Ellis remembered as man of vision
Family, friends gather to mourn passing of Rockmart city manager
For 40 years, Jeff Ellis worked to do everything he could to improve his adopted hometown.
A constant in the workings of Rockmart’s city government for four decades, Ellis, who moved the Rockmart from Akron, Ohio, with his family in 1968, was memorialized during a funeral service at First Baptist Church in Rockmart on Wednesday, Jan. 20, with friends and family in attendance.
The longtime public servant died in the early morning hours of Jan. 15 because of complications from COVID-19. He was 67.
While first hired by the city of Rockmart as fire chief, Ellis became city manager in 1996, a position he held until his untimely death.
Mike McRae, who came on as Rockmart’s city attorney not long after Ellis was hired, gave the eulogy at Wednesday’s service, remembering Ellis as a man of greatness and vision.
“Jeff Ellis had an amazing vision about things. An amazing vision about the people who work for him and bringing out the best in them. An amazing
vision about doing things for Rockmart. An amazing vision about how to improve everything he was doing,” McRae said.
McRae spoke about Jeff’s management of both Rockmart’s police and fire departments in the 1980s, his work with the Georgia Municipal Association and his approach to developing the U.S. 278 corridor.
He also highlighted Ellis’s tireless efforts in turning the former Rockmart High School campus into the Rockmart Municipal Complex.
Ellis, who was an alumnus of the school, took the lead in having the city purchase the campus, which had not been in use since 2001, and renovating it to house all of the city’s main administrative offices, as well as the police department, library, recreation department and cultural arts center.
The property was purchased for $500,000 and was in serious disrepair. Ellis worked with McRae to get a low-interest $4.6 million loan through the Georgia Municipal Association to pay for the renovations.
Ellis also took the uncommon approach of not hiring contractors to avoid fees.
“So it took almost a year and a half for the city and its folks to do it,” McRae said. “He didn’t hire any outside labor to turn that monstrosity and terrible problem into moving forward to what we see today.”
McRae said he looked it up and, with the interest savings, contractors’ fees, and paying off the loan early, Ellis saved the city between $1.7 and $2.2 million.
“We are sadly in the midst of a scourge of a worldwide pandemic that took Jeff Ellis away from us. Yet the heritage and permanent difference he made to Rockmart will continue for generations into the future,” McRae said.
Members of the Cartersville Fire Department Honor Guard served as pallbearers and also performed the “last call” ceremony, where a fire department bell is rung in three sets of five.
Ellis is interred at Rose Hill Cemetery.