Athens hall of famer Mack Sewell dies

Mack Sewell, 72, a 2010 Athens Athletic Hall of Fame inductee, longtime probation officer and leader in the black community, died of a heart attack Tuesday night.

Sewell also was a U.S. Army veteran, a strong supporter of the Clarke County Democratic party and a longtime deacon at Hill Chapel Baptist Church.

One of a dozen inductees in last year's Athens Athletic hall of fame, Sewell - who also served on the Hall of Fame's governing foundation - was recognized for his sporting exploits in track and football at Athens High and Industrial School, the state's first four-year, public high school for blacks.

Sewell played center on the school football team, a position that usually required someone larger than he was at the time, said fellow AAHF board member Aaron Heard. That experience helped shape Sewell's character, drive and confidence, Heard said.

"I think (it) helped him to do a lot of things," he said. "Because he was undersized for the position at center, that affiliation in sports made him an overachiever out there in life. It contributed to his positive thinking about what he could do to make a difference."

After graduating from high school, Sewell attended Albany State University for two years before joining the Army in 1960. He served in Vietnam and left the service in 1966 with an honorable discharge, said Lue Ellen Sewell, his wife of 48 years.

After military service, Sewell returned to Athens where he sold insurance before taking a job as a probation officer with the Clarke County Juvenile Court. He worked in that capacity from 1969 until he retired in 1991, the year the city and county governments unified.

His work as a

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