7A
SATURDAY DECEMBER 10 2016
LEDGER-ENQUIRER.COM
Gloria Gail
Wilson
November 24, 1952-
December 8, 2016
Columbus, GA- Gloria
Gail Wilson, 64, of
Columbus, GA passed away
Thursday, December 08,
2016 at her residence in
Columbus, GA. A funeral
service will be held at Vance-
Brooks Funeral Home, 4048
Macon Road, Columbus,
GA on Sunday, December
11, 2016 beginning at 2:00
P.M. EST with Pastor Seth
Hon officiating. The family
will receive friends one hour
prior to the service at the
funeral home beginning
at 1:00 P.M. EST. The
interment will be held
Monday, December 12,
2016 at Parkhill Cemetery
beginning at 11:00 A.M.
EST.
Mrs. Wilson was born
November 24, 1952 in
Columbus, GA to Patsy
McGrotha Green and
the late Charles Edward
Green. She was a member
of Grace Baptist Church.
She retired with over 30
years of service as a rental
agent for Columbus airport
Terminals Avis Car Rental,
where she also served as
the unofficial coordinator
for the airport. She loved
the Lord, her family, and
especially spending time
with her grandchildren.
Other than her father,
Mrs. Wilson is predeceased
by her loving husband, Oliver
Woodrow Wilson, and a
brother, Ronnie Green.
Survivors include her
son, Thomas Morrison, Jr
(Beverly) of Phenix City,
AL; a sister, JoAnn Watford
(Donnie) of Columbus, GA;
three grandchildren: Amber
DOrsogna (Christopher)
of Taneytown, MD, Kristen
Blocker (Kevin) of Murphy,
NC, and Thomas Morrison
III of Phenix City, AL; five
great grandchildren: Joseph
Hensley, Veda Blocker, Violet
Blocker, Victoria Blocker and
Christopher DOrsogna; as
well as numerous nieces
and nephews.
Flowers will be accepted
or donations may be
made to Grace Baptist
Church, 2915 14th Avenue,
Columbus, GA 31904.
Those so desiring to
extend condolences
may visit www.
vancebrooksfuneralhome.
net.
Oldest known
seabird, 66, has
another egg in
island nest
HONOLULU
The worlds oldest
known seabird is expect-
ing again.
Biologists spotted the
Laysan albatross called
Wisdom at Midway Atoll
National Wildlife Refuge
earlier this month after
she returned to the island
to nest.
She was incubating an
egg at the same nest she
uses each year with her
mate. Shes believed to be
66 years old. Shes also
the worlds oldest known
breeding bird in the wild.
The U.S. Fish and Wild-
life Services project lead-
er for the refuge, Bob
Peyton, said in a state-
ment Friday that Wisdom
has been returning to
Midway for over six de-
cades.
An ornithologist first
put an identification band
on her in 1956. Shes had
a few dozen chicks.
Midway is about 1,200
miles northwest of Hono-
lulu. Its part of the Papa-
hanaumokuakea Marine
National Monument.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Columbus Police Chief Ricky Boren, left, and the Rev. Ralph Huling shake hands at a press conference called by the
Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance to thank local police for the quick resolution in the Peggy Gamble case.
Gamble, an 83-year-old church matriarch, was slain in her home on Eight Street a few days after Thanksgiving.
COLUMBUS
Black clergy, police
fight black-on-black
crime in community
BY ALVA JAMES-JOHNSON
ajjohnson@ledger-enquirer.com
A group of black minis-
ters stood in solidarity with
the Columbus Police De-
partment on Friday in
response to black-on-black
crime plaguing the
community.
The impetus for the
occasion was the death of
Peggy Gamble, an
83-year-old church matri-
arch slain in her home on
Eight Street a few days
after Thanksgiving.
At a news conference
called by the Interdenom-
inational Ministerial Alli-
ance, the ministers stood at
a podium in the communi-
ty room of the Public Safe-
FROM PAGE 1A
BLANCHARD
working here. So Ive
grown up connected to
this company and con-
nected to the people in it.
Schondelmayer, 41,
started with the bank in
1997 and has worked his
way up its ranks from
management trainee to
heading the wealth man-
agement operation. In
between, he spent time in
various areas, including
branch banking, corre-
spondent banking and
credit-underwriting.
A native of Augusta,
Ga., Schondelmayer grad-
uated with a finance de-
gree from the University
of Georgia. He has an
MBA from Columbus
State University and also
is a graduate of the Ston-
ier Graduate School of
Banking.
He takes the new job on
Jan. 1.
There are a lot of emo-
tions running through
me, Schondelmayer said
Friday. Im approaching
20 years being here with
Synovus. Its all Ive ever
known. Billy talked about
the culture of this organi-
zation. Its in my DNA in a
big way. I very much un-
derstand the weight of this
job. I understand the lead-
ership role that CB&T
plays in this community.
