LEE ROACH TO RUN

June 1998 Table of Contents - Current Issue of The Abaco Journal - Abaco Bahamas' Home Page

LEE ROACH TO RUN

Former Fulton County Commission Vice Chairman Lee J Roach has qualified to run for Chairman of the Fulton County Commission in 1998. He will run as a Republican.

Lee Roach has served for 13 years on the Fulton County Commission from 1977 to 1990. He served as Vice Chairman for eight of those 13 years. Lee has run six major county-wide races, easily winning the four races of 1977 (a special election), 1978, 1982 and 1986. The results of an earlier race in 1974 were overturned by the courts. Lee left his safe at-large County Commission seat in 1990, to run against Michael Lomax in the primary race for the newly-created position of voter-elected Chairman. The 1990 race is the only one Lee did not win.

Lee first entered the political arena in 1972, being asked to chair a county-wide recall movement against two of the three incumbent County Commissioners. While it was not possible to assemble the requisite number of valid signatures by the recall deadline, the combination of press scrutiny and public awareness resulted in the rapid departure of these two elected officials from the Fulton County Commission. Lee then ran for the seat of one of them in 1974.

As a private citizen, Lee emerged as a leader of concerned homeowners fighting the haphazard zoning practices that threatened neighbourhoods throughout the county. Irresponsible zoning was also destroying the integrity of the Chattahoochee River, not only a source of recreation and natural beauty, but also the major water supply for the metro area.

Protection of the environment and natural recreation areas has occupied a high priority on Lee's agenda. He served as Vice President of the Georgia Wildlife Federation. He is a founding member of the Friends of the River, a group dedicated to the preservation of the Chattahoochee. After helping to guide successful legislation to protect the river through the Georgia General Assembly, Lee and his wife Natalie, who also had taken strong leadership on this issue, were invited by then President Jimmy Carter to join him and Rosalyn at the White House to witness the signing of the federal bill to establish the system of parks along the Chattahoochee River from Buford Dam to Atlanta. Many of these parks are located in Fulton County.

Both as a public official and private citizen, Lee advocates community service. He served as a director of the Butler Street YMCA, the Council for Battered Women, the Chattahoochee Nature Center and the Atlanta-Fulton County Recreation (stadium) Authority. A small business owner himself, Lee, prior to his retirement, was a member of the Chambers of Commerce of Atlanta, Sandy Springs, North Fulton and South Fulton. He is a former trustee of the Community Planning Council of Sandy Springs and its Land use Committee.

Lee has recently retired as an International Captain for Delta Air Lines, having completed almost 40 years as a professional pilot, including one tour with the Navy. During that tour, he trained in anti-submarine warfare, communications, tactics and weapons. As the squadron communications officer, he received Top Secret clearance from the FBI and Naval Intelligence.

A native of New York, Lee attended Fordham University and New York Agricultural and Technical College, graduating in Automotive and Diesel Technology in 1956. Lee is married to the former Natalie Jane Oster of Long Island, New York. They have four children and four grandchildren. Lee and Natalie attend St Andrew's Church in Roswell, where they are founding members.

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