s in Mystic, Connecticut where his “Whaling Captain” grandfather’s sandbagger racing sailboat, the “Annie” was the first boat donated to the Mystic Maritime Museum. The Annie never lost a race. Tommy was very proud of his family history, especially of its seafaring roots which shaped much of his life.

Tommy was a native Atlantan and grew up in the Ansley Park Neighborhood with a great group of boys that became lifelong friends. He passed away in the same house he grew up in. He attended and graduated from Boys High which he adored and continued to go to all the reunions with his friends that he grew up with. The family had a beach house at St. Simons Island and a home in Mystic, Connecticut both of which are great sailing areas. Tommy was a very good sailor and learned at an early age from his father who taught him how to sail a dinghy by pushing him away from shore and telling him to figure out how to get back. He spent most of his summers sailing and racing his 1941 mahogany plywood snipe in Mystic and St. Simons preferring to sail single handedly. Tommy introduced and continued the family tradition of Mystic, Connecticut and boating to his children by summer trips to Mystic and renting a house during the month of July in Groton Long Point, Connecticut.

Tommy had always dreamed of attending the United States Naval Academy after seeing the movie “Navy Blue and Gold”, but his first application was not successful so he enrolled in Georgia Tech and made the tennis team as a freshman. He was on the 1946 Southeastern Conference championship tennis team with fellow team members Howard “Bo” Callaway, Frank Willet, and Howard McCall. Tommy excelled academically at Tech and after his Freshman Year he applied again to the United States Naval Academy and with an appointment from US Senator Walter F. George of Georgia he was admitted to the Naval Academy. Tommy thrived at the Naval Academy where he lettered in tennis (played number 2) and squash as well as participating in gymnastics. He was selected Battalion Commander which spoke volumes about his academic achievement, leadership ability, character, and sense of honor. Tommy graduated in 1949 just in time to catch the Korean War and was assigned to the Pacific Fleet aboard the destroyer USS Epperson sailing out of Pearl Harbor. He survived two typhons at sea aboard the Epperson and received a bronze star for his valor in a battle in Wonsan Harbor, North Korea. It was his intent to make the Navy his career, but due to failing health of his father he left the Navy to help save his family’s textile business Piedmont Cotton Mills, Inc., which was started by his grandfather in 1896. Tommy took over his father’s business and set about learning everything he could about the manufacturing of textiles and coming up with unique manufacturing techniques. After many years in the textile business, it became clear that he could not compete with the foreign labor prices, primarily in South and Central America. Knowing this he had to make a decision in the early 1970s to either shut the mill down or totally automate the mill as he was still operating some machines that dated back to the 1800s. About this time the new Atlanta Airport was announced and with its close proximity to the mill he shut the plant down and converted the old mill and surrounding properties into warehouses for air freight forwarders. This gave birth to Atlanta Air Center which at one point was the largest real estate development catering solely to the air freight industry in the United States. Atlanta Air Center now consists of warehouses, office buildings (one of which was Speaker of the US House of Representatives Newt Gingrich’s first congressional office), and rental car lots most of which are still operated and owned under the original incorporated charter of Piedmont Cotton Mills, Inc. from 1896. Tommy had many other successful business interests and properties that he owned and operated in South Carolina, Atlanta, Tifton, and Florida.

In 1950, Tommy’s dad sold his St. Simons house and bought the oldest house on the beach in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. The house was a sprawling true old beach house that his family enjoyed for over 55 years and was known affectionately in Ponte Vedra Beach as the “Tift” house. Ponte Vedra was a place that Tommy enjoyed to go more than anywhere else for the relaxation, beautiful beach, boating opportunities and the “tennis scene” at the Ponte Vedra Inn with legendary tennis coach Dave Drury back in the day. Tommy loved boats more than anything and his children remember there always being a boat around…….it may not have always been in working condition, but there was always a boat around. The latest was his 37-foot Irwin Ketch “Caroline” which he kept in St. Augustine. In the later years it never left the dock much, but it was “his” boat.

Tommy was a member of Young Presidents Organization and was on YPO’s International Board of Directors, he was the former Chairman of the Board of Trustees and the Executive Committee for Tift College, Past President of the Southwest Area Council of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, former Director of the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, former Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Pace Academy and a Member of the Atlanta Rotary Club.

He was also a member of the Piedmont Driving Club, Capital City Club, Ocean Reef Club, New York Athletic Club, Army Navy Club, Halifax Yacht Club, Ponte Vedra Club, Sawgrass Country Club, and the University Yacht Club.

Tommy was a true old school Southern gentleman and helped many people from a time, monetary, and advisory perspective. He was generous and quick to help friends, family, and even strangers. All you had to do was ask. He will be greatly missed by many people.

Tommy is predeceased by his first wife of 22 years and mother of his three children Clair Hardwick Tift and by his second wife of 30 years Olivia Ann Bentley Tift. Ann was the love of his life and they shared a common love of Ponte Vedra Beach where they met and boating. He is survived by his sister Catherine “Tee” Tift Porter, his two sons, Thomas Willingham Tift, III, Richard Hardwick Tift, his daughter Caroline Shivers Tift Harrison (Lowndes), stepson Matthew Bentley Warrick, and four grandchildren, Austin Tift Northenor, George Lowndes Harrison, Clair Hardwick Harrison, Catherine Tift Harrison. Special thanks to the wonderful caregivers Vernon Leggett, Sam Denham, Dorothy Morrow, and Lindsey Crawford. A super big thank you to “Big Joe” Jenkins. Big Joe made all our lives so much easier and was more than a caregiver, he was Tommy’s buddy. The family also wants to thank the incredible staff at Atlanta Air Center for keeping the businesses and properties running smoothly. Jessica Peterson, Tammy Brock, Georgia Love, Dwayne Wilson, Alan Ray and most importantly Susan Christy who was Tommy’s right hand and trusted confidant for 45 years. The family also would like to thank Julie Hamilton with Weinstein Hospice.

Funeral Services will be held at 3:00 PM on Thursday, October 7th in the sanctuary at Second Ponce de Leon Church, 2715 Peachtree Street, Atlanta, Georgia 30305 and the family will receive visitation at 2:00 PM prior to the service (masking is required at Second Ponce de Leon Church). A graveside service will be held in Tifton, Georgia on Friday October 8th at 1:00 PM. In lieu of flowers, the family suggest contributions be made to the United States Naval Academy Foundation c/o USNAF Gift Processing, 274 Wood Road, Annapolis, MD 21402.