Schondelmayer also
knows he is taking charge
of a financial institution
that has a long lineage,
with roots that date to the
late 19th century when an
executive of a textile mill
overlooking the Chatta-
hoochee River took the
money of a worker and
put it in the factorys safe
so that she would not lose
the cash.
As the story goes on the
companys website, The
workers dress became
tangled in factory machin-
ery, and money she had
ty Building. Also in attend-
ance were Police Chief
Ricky Boren, other police
officials and the homicide
squad that solved Gam-
bles killing.
We are grateful for the
quick resolution, making
this community feel safe,
said the Rev. Ralph
Huling, IMA president.
Were also grateful that
we live in a city, its not like
many other cities where
the anarchy exists, where
the pastors and the police
do not have a relationship.
We come here today to
throw our full support
behind Police Chief Boren
and his staff.
Huling said many of the
pastors in attendance had
gone through the CPDs
sewn into her hem spilled
onto the floor. Explaining
she felt this was the safest
place to keep her savings, a
mill executive offered in-
stead to secure her money
in the mill safe and pay her
interest. That same service
was soon offered to all the
workers, and those deposits
marked the beginning of
Synovus.
A GROWING COMPANY
As the calendar turns
the page to 2017, Billy
Blanchard will leave the
bank he started with in
1995, the year his father
and the companys board
of directors pulled the
trigger on a major acquisi-
tion by Synovus of Nation-
al Bank of South Carolina.
Through the years, he
worked as a credit analyst,
business development
officer, commercial lender
and executive vice presi-
dent of retail banking.
It was the younger Blan-
chards dad, the home-
spun Jim Blanchard, that
set the tone for his son.
After taking charge of
Columbus Bank and Trust
at age 28, he helped push
the city forward from a
sleepy mill town to a
growing urban area. Along
the way, the company
called Total System Ser-
vices, now known as
TSYS, was set up as a
major credit-card proces-
sor and subsidiary of Syn-
ovus, eventually being
spun off as a publicly trad-
ed stand-alone firm.
There was growth under
Jim Blanchard, with Syn-
ovus acquiring other fi-
nancial institutions and
becoming a major player
in the Southeast as a re-
gional bank. Billys father
stepped down as CEO in
2005, just a few years
before the housing market
and financial crises would
ALVA JAMES-JOHNSON ajjohnson@ledger-enquirer.com
Pastoral Police Academy
and developed a good
relationship with police in
recent years. He said most
of the crimes in Columbus
are black-on-black and
its time to call people back
to a sense of community.
The ministers said
theyre working with the
Muscogee County School
District on an after-school
and summer program
called YStep (Your Solution
to Every Day Problems) to
teach at-risk youths con-
flict resolution and other
life skills.
We realize that it takes
community policing to be
successful and thats where
the IMA wants to establish
a relationship with you all,
Huling said. Were
spark a Great Recession,
leading to three years of
losses for Synovus and a
downsizing exacerbated
by the overall transition
from branch banking to
Internet and smartphone
banking.
It was very painful. It
was like a serious illness of
one of my children, Jim
Blanchard said of the
downturn in a 2015 Ledger-
Enquirer interview. I think
this is the cycle most peo-
ple go through when they
hit really difficult times.
You're kind of in denial a
little bit that it could really
be this bad and then you
get adjusted to the reality
and you have concerns
about the future. And then
you begin to see the oppor-
tunity for recovery.
In the end, however,
through the ups and
downs, Jim Blanchard had
racked up a number of
honors. Those included
being named Georgian of
the Year by Georgia
Trend magazine in 2003,
being listed among the
25 Most Influential Peo-
ple in Financial Services
by US Banker magazine in
2005, and being inducted
into the Most Influential
Georgians Hall of Fame
by Georgia Trend in
2006.
On Friday, Jim Blan-
chard simply said he was
proud of his son and the
familys six-decade contri-
bution to Columbus Bank
and Trust and Synovus.
Its a long string of
events and circumstances
that makes it pretty mea-
ningful for the Blanchard
family, he said. Weve
got CB&T and Synovus
blood that runs through
our veins. Whether were
active down there or not,
were all just welded to-
gether with history and
the traditions and the
culture and the whole
thing.
Both father and son said
they are looking forward
to the new chapter of their
trying our best to do what
we can as it relates to fight-
ing crime.
Gamble, a longtime
member of Greater Shady
Grove Missionary Baptist
Church, was found slain in
her home Nov. 28. On
Thursday, Angelo Short
pleaded guilty to the fatal
stabbing in Columbus
Recorders Court. Judge
Michael Cielinski ordered
Short, who didnt testify or
have an attorney present,
held in the Muscogee
County Jail without bond.
The case was bound over
to Superior Court.
Short is the stepson of
Gambles daughter,
Miriam Short. He pleaded
not guilty Dec. 1 to taking
Gambles beige 1988 Toyo-
ta Corolla from her home
following her death and
obstructing police during
his arrest. During that
hearing, he also pleaded
not guilty to robbery and
aggravated assault charges
related to a Piggly Wiggly
robbery he allegedly com-
mitted the morning after
Gambles body was found.
After listening to
Hulings remarks at the
IMA news conference,
Boren called the homicide
lives in which they will be
working together at Jor-
dan-Blanchard Capital.
Billy Blanchard, who
called it a really special
opportunity, will become
an investor and take a seat
on the companys board of
directors.
He doesnt have any
particular duties other
than that at this point,
Jim Blanchard said. I
think theyre just going to
see where it gravitates,
and what piece of what we
do interests him the most
and see how it evolves.
BIG SHOES TO FILL
Billy Blanchard, as he
became the 10th president
of CB&T in 2009, succeed-
ing Steve Melton, acknowl-
edged at the time that the
shoes of his father and
grandfather were pretty big
to even think about filling.
But hes grown the compa-
ny overall.
As he became president,
the severe recession had
just officially ended, but
CB&T still had 51 percent
of the local bank market
with $2.8 billion in depos-
its, trailed by Wachovias
15 percent and SunTrusts
9 percent, according to
the Federal Deposit Insur-
ance Corp. Today, as the
third-generation Blan-
chard prepares to depart,
Columbus Bank and
Trust, with nearly $4.3
billion in deposits, com-
mands just over 64 per-
cent market share in the
city. That compares to a
market share of nearly 13
percent for Wells Fargo
and just over 10 percent
for SunTrust Bank.
Hes tremendous. Hes
one of the greatest leaders
that Ive ever seen, Jim
Blanchard said of his son.
He has a tremendous
compassion for people, his
customers, the communi-
ty. Theres nobody I know
thats more involved and
more intact with the lead-
ership of Columbus, Geor-
gia, at this point. I just
News
unit to the podium to be
recognized for their tireless
work in solving the case.
He said it took cooperation
between police and the
community to make the
arrest.
I want to thank the
pastors in that area and in
our community as well as
all of our citizens in the
East Wynnton area and
other communities that
pushed aside the no-snitch
policy that we normally
encounter when we go out
on investigations, he said,
where people know what
took place and they will not
come to the police and
they will not come to their
pastors and they will not
relay that information so
that we can properly in-
vestigate those cases and
bring those cases to a suc-
cessful conclusion.
We did not experience
that in this one, he said.
Everybody worked hand-
in-hand, arm-in-arm with
the police department, and
as a result of that we made
an expedient arrest in this
heinous crime.
Boren said Gamble was
loved in the community.
She had a large supportive
family, and that helped with
the investigation. He said
there are other cases in the
community that still need to
be solved, and he hopes
people with will come for-
ward with
information.
We have a couple of
outstanding homicides
today that people in our
community know exactly
what happened, he said.
The victims are sons,
daughters, uncles of citi-
zens in our community,
and they deserve answers
as to what happened to
their loved ones.
Alva James-Johnson:
706-571-8521,
@amjreporter
VIDEO
View videos from the news
conference at
ledger-enquirer.com.
think in every respect hes
a champion. Im very
proud of him.
Despite leaving the very
visible job of CB&T presi-
dent, Billy Blanchard said
he doesnt plan to be a
stranger at all in the com-
munity. He is scheduled to
become chair of the
Greater Columbus Cham-
ber of Commerce in 2017,
and hes leading the Co-
lumbus 2025 fundraising
effort.
I dont intend to let go
of the things in the com-
munity that Im involved
in. Im very excited and
energized to continue in
those things, said Blan-
chard, who confided there
still is a bit of sadness
about letting go of Colum-
bus Bank and Trust as an
active day-to-day exec-
utive.
After 22 years, you
build long relationships,
especially in a company
like this where you kind of
feel like family signif-
icant, real and deep rela-
tionships. he said. But I
feel very confident about
the team and where they
are in their ability to do
this work and be success-
ful. I feel very confident
about Heath and his abil-
ity in this role to fill these
shoes. Hes going to do a
super job. So theres an
excitement about that and
an energy around the idea
that, when theres a
change, theres new
thought and it creates new
energy. And there will be
opportunities to do things
a little different, and that
can be really healthy and
good for an organization.
Synovus, headquartered
in downtown Columbus, is
a regional bank with 28
locally branded divisions
in Georgia, Alabama,
Florida, South Carolina
and Tennessee. It over-
sees about $30 billion in
assets.
Tony Adams:
706-571-8574, @ledgerbizz