Ansel W. Paulk
Inducted 1994
He has been described by those who watched him perform as one of Waycross High School’s greatest players. He played football, baseball and basketball. He served as captain on the basketball team that lost only one of the regular season games and was co-captain of the baseball squad. He played baseball with the Waycross Tobacco League team. While working in Brunswick, Paulk played semi-pro baseball with Greek George and later played semi-pro baseball at Rochelle-Abbeville. He also played one spring at South Georgia College. In 1934 he entered the CCC camp at Homerville where he played baseball and basketball as both teams won Fourth Corps Area championships in 1934. In 1935, he entered Oglethorpe University where he played four years as football fullback and was first baseman on the Petrel’s baseball team for two years. He was later inducted into the Oglethorpe University Athletic Hall of Fame as a member of the best college baseball teams in the South.
After graduation, he coached three sports at Baxley High School for one year before leaving to accept a job with the Coca Cola Company. After serving a tour of duty with the Navy during World Ware II, he enlisted as a chief specialist in the Gene Tunney program at the Great Lakes NAS and was commissioned as a Lt. (J.G.), serving one year in the South Pacific. Beginning in 1945, he was in the real estate business as a developer, broker, sales and appraiser and helped form the first Dekalb County Board of realtors, serving as their first president. He was active in the Peachtree United Methodist Church and Sunday School Class. He was a member of the Decatur Rotary Club and active in civic affairs. His wife was the former Christine Wilson Duke of Atlanta. He had two sons.