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FEATURES

TheAtlanta Journal-ConstitutionSunday,May 18, 2014

E | LIVING&ARTSHow to getthe most fromyour Big GreenEgg grill, E6

News: livingnews@ajc.com | Delivery: ajc.com/customercare or 404-522-4141

By Josh GreenFor theAJC

Running late, Jarel Port-man hustles into InmanPark’s Barcelona restau-

rant and shrugs off the rawMarch weather outside. Hewears a smart blue suit cut byhis friend, the haberdasherSid Mashburn. His broad faceand side-swept, blondish hairecho his father, the world-fa-mous architect John Portman— the man who built much ofdowntown Atlanta and whoselandmarks peek over the hillup the street.

The younger Portman’s tar-diness is understandable. Jar-el’s first project, the $46 mil-lion multi-use developmentcalled Inman Quarter — or“IQ” — is rising from muddyclay across the street. Inves-tors are in town for a tour. Theproject has been shortlistedfor an award, and the banquetis tonight. Jarel is being pulledin opposite directions, andhe sighs as he takes a seat forlunch, relinquishing his ubiq-uitous iPad to the empty spacebeside him.

At age 52, Jarel is the young-est of six Portman children,born into this world becausehis parents were striving fora second girl, a playmate forhis sister, Jana. Two years ago,he left Los Angeles and movedback to his home turf of Atlan-

ta to found JPX Works, a de-velopment company he hopeswill capitalize on intown’s re-surgence.

The company name is an ac-ronym: Jarel’s initials plus anX for good measure, inspiredby the heroic character in“Speed Racer” cartoons. Thathis surname is absent is no ac-cident. Jarel doesn’t want toride John Portman’s coattails,but he hopes his work, like hisfather’s, will help dramaticallytransform Atlanta’s core.

Standing 6-foot-4 with aslim build, you might say Jar-el embodies contradiction.He appears to be a humble de-

veloper, effusive in his praisefor everyone else. CombiningSouthern gentility with Cali-fornia nonchalance, he comesacross like a distinguishedsurfer. Born into privilege, hisoldest friends say he was al-ways grounded. A blue-eyedwhite guy, he loves to sing theblues.

The paradoxes raise ques-tions: Can a big-city develop-er be successful and nice? Canhe step outside the long shad-ow cast by an icon? Does hehave to?

Next week: Reporter Craig Schneider seeks answers in the death of his Uncle Al, a WWII soldier.

Jarel Portman, son of world-renowned architect and developer John Portman, has ventured out on his own to start JPX Works developmentcompany. Its first project is a $46 million mixed-use project call Inman Quarter, aka IQ, in Inman Park. CURTIS COMPTON / CCOMPTON@AJC.COM

Jarel and his father, John Portman, pose for a photograph at thegroundbreaking ceremony for the Incheon 151 Tower at Songdo Land-mark City, Incheon, South Korea, in 2008. CONTRIBUTED BY FAMILY

Building on hisfather’s legacyArchitecture scion Jarel Portmanmakes his mark on Inman Park.

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HOWWEGOTTHESTORYFormer Inman Park resident JoshGreen first became interestedin Jarel Portman when his teampresented its development plansto the neighborhood two yearsago. Green wondered what drovethe dapper youngest son of aniconic architect. Earlier this year,Green approached Jarel aboutdoing an in-depth story, andafter a series of hilariously tensepre-interviews, he convinced Jarelthat being featured in PersonalJourneys would not make him anegotist. That humbleness — alongwith Jarel’s humor — came as asurprise, given his pedigree. Forthis story, Green interviewedJarel in various settings, touredthe project site, hung out with hisfamily and spoke with colleagues,neighborhood officials, GeorgiaTech professors and Jarel’s oldfriends. He studied up on JohnPortman, too, learning about hisinfluence on cities around theworld, and especially Atlanta.The elder Portman declinedan interview but provided astatement that read, in part,“I’mvery proud that Jarel is … takinga positive community-wideconcern for the future of Atlanta.”

Suzanne Van AttenPersonal Journeys editorpersonaljourneys@ajc.com

Personal JourneysAn award-winning feature that spotlights the lives of extraordinary individualsand the stories that define our region and connect our community.

By Jennifer Brettjbrett@ajc.com

In an age before viral catvideos, long before 140 char-acters could confer either in-stant fame or infamy, Celes-tine Sibley — a columnist forthis newspaper for more thana half-century who was born100 years ago Friday — earneda place in readers’ hearts forher masterful chronicling ofthe world around us.

“It’s very hard to walkaround downtown Atlantanow,” she wrote in a 1989 col-umn lamenting Atlanta’s pen-chant for knocking down itshistory. “The tearing downand rebuilding must havebeen an Atlanta trademarksince the first returning house-holder after Sherman’s bigfire found a few boards andnailed them together. No useto ask for whom the bulldozergrowls ... if you live in Atlanta,it growls for thee.”

In 1994, she grieved overthe trees at her beloved SweetApple cabin (where her daugh-ter now lives) whose time hadcome.

