In 1974, Mercer University alumnus Elliott Brack and his family moved to Gwinnett County to further his journalism career. Fifty years later, in December 2024, he was inducted into the county’s Preservation Hall of Fame.
Gwinnett County’s Preservation Hall of Fame was established to recognize and honor individuals, groups, businesses, community leaders and professionals who have strived to help preserve the county’s history. New inductees are honored every two years.
Brack graduated from Mercer’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in 1957. Then, he served two years in the Army.
“During my time in the army, I ran a commissary. I was dealing with over 50 people. We ran a grocery store and a separate liquor store, and then we also had a military wholesale point,” he said. “I didn’t realize then how much it was teaching me about how to work with and manage people.”
Following his service, he went directly to the University of Iowa to pursue a master’s degree in journalism. After graduation from there, he knew he wanted to return to the South and found work in publishing at the Wayne County Press in Jesup. After 13 years in southeast Georgia, Brack and his family found their way to Gwinnett County in 1974.
There, Brack and a friend, while still working in the newspaper business, began offering tours of Gwinnett County.
“We were originally aiming at people from Cobb, Fulton and DeKalb counties who would drive through on I-85,” he said. “We started those around 1975, and over the next few years we gave two a year.”
Those tours led to visitors telling Brack that he should write a history of Gwinnett County. Yet, he knew he didn’t have the time to devote to writing a book while working full time.
“As a newspaperman, I knew that I wanted to see it (the book) in print immediately. I didn’t want to wait two or more years for it to be published,” he said. “After that, I didn’t think about it anymore.”
After he retired, though, things changed while traveling to Duluth, Minnesota.
“I wanted to establish a connection between Duluth, Minnesota, and Duluth, Georgia. It didn’t work, but in my travels, I wanted to take a hundred-page written history (about Duluth, Georgia) to the people of Duluth, Minnesota.”
When he started writing that history, he quickly realized it would be a far greater endeavor than he imagined. What started as an afternoon writing 50 pages turned into a 3 ½-year process writing an 850-page book.
“I didn’t want to particularly write the history of Gwinnett (County) into a book. Up until then, we didn’t have an objective, written history,” he said. “After living in the area for 30 years, though, the leaders of the county trusted me, and they would tell me things. So, I felt that it was incumbent on me to write it. Even though I didn’t want to. Who else would if I didn’t?”
Gwinnett: A Little Above Atlanta was published in 2008. The book has been through multiple editions and sold out upon the release of its first two printings.
Brack didn’t stop writing Gwinnett’s history. In 2018, he wrote a smaller book titled, 366 Facts About Gwinnett. That publication was updated in 2022.
Following retirement, Brack also published the Gwinnett Forum, an internet-moderated community.
“As you can see, I’m having a great time in retirement,” he said. “And I truly hope what we’re doing here is helping our community.”
Brack has been active in many civic organizations, including the Rotary Club of Gwinnett, Salvation Army, Leadership Gwinnett and the Georgia Press Association.
As part of his induction into the Preservation Hall of Fame, Brack will be honored by having his name commemorated with markers on a monument on the Preservation Lawn at the Isaac Adair House and the Female Seminar in Lawrenceville.
He and his wife, Barbara, live in Norcross. They have three adult children and two granddaughters.
