Election Watch 2006
Credit Union Political Spotlight
Jerry Gill
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Jerry Gill is no stranger to political involvement. Jerry is on the Board at Georgia Heritage FCU in Savannah, GA and he first became involved in campaigning more than 30 years ago. The first candidate he supported was G. Elliott Hagan who was running for the U.S. House of Representatives 1st District seat for GA. Jerry found they had compatible views, and he liked Hagan’s personality and ethics, so he decided to become involved in helping elect Hagan. Jerry’s involvement and support consisted of going door-to-door, passing out literature, attending fundraisers and donating his personal money in addition to his time. When Hagan lost his re-election bid in 1972, Jerry decided the incoming candidate, Ronald Bryan “Bo” Ginn, was also someone he could support.
More recently, Jerry has become very involved in the GA-12* race. He started out working for Rep. Jack Kingston in GA-1. However, this district was split and Jerry was now living in the newly created GA-12, so he went to work for Max Burns. Burns is a long-time credit union member and has been a very good friend of credit unions in the past, and Jerry knew this was going to be a tough race. Jerry decided to step up his involvement. In addition to his prior activities, Jerry put up signs, worked in the campaign headquarters folding letters, stuffing envelopes and doing mailings. He even hosted a fish fry fundraiser for Burns. The turnout was great – other candidates for local offices also showed up! This campaign turned into a family affair for the Gills. Not only did Jerry devote a significant amount of his time, but his wife was with him every step of the way. He also got both his son and daughter to donate some of their spare time to helping the Burns campaign.
Jerry has derived a good deal of satisfaction from his political involvement. Not only does he feel supporting credit union friendly candidates is important, he also knows it is a good way for him to stay involved in what is happening in his community. As a former Marine who served in Korea, Jerry believes in action and campaigning for candidates fits in with this viewpoint. There have also been some unexpected benefits – Jerry got to eat dinner with President Bush at a fundraiser recently. Even though they were both seated on the dais, Jerry was only able to get a glimpse of the back of the president’s head! Still, it was exciting just to be present.
Jerry’s career at credit unions started many years ago when a friend convinced him to join the credit committee at the credit union that is now Georgia Heritage FCU. Jerry agreed, with the stipulation that he would only serve for one year. Somehow, 32 years have passed since that first credit union experience and Jerry is still involved. As he likes to say, “Credit unions just get in your blood.”
Campaigning is not the only political involvement in which Jerry has been involved. During his tenure at Georgia Heritage FCU, he has participated in over 13 Hike the Hills. He has also attended CUNA’s Governmental Affairs Conference many times and his credit union participates in Project Zip Code and CULAC.
Since serving as a Marine during the Korean War, Jerry has remained involved with our Armed Services. He is active with his Marine Reserve Unit – they still get together about once a month to tell stories. Jerry is also a member of the Marine Corps League and assists the local USO with events and activities for departing and returning service men and women. In addition to these activities, he is active with his church and during his free time, he enjoys going fishing.
*The outcome of this race has still not been decided as of press time