“Only a fool would let her-self get mushy-headed andsentimental over a mapletree,” she wrote. “I was re-luctant to do anything aboutthose trees except walkaround under them and urgethem to get a grip on them-selves.”

Sibley died of cancer at age85 in 1999 after more thanfive decades of writing notonly about homespun plea-sures but also keeping an eyeon statehouse politicians andcranking out gritty courtroomdrama.

Born near Pensacola, Fla.,she grew up near Mobile, Ala.,and was hired at The Atlan-

Writer’swords,life leftimprint

BOOKS&AUTHORS

Beloved columnistCelestine Sibley born100 years ago Friday.

Celestine Sibley began herjournalism career at The AtlantaConstitution in the 1940s. AJC FILE

SibleycontinuedonE7

Go to MyAJC.com/sundaylivingto read some of CelestineSibley’s columns and to see agallery of photos of the authorand columnist through theyears.

In her own words»A selection of books by andabout Celestine Sibley, E7

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PERSONAL JOURNEYS

Building on his father’s legacySon of a world-reknown architect, Jarel Portman puts his imprint on an Atlanta neighborhood.

2Growing up Portman

A few weeks later, Jarel isdriving his black-on-black Au-di A5 through the hills of res-idential Buckhead. It’s 70 de-grees and the cherry treesare exploding. He stops thecar and points to his home: awhite, classical-looking struc-ture cut into a steep hill.

“You think it’s kind of a tra-ditional little French chateau,”he says, smirking. “Well, wait’til you go inside.”

Exactly 1.8 miles from hereis the modernist wonder-land where Jarel grew up, andwhere his parents still live: Ahome named “Entelechy,” forthe spark of life and creativi-ty. Like the family’s 22,000-square-foot Sea Island beachhouse, Entelechy II, Jarel’sboyhood home is the subjectof scholarly books on archi-tecture.

Jarel recalls his young life atEntelechy as being joyous, es-pecially on Sundays, the on-ly day his father didn’t go towork. The home occupies 30wooded acres where Jarel, hisbrothers and friends wouldroam on dirt bikes, play tennisand marvel at the decorativestream that snaked throughthe house.

As the baby of the bunch,Jarel remembers needingplenty of stitches from rockfights with his brothers. Hewas also the intermediary hissiblings would dispatch to getthings from John Portman andhis wife, Jan, a stay-at-homemom who volunteered at Pied-mont Hospital and helped op-erate the Atlanta DecorativeArts Center.

Standing at one particu-lar wall of glass at Entelechy,looking past a rippling can-opy of pines, Jarel could seedowntown Atlanta. From thatperch he watched his father’sconstructions — the Hyatt Re-gency, Peachtree Center, Wes-tin Peachtree Plaza and theMarriott Marquis — climb in-to the sky, thinking: “My daddid that.”

Jarel wasn’t alone in his as-tonishment. In public, peoplebegan to point at his father, aGeorgia Tech graduate turnedarchitectural maverick. Jarelcould see his father’s celebritygrowing, and he sensed some-thing big was afoot.

John Portman’s brush-strokes on the Atlanta skylinebegan with the massive whole-sale trade center Atlanta Mer-chandise Mart (now Ameri-casMart) in 1960, but it wasthe Hyatt’s unveiling in 1967that truly splashed.

With its soaring, theatricalatrium, abundant fountainsand ivy streaming from eachfloor, the Hyatt revolutionizedlarge urban hotels, thrust At-lanta into a global spotlightand garnered an eclectic fanbase.

“Everybody became acountry bumpkin when theywalked into the Hyatt,” former

Atlanta mayor Andrew Youngsaid in the 2011 documenta-ry, “John Portman: A Life ofBuilding.” Jim Morrison of theDoors called the Hyatt’s eleva-tors “Victorian rocket ships.”A New York Times critic fa-mously regaled the work as“architecture at happy hour.”

But as John Portman’s prow-ess grew, so did the criticisms.

Detractors argue that manyof his larger works are con-crete islands, so inwardly fo-cused they turn their Brutalistbacks to pedestrians at streetlevel. British novelist WilliamBoyd parodied the Hyatt asthe fictionalized “Monopark5000 Hotel,” calling it equalparts “secular cathedral (and)theme park.”

But Robert M. Craig, profes-sor emeritus at Georgia Tech’sSchool of Architecture, sayscondemnation of Portman’sdesigns can be born of jealou-sy. “I think there’s a good ra-tionale for most of what he’sdone,” Craig says. “The atri-um hotel, and then the urbancomplex of Peachtree Centerand like projects, has been in-fluential internationally.”

At home, Portman’s rise toprominence led a teenage Jar-el to wonder about the sincer-ity of his classmates at LovettSchool. He was a gifted bas-ketball and baseball player,played a mean guitar and pia-no, but still he thought, “Doesthis girl really like me — or mycool house with a water fea-ture in the living room?”

Childhood friend Clay Will-

coxon says the former wastrue.

“( Jarel) was very charismat-ic,” says Willcoxon, a commer-cial real estate broker in Atlan-ta. “He got along well with ev-erybody. Girls liked him.”

Of course, growing up Port-man did have its perks.

