James MacKay (American politician)

Parents

He was born in Fairfield, Jefferson County, Alabama on June 25, 1919.

Emory University

He graduated with an A.B. degree from Emory University, Atlanta, Ga., in 1940, where he was a member of the Kappa Alpha Order. Mackay attended Duke University, 1940-1941 After active duty he then returned to Emory where he was president of the student body and received an LL.B., from Emory University School of Law, Atlanta, Ga., in 1947.

Military service

During World War II, he served as a Coast Guard Reserve officer on the USS Menges, a destroyer escort in the Mediterranean, in 1944, and earned a Bronze Star Medal for rescuing men when his ship was torpedoed.

Service in U. S. Congress

During his tenure he also supported passage of the Medicare Program, and obtained federal funding for the Fernbank Science Center and Planetarium. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection to the Ninetieth Congress in 1966.

Life in Decatur, Georgia

Mackay practiced law in Decatur, Georgia. with his daughter Kathy and remained active in the Georgia Conservancy. He was a lifelong Methodist and served as an Emory trustee

James Mackay of Decatur was one of 32 state House members who opposed the flag change. "There was only one reason for putting the flag on there. Like the gun rack in the back of a pickup truck, it telegraphs a message," he said decades later.

On Feb. 13, 1956, the day Griffin signed into law the new flag and its Confederate emblem, the state Senate gave final legislative approval to a resolution declaring null and void the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Brown vs. Board of Education.

Emory University conferred an Honorary Doctorate Degree on Mackay at its Sesquicentennial Convocation December 10, 1986. Jamie’s honors include the Georgia Conservancy’s“Distinguished Conservationist Award,” the DeKalb Historical Society’s “History Maker Award,” the 1979 Rock Howard Award, and the 1984 “Mr. DeKalb Award.

Founder of the Georgia Conservancy

Georgia Conservancy president John Sibley remarked after Mackay passing, “He was a larger-than-life person and an environmentalist who raised the level of the environmental movement in Georgia all by himself.” Jamie Mackay was in fact the one who recognized that public concern for the environment, stemming from the 1962 publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, needed to take root in Georgia. In January 1967, he assembled some of his colleagues to talk about forming the group that over 44 years later is known as one of the leading environmental organizations in the nation.

Under Mackay’s leadership, the Conservancy quickly understood that seeing what was happening in Georgia is the best way to learn about places and issues, that being active rather than reactive leads to success, and that Georgia’s economy and ecology are inseparable. The Georgia Conservancy honored Jamie with its Distinguished Conservationist award in 2001. Not only did he have the idea to create this organization and shape its orientation, he was a long-time trustee and maintained his involvement until late in his life, always with a clear vision. All of Georgia benefited from his intellect, energy, and care. Sweetwater Creek, Panola Mountain, the Okefenokee Swamp, Chattooga River, Cumberland Island, and Fernbank are only a few of his legacies.

Sibley said “we are greatly indebted to Jamie Mackay for profoundly changing our state’s approach to protecting air, water, and land. His devotion ran deep as any of Georgia waters”.

Death and legacy

Mackay died on July 2, 2004 at the age of 85, at Lookout Mountain, Tennessee where he maintained a boat cleat on his deck a thousand feet above the floor of Lookout Valley and invited others to join his Society of Noah – keeping the long view clearly in mind.

His first wife, Mary Caroline Lee Mackay, and his son, James Edward Mackay, predeceased him. He was survived by his wife Sara Lee Mackay, and his daughter Kathleen Mackay, of Rising Fawn, Georgia, a former member of the DeKalb Bar Association.