Bill Reeves, a graduate of Georgia State University, was an esteemed entrepreneur and philanthropist. He served Alpha Kappa Psi in several volunteer roles and was a key leader during a landmark time in AKPsi’s history. He passed away on October 24, 2024, at the age of 95.
Bill was initiated in the spring of 1959 into the Pi Chapter at Georgia State in his last semester before graduation. While a student member for only a brief time, his involvement with AKPsi was lifelong. After college graduation, he served the Atlanta Alumni Chapter of AKPsi in several officer roles.
The 2019 Principled Business Leadership Institute in Atlanta. From left to right, Rob Davenport, Eileen Howell, Bill Reeves, Jeff Frank, Carol Carter, John LeVering, Wendy Wendroff.
It was important to Bill to see AKPsi thrive in Atlanta; he and several other alumni of AKPsi donated a lakeside piece of property in Duluth, Atlanta, for recreational purposes and formed the AKPsi Building Corporation to manage the property, which still exists today.
Beginning in 1967, he moved into organization-wide leadership roles as the Southeast Regional Director for four years and then a Fraternity Vice President for four years. Bill found his passion with AKPsi leadership in 1977 when he joined the AKPsi Foundation board. Serving on this board for twelve years, including four years as the Chair, Bill helped to raise much needed scholarship funds for the students of AKPsi. The William D. Reeves Scholarship was established in 1998 for the benefit of students wishing to advance their studies and involvement with the fraternity.
From its founding in 1904 and during the time of Bill’s initiation, AKPsi was a male-only organization. In 1976, Bill helped move legislation forward to initiate women into AKPsi, creating a co-ed professional business fraternity – a landmark decision that would change the shape of AKPsi, broaden its base, and welcome tens of thousands of women into the organization.
Bill Reeves in Indianapolis in April 1988.
Bill attended countless AKPsi events such as Regional Leadership Conferences, board meetings, chapter meetings, PEP talks, Success Institutes, PBLIs, and conventions. In recognition of Bill’s service to the fraternity, he received the First-Degree Silver Distinguished Service Award (DSA) in 1976, the Second-Degree Silver DSA in 1987, and the highest award bestowed by Alpha Kappa Psi, the Gold DSA, in 1998. Bill was an honorable and distinguished brother of AKPsi. His interest and efforts will serve as an example for all brothers of Alpha Kappa Psi Fraternity.
Bill is honored at the Howell + Wendroff Professional Center, home to the headquarters of Alpha Kappa Psi, the Alpha Kappa Psi Foundation, and the Commonwealth Leadership Alliance, by having the Fraternity’s Through the Years Gallery named for him.
Upon his retirement from the AKPsi Foundation Board, former chair of AKPsi Eileen Howell, recognized Bill for his service with the following speech:
In his personal and professional life, Bill was a servant in many ways – to his family, to his friends and colleagues, to his alma mater, to his country, and to his community.
He was the fifth son of Posey Dean and Fannie Waters Reeves, born February 9, 1929, at Morgan Falls, Georgia, where his father worked at the Georgia Power Plant. His youth was spent at that home, playing along the banks of the Chattahoochee River. His entrepreneurial spirit showed up at an early age as he bought a case of Coca-Colas for 25¢, turning a handsome profit after selling colas individually at 5¢ each to those trying to beat the heat on the banks of the river. This would be his recorded first of numerous successful entrepreneurial endeavors. He attended North Fulton High School, graduating in May 1946. He married Betty Collins August 1947 (deceased), and they had three children: Camilla Reeves Ellenburg; William Dean Reeves II (Patti Balbach); and Russell Collins Reeves (Sheila McAvoy). In 1981, after meeting at Church, he married Susan “Miss Su” Talton, and together they watched the family grow as they grew their businesses.
Bill pursued higher education at Georgia State University (then Atlanta Division of the University of Georgia) beginning in 1949 at night school while working and raising his family. In February 1951, Bill joined the United States Air Force and served during the Korean War at various locations before discharge in December 1952. He continued his studies one semester at a time for nearly a decade, earning his BBA at GSU (then Georgia State College of Business Administration), graduating in 1959.
Having worked for both Western Electric and Delta Airlines prior to his military service, Bill departed the Air Force with an interest in “taking a bet on himself”, believing he could accomplish more as an entrepreneur than as an employee. Despite the admonitions of his parents and siblings, but with their full support, Bill founded Reeves Ditching and Contracting in 1952, digging ditches at 10¢ a linear foot, with a single rubber-tire/loader backhoe, the first of its kind in the State of Georgia.
Through honesty, integrity and quality work, his business grew, and his reputation began to proceed him, evolving from a one-man shop to many employees and many pieces of equipment. At the helm of his construction business for the better part of three decades, Bill began to itch for a new challenge. In 1978, he joined his friend, J.D. Caswell’s, real estate brokerage and began to dabble in a variety of real estate investing.
His real estate horizons expanded to include various exchanges and developments, becoming involved with fellow real estate dealmakers in the Association of Georgia Real Estate Exchangors, where Bill eventually served as President. In 1981, William Dean Reeves II (Dean) took over Reeves Ditching and Contracting (now Reeves Young – one of the oldest utility contractor companies in Georgia), allowing Bill to fully focus on real estate investing and development; soon after Bill obtained his Broker’s License. His hobby of real estate had become a full-time job, and in 1984, he opened Bill Reeves Realty, followed shortly by Reeves Development Company, through which he developed and managed real estate for over thirty years.
With extensive expertise in construction and real estate, Bill was frequently relied upon as an “industry expert” in both fields. In 1991, this known expertise led him to become a member of the American Arbitration Association, serving twenty-five years on sole and three-member arbitration panels, hearing nearly 100 construction and commercial claims as an arbitrator.
In 1988, as he concluded a series of industrial developments, Bill’s entrepreneurial curiosity peaked anew, making the decision to start a bank with several family members and close friends. After finding the perfect real estate on which to build the bank’s headquarters, Gwinnett National Bank opened in June 1989, operating out of a construction trailer on the jobsite where the bank vault was first built, with the bank building then built around the vault; Bill later developed the adjacent real estate into an office park. Gwinnett National Bank moved into its new offices in June 1990. Bill served as Chairman of both Gwinnett Bancorp (the holding company) and Gwinnett National Bank. The bank eventually merged with Century South Bank, Gainesville, and then with BB&T, Bill serving on the Boards of both banks.
Grateful for the collegiate education he received, believing it opened many doors through which Bill seized a myriad of opportunities, he was dedicated to giving back to Georgia State University. Bill was invited to serve on the Georgia State University Athletic Board of Trustees in 1988. He served as Chairman from 1998 to 2003. He was subsequently elected to the Georgia State University Foundation Board of Trustees, serving on the Development and Real Estate Committees.
In 1992, GSU began to explore the possibility of adding a football program. Bill jumped in, along with time and money, by serving on the “Gridiron Group”, an informal initiative. In 2002, Club Football began. In 2007, GSU announced the decision to move forward with football, and Bill continued to serve on various advisory groups, promoting football, frequently recruiting new supporters and raising money. On September 2, 2010, GSU kicked off football against Shorter University.
While GSU football received great attention, Bill’s first love was always baseball. In 2003, Bill funded a new fieldhouse and press box for GSU baseball at Panthersville. In 2006, the baseball complex expanded to include new refreshment and restroom facilities. The love Bill, and his wife, Susan, shared for GSU athletics knew no bounds. They attended games and tournaments related to most every sport GSU played. They traveled with golf, basketball, baseball and football teams. Bill’s passion for GSU Athletics proved lifelong, always generous with his time and money. Bill attended his last football game October 8, 2022, but continued to tune in to GSU sporting events any time he could catch them online, on radio or on TV. His absence from events not going unnoticed, Coaches and Athletes alike began visiting Bill, bringing sports to him.
During his fifty-year involvement with GSU, Bill received numerous awards and recognitions. Never hungry for the spotlight, any attempt to honor him had to be kept secret until the presentation to be a success. Bill liked to make things happen but needed no public recognition for accomplishment to be rewarding; the accomplishment was his reward. Uncharacteristically, one recognition he enjoyed was “Mr. GSU” – a title assigned to him by various fellow Board and Committee Members who noticed he seemed to show up everywhere – a distinction of which Bill was very proud!
In 2007, at an age many would have considered retirement, Bill met a soon-to-be GSU grad (Carrie O’Brien) at a real estate event; he hired her weeks later and the two worked together managing his business interests and engaging in new business endeavors through the end of his life. While Carrie and Su would likely credit his exhausting business and philanthropic commitments to being what kept him young and sharp, it may have been all the golf he played in his final thirty years! Never one to turn down an invitation to play – “when and where” was the question – all he had to do was reference the list of golf buddies he maintained inside his famous “yellow pads” where the name and number for a revolving roster of fellow golf enthusiast could easily be found. He also played whenever he and Susan traveled, occasionally traveling for golf.
Steve (left) and Debbie Vasquez (center) stand will Bill Reeves (right) at the DC Convention Golf Tournament in 2007.
And travel they did: for fun – Las Vegas; for family – Texas and Florida; for Alpha Kappa Psi — wherever a regional or national meeting was; for Georgia State University sports – wherever the road led; and for adventure – whatever Su came up with! They traveled alone and with family and friends. Angie and Alan Giles courageously traveled with them on some of their many adventures.
One of the greatest sources of joy in Bill’s life came from family. His parents, his siblings, his children, his grandchildren, his great and great-great grandchildren, his nieces and nephews, his wife, her sister and her extended family all brought immense pleasure to Bill’s daily existence. Regardless of the experience: attending the sporting event or extracurricular of a grandchild – sometimes in quick succession, witnessing one of his sons win on a track – whether via horse or car, enjoying lunch with his daughter, competing in the hotly contested annual Father’s Day Golf Tournament, or gathering for a holiday celebration, Bill adored his family and they adored Bill.
He was the epitome of a Family Man, Husband, Father, Uncle, Granddad, Great Granddad, Great-Great Granddad, Mentor and Friend; a very successful entrepreneur and businessman; a strong supporter of the things he believed in; and a child loved by his God.
Bill was a life-long Baptist, moving over to the Methodist camp for a few years in the early eighties while he and Su lived in Dunwoody. He was a member of Ivy Creek Baptist Church since September 2018.
Bill was universally loved and respected. Whether it was the fisherman he sold Cokes to; his North Fulton High School friends who looked forward to seeing him at each year’s Buckhead Boys Reunion; his GSU and fraternity friends, many of whom he stayed in touch with over the years; his business associates – from receptionists to CEO’s; and all the Alumni he partnered with to promote Athletics at GSU, not to mention his family, both immediate and extended.
He is survived by his wife of forty-three years, Susan “Su” Reeves; his daughter Camilla Ellenburg; his sons and daughters-in-law: Dean and Patti Reeves, Russell and Sheila Reeves; grandchildren: Jerry Ellenburg, Annalisa and Patrick O’Toole, Jason Ellenburg, Howard and Amanda Ellenburg, Brenton Drew and Mary Elizabeth Ellenburg, Amanda Kaye and Gene Williams, William and Juli Reeves, Sarah and Logan Alexander, Ashley and Hunter Pardue, Cameron and Jessica Reeves, Peyton and Brook Reeves; as well as twenty-five great grandchildren and one great-great grandchild.
A Memorial Service will be held at Crowell Brothers Funeral Home, 5051 Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, Peachtree Corners, Georgia 30092 on Wednesday, November 6, 2024. Visitation will begin at 10:00 AM, followed by the Memorial Service at 11:00 AM.
As we remember this special man, in lieu of flowers, please consider supporting one of the organizations near and dear to his heart:
William D. Reeves Scholarship Fund
Alpha Kappa Psi Foundation, 8001 E. 196th Street, Noblesville, IN 46062
https://www.classy.org/give/630959/#!/donation/checkout
William D. and Susan T. Reeves Endowed Athletic Scholarship
Georgia State University Foundation, PO Box 3963, Atlanta, GA 30302-3963
For questions, please call Georgia State Athletics 404-413-4092
Ivy Creek Baptist Church – Music Program
Post Office Box 2344, Buford, GA 30515
770-932-8453
https://onrealm.org/icbcga/give/now
