The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THURMAN, John
A Journey that began on November 6, 1930 ended on January 12,
2022. Between those dates John Kleier
Thurman lived a long and remarkable life. He grew up in the Sylvan Hills area of
Southwest Atlanta with his parents Charles and Edith and his younger siblings Brown and
Mike. John developed a true love of golf at a young age, riding his bike over to the John A. White golf course nearly every chance he could get to hone his game (when riding a bike that far in Atlanta traffic in the years preceding and during World War II was not dangerous). He was a track star (setting the Atlanta HS record in the 100-yard dash his senior year, long since broken as he set his record on a cinder track) and a good wrestler during his high school years and later at Presbyterian College, from which he graduated in 1952. He served in the Korean War and upon his return from the war, began a long banking career with First National Bank (now Wells Fargo). He witnessed and contributed to Atlanta’s explosive growth during his banking career and his numerous contacts led him and a group of his golfing cohorts to found and develop the Atlanta Golf Classic, later known as the Bellsouth Golf Classic. He was involved every year from its inception to the last year it was held, serving one year as the tournament chairman when Tiger Woods won the tournament. He and his family were members of Central Presbyterian Church in downtown Atlanta for many years where he served in various capacities from deacon to elder. One of his memorable services to the church occurred in 1968, after Dr. Martin Luther King was slain. The members of Central Presbyterian and the next-door Shrine of the Immaculate Conception got together to provide temporary housing for the overflow of visitors to Atlanta for Dr. Kings funeral.
John and his young family lived in what is now known as the Pomona Park area of Southwest Atlanta from 1961 to 1971. From there, he and his family moved to Vinings, GA where he lived until 1996 when he and his second wife Emily moved to Big Canoe, GA where he continued his passion for golf. Following her death in 2012 he moved back to the Atlanta area to be closer to his family.
He was predeceased by his parents Charles and Edith, his first wife Martha Taylor, second wife Emily Smith Thurman, and daughter Laree Thurman Parker. He is survived by his son, Kevin Thurman (Paula) of Lawrenceville, GA, his daughter Becky Thurman Earnhart (Brad) of Covington, GA, son-in-law Mike Parker, brothers Brown Thurman of Dunwoody, GA, and Mike Thurman of Mt. Pleasant, SC and their families. He will be greatly missed by his grandchildren, Brian Parker (Kira), Brett Parker, Nathan Thurman, Taylor Thurman, Holly Donahue and Mitchell Donahue, his great-grandchildren, Braelyn Parker and Braxton Parker.
A memorial service for John will be announced at a later date. In lieu of flowers, please consider making any donations to The Atlanta Humane Society or to the Big Canoe Animal Rescue in his memory.
Matthew 25:21 “Well done thou good and faithful servant”
or Ben Wells, Ossabaw Island was a game-changer. His first time there was during a teacher-training program in 2007. He went back the next year as an instructor for Savannah-area middle schoolers. That’s when
“I loved Ossabaw the first moment I visited,” recalled Wells. “But I knew when my student started opening up like that, that the island was a special place and an important teacher. It’s transformative, and I wanted to get more students out there to experience that.”
Forty-five minutes by boat and 20 miles from Savannah, Ossabaw is Georgia’s third largest barrier island, with more than 5,000 years of human history. The island was among others gifted to Muscogee Creek woman Mary Musgrove for her diplomacy with Native and English communities. After her death in the early 1800s, cotton and indigo plantations took hold in which landowners brought to the island as many as 350 enslaved Africans.
The Torrey family acquired Ossabaw in 1924, and a daughter, Eleanor “Sandy” West, launched the Genesis Project in 1970 for students and professionals in environmental science. Eight years later, Georgia purchased it as the state’s first Heritage Preserve, protecting the island’s ecosystems and important sea turtle nesting habitat.
Wells, who taught mostly math for 20 years in Savannah-chatham public schools, took to heart the bigger lessons of Ossabaw Island. He enrolled in the graduate marine science program at Savannah State and since 2018 has headed up the marine science program at Oglethorpe Charter School — it’s the only middle school program like it in the district. There, Wells teaches seventh and eighth graders how to engage as critical thinkers and marine scientists.
The class field trip to Ossabaw Island was the culmination of five weeks studying loggerhead sea turtles. Before Thanksgiving, Wells put the class into two groups and sent them on an information scavenger hunt at seaturtle.org. He asked each group a specific question. One challenge was to calculate the nesting densities of loggerhead turtles at different barrier islands along the Georgia coast. The stuhe watched one of his most emotionally closed-off students start smiling, laughing and doing funny impressions of his teachers — a sense of happiness, that until that experience on the island, Wells had never seen before.
‘I loved Ossabaw the first moment I visited. But I knew when my student started opening up like that, that the island was a special place and an important teacher. It’s transformative, and I wanted to get more students out there to experience that.’ Ben Wells, teacher
dents had to figure out the data from the website, plot that information into comparison graphs and then present their findings to the class.
“Interpreting research data and cohesively doing group work are important goals,” said Wells. “If I can help these students along that path of understanding how to do complex projects in a group and successfully present their results, they’re on the way to succeeding in academics beyond my class.”
Seventh grader Haley Gerido worked on the nesting density
project. She really liked learning about the life cycle of the turtles.
“I didn’t know that only the females come to the beach to lay eggs,” said Gerido. “The males never leave the ocean, and the females only lay eggs after they’re 15 years old. They come to the beach to lay eggs every two to three years. The rest of their life is in the ocean.”
Camille Bennett, who also worked on nesting density, was captivated by the turtles’ nesting process.
“The female turtles lay more than one clutch of eggs in the summer; it’s not just one bunch of eggs,” explained Bennett. “And every time they lay eggs, they can lay more than 100. And the temperature in the nest determines which ones are males and females. The cool temperature is on the bottom. Those eggs are male. The warm eggs are on top. Those are female.”
After the groups presented their projects, Wells gathered everyone for a walk near the beach where loggerheads nest. The students saw for themselves where the animals spend time each summer.
“I asked these kids to take a leap of faith with me,” reflected Wells. “They’d never seen a loggerhead turtle or a barrier island. Doing the research and completing the assignment — they did their part. Getting everyone out to Ossabaw was my part of the bargain, a reward for following through on a complex project. I want them to want to come back here, to keep on learning, to love this place. Because if you love something, you’ll want to know everything about it. If you love something, you’ll want to protect it.”