The new recipients of the East Cobb Citizen of the Year award have been revealed, and a long streak of keeping the news a surprise to the winners has been maintained.
At a Tuesday morning breakfast of the East Cobb Area Council of the Cobb Chamber of Commerce, Mack Cobb wore a Pope letter sweater, with a light-blue P against a backdrop of darker blue. He was asked to speak about the youth football programs he’s been involved with for nearly 50 years.
Tom Bills was part of a special presentation about the past, present and future of East Cobb Park, as the organization’s first treasurer.
Both men did that, but as the co-citizens of the year, an honor that’s been shared only once since the award began in 1991.
“I don’t know what to say,” said Cobb, holding up papers with prepared remarks. “I came here to talk about football.”
He’s coached middle-school feeder football programs for Pope, Lassiter and Walton, as well as for the Cobb YMCA.
When asked later about why he’s coached sixth-through-eighth graders for so long, his reply was swift: “They’re kids,” Cobb said, with a spark in his eyes.
A favorite moment came during a practice when a player rushed to Cobb, put something in his hand and asked him to hold onto it. It was a bloody tooth.
“I want to put it under my pillow,” the boy told Cobb.
One of his former players was in attendance at the event at Indian Hills Country Club. Tab Griffin, who’s been the Pope varsity coach for the past three years, said Cobb’s been one of the more influential figures in his life, far beyond football.
“He always taught you so much about non-football things,” Griffin said. “Hard work. Making good grades. Respecting others. You don’t realize how much you’ve learned from him until you’re out in the real world.”
Griffin said those life lessons came every day in practice and at games, not in any overbearing fashion, but as part of developing trusting relationships with other people. That was the strength of Cobb’s influence.
“Now that I’m a father and a coach, I try to instill them with the things that I learned from him,” Cobb said.
Bills was an engineering consultant in private practice when he got involved with efforts nearly two decades ago to buy land to purchase what became East Cobb Park.
He lives in the nearby Mitsy Forest neighborhood, and served as the first treasurer of the Friends for the East Cobb Park.
Over the years, he’s served the non-profit board in various capacities, including president from 2003-05. Now, Bills is a senior construction project manager for the Cobb Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs.
“I always thought that my award was the park,” Bills said.
He got involved in the volunteer group’s work, he said, because a park nearby “would be good for our neighborhood.”
It turned out to be a long-term commitment that included an ambitious fundraising project that continues today.
Before long, Sunny Walker, Mary Karras and Kim Paris—founding members and driving forces of the Friends group—got him fully involved, after initially asking him to evaluate an environmental impact study.
“Mary signed me up for 20 years,” he said.
He said as the organization’s treasurer, every single contribution, no matter the size, was important.
Among them were from kids who turned over big bags of change they solicited from golfers on the Indian Hills driving range.
“That meant as much to us” as the bigger checks, Bills said, “because it showed the support of the community.”
Bills’ other community work includes volunteering with activities at Walton High School, Keep Cobb Beautiful, and the Cobb Veterans Foundation.
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