Everett Gill III

Everett Gill III, 94, of Black Mountain, NC died peacefully on December 2, 2025. Buddy, as he was known to all who knew him, was born on September 20, 1931, in Marshall, Missouri.
As a child, his father was pastor of St. Charles Ave Baptist Church in New Orleans, and the parsonage was so close to the Audubon Zoo that he could hear the lions roar at night. Later, the family moved to Richmond, VA, where his father served as Secretary for Latin America at the Baptist Foreign Mission Board. The family moved to Brazil and visited missionaries throughout Latin America during "the War".
After graduating from Mars Hill Junior College, Buddy served three years in the USMC. In Korea, he performed guard duty and was an Aviation Ordinanceman with VMA 212, an AU-I Corsair squadron. After the Armistice, he traveled to bases in Korea and Japan, entertaining fellow troops in a quartet of singing Marines. He finished college at the University of Richmond and sang in the university chorus under the direction of James Erb.
Buddy attended Southeastern Seminary in Wake Forest and married fellow student Rachel Granger of Hickory, NC. After his ordination, he served briefly as chaplain to students at the Bowman Gray Medical Center, but it was the early 1960s, and the couple was drawn to the Civil Rights Movement that was gaining momentum across the nation. He participated in many protests, once attempting to take two Black friends into a segregated Winston-Salem cafeteria as his "guests." (It didn't work). Mulling overseas missionary work, the couple felt called to serve in South Carolina, where Buddy worked in community organizing at the Quaker-supported Penn Center on St. Helena Island-- incidentally, the place where Dr. Martin Luther King penned his "I Have a Dream" speech. Buddy had a calm and practical approach to protest, often accompanied by good humor. Denied entrance to a restaurant in Yulee, Florida with two Black colleagues, he whipped out a small note pad, demanded the name and address of the establishment from the owner, then marched back to his VW microbus and floored it back to South Carolina. He was arrested more than once, usually just sitting in a place where he wasn't supposed to be, quietly joining others to encourage the local government to distribute the welfare checks or open the restaurant to everyone. He didn't yell or carry signs or argue, but he was present, and he helped others who sometimes needed to do those things loudly. He valued people "who for reasons I don't understand, dedicate their lives to helping others. They work not for reward, or even for special recognition, but count their success in terms of the good things that happen to other people." He counted among his heroes many liberal Southern Christians: Will Campbell, Clarence Jordan, John Lewis, Martin Luther King, Jimmy Carter.
In the 1970s in Atlanta, Buddy worked as an investigator for the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Office for Civil Rights (H.E.W.) before finishing an EdD in Adult Education at the University of Georgia. Back in Atlanta, he worked for the State of Georgia as head of its refugee resettlement program, a position which allowed him to employ all his skills, helping refugees from all over the world establish safe communities. After retirement, he moved to Weaverville with his wife Rachel, where they enjoyed the birds, bears, and turkeys in their back yard with their dog Preacher and sang with the Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church choir. In 2011, he and Rachel moved to Givens Highland Farms.
Buddy served in many churches throughout his lifetime, most notably Oakhurst Baptist in Atlanta, a dynamic church where social justice (poverty, gender, LGBTQ, race, gun violence) was the guiding principle of its Covenant. At Oakhurst, Buddy served as deacon, writer, tenor, photographer, and mentor to many. For him, the Church, especially the Baptist Church, had an essential role in the fight against systemic injustice. This orientation was inherited from his grandfather, a Baptist minister who traveled the world as a missionary and even befriended the very secular Mark Twain.
Buddy was influenced by the missionary work of his father and grandfather, and he later traveled to Soviet Georgia, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Guatemala, Canada, Rome...not as a missionary but as a peace maker. He believed in the promise of reconciliation – not as an ideal, but as a life mission, reaching out to bridge communication divides among all people. He once took out his wallet for a homeless person asking for money at the mall, and simply noted, "That's a hard job."
As a writer (letters to the editor, homilies, poetry, the "big" ideas), Buddy attempted to get to the essence of things, fussing and puzzling over the wording, often concluding his work in both humor and hope. Brevity was his guide, as he shaped the largest ideas into the fewest words. And he was funny. Coming out of the ether in post-op after a surgery, a nurse asked if he knew what State he was in: "Poor," he deftly replied.
As a photographer, he focused on landscapes and portraits. He served as volunteer photographer for Givens Highland Farms for many years, photographing residents in their new homes, pets by their sides.
Music, especially a capella choral music, was his lifelong passion. He wrote, "I am convinced [music] is one of the principal ways that God communicates with humanity." He sang in multiple church choirs, the Third Avenue Consort, the Schola Cantorum of Atlanta, and in the Atlanta Symphony Chorus for the great Robert Shaw. He also loved "old timey music" and raised his kids on Classical, Blue Grass, and American folk music.
The officiant at countless wedding ceremonies, Buddy wrote that "marriage is a good thing. It is still about love, and loyalty, and pleasure, and doing things together...and it is still about making the world a better place." His statement summarizes his marriage to his wife Rachel of 56 years, a Baptist journalist. After her death in 2011, Buddy continued to live at Givens Highland Farms with Sadie the dog.
He is preceded in death by his wife, Rachel Granger Gill, his parents, Everett Gill Jr. and Rachel Truex Gill, and his sister, Jane Gill Tombes. His son, Steve Gill of Philadelphia, his daughter, Emily Gill (Geoff Wilson) of Little Switzerland, his granddaughter, Maris Gill (Ian Rice) of Glenwood Springs, CO, and his very special friend Nancy Schuman of Givens Highland Farms will miss him fiercely.
A Memorial service will be held at Givens Highland Farms Assembly room on January 24, 2026, at 2 p.m. in the Assembly Room, the Rev. Nancy Sehested (Circle of Mercy) officiating. Prior to the service, he will be interred with his wife Rachel at Mars Hill Baptist Church Cemetery.
Memorial contributions may be made to ABCCM Veterans Restoration Quarters in Asheville, NC or any charity for which the stated goal is social justice and the benefit of the poor. To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Everett Gill III, please visit our floral store.