One time, while Jarel dinedat the Sun Dial Restaurantatop his father’s tower, themembers of Aerosmith camein and heard he was the ar-chitect’s son — and that he’dlost his tickets to their show.No matter, the band told Jar-el. The following night, withhis best friends in tow, Jar-el watched from the front rowas Steven Tyler sang “SweetEmotion.”

Though he idolized his fa-ther, becoming an architectwas never Jarel’s plan.

He graduated from FloridaInternational University in Mi-ami with a bachelor’s degreein hotel and restaurant man-agement.

His beginnings as a hote-lier were humble. Workingfor Hyatt in San Francisco in1985, his starting salary was$11,000. For extra cash, Jarelpicked up piano-playing gigsat a local bar, where he caughtthe ear of the Grateful Dead’sBob Weir and soon found him-self jamming with Jerry Garciain Weir’s home studio.

With a couple of years of ho-tel experience behind him,Jarel leaped at the opportuni-ty to join his father’s companyin 1987 and moved to Los An-

geles. There his neighbors in-cluded a teenage Jason Bate-man and, just down the street,a pretty young actress namedTraylor Howard, a recenttransplant from Florida. Oneday a smitten Jarel asked herto dinner.

“Sure,” she said, “but my fi-ancée will be here in a coupleof weeks.”

They would drift apart, todifferent corners of the world,but Jarel never forgot her. Itwould take two decades to re-unite these native Southern-ers, and four acres in InmanPark to bring him back homeagain.

3The family man

Jarel breezes through hisback door, and there’s the ac-tress — now Traylor How-ard-Portman — cooking cous-cous, banana bread and hunt-er-style chicken, the ingredi-ents splayed across white-mar-ble countertops in their hugekitchen. She waves hello whileJarel tries to wrangle their 2-year-old son, Julien, whoseblond mane bounces as hescats. In a high-pitched voice,Jarel pleads to no avail, “Hey,buddy, can I have a kiss?”

They call the boy “Ju Ju,”and Jarel softens in his pres-ence. The JPX Works officesare just down the street, five

minutes away, so Jarel can eas-ily slip home for moments likethis.

Designed by Jarel and hisniece, Alissa Portman Beard,the house is an arctic paletteof white-oak floors and lime-stone, the walls hung withpaintings Jarel has collect-ed around the world — an oilfrom Russia, a Chinese ab-stract, a huge Radcliffe Baileypiece. Elsewhere, the proper-ty is dotted with John Portmansculptures; he gives each childone for Christmas every year.

The home helped con-vince Traylor to begrudginglyleave Los Angeles for Atlanta.But the city’s attributes — thenearby Chattahoochee, theyes-ma’am manners, the fourdistinct seasons — have grownon her. The family, which in-cludes Traylor’s 7-year-old sonfrom another relationship, Sa-bu, attends Ebenezer BaptistChurch every Sunday. ThatJarel would attend the historicAfrican-American church maycome as a surprise, but his fa-ther was friends with the Rev.Martin Luther King Jr. and of-ten met with him and AndrewYoung for lunch to talk aboutways to best move the city for-ward.

After a home tour, Jarel andhis wife settle in the livingroom and recount how theybecame reacquainted. Tray-lor had been working on thetelevision show “Monk” foryears, playing the lead charac-ter’s witty counterpart, Nata-lie Teeger. Jarel, meanwhile,followed The Portman Com-pany overseas in the 1990s. Areal estate collapse and pilingdebt had spurred Portman topenetrate booming Asian mar-kets, especially Shanghai. Jar-el joined a team that helpedsecure land deals and de-sign contracts for half a doz-en iconic hotel towers overthe years. The work was invig-orating but tiring; Jarel rarelyhad a day off when he was “incountry,” which was about 18days per month.

After a marriage that pro-duced two children (daugh-ter, Penn, and son, Miles, bothcollege students now) end-ed in divorce, Jarel was singleagain. Six years ago, he boughtand renovated his Buckheadhome but often found himselfin Los Angeles for layovers orscouting the city for real es-tate deals. On a whim he askeda friend for Traylor’s num-ber. When he called and askedher to dinner in 2004, she ac-cepted, and soon they becamefriends. Seven years later theywere married in a tree houseoverhanging the misty cliffs ofBig Sur in a simple ceremonywith just them and the priest.

The newlyweds set uphouse in Venice Beach, butsoon the long trips to Chinaaway from his family began towear on Jarel. Plus, he itchedto start his own company.“Monk” was ending its seven-year run, and Traylor yearnedto be closer to her parents inFlorida. But Jarel needed areason — a project — before hewould uproot his family. For

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Jarel at work in the JPX Works office on Northside Parkway, near the home he shares with wife Traylor, their son Julien and Traylor’s son, Sabu. CURTIS COMPTON / CCOMPTON@AJC.COM

Jarel grew up in Entelechy, the modernist home designed by his fa-ther. He and his siblings visit his parents there every Sunday.COPYRIGHT 2009MICHAEL PORTMAN, THE PORTMANARCHIVES, LLC

When the Hyatt Regency Hotel debuted in 1967, it catapulted thecareer of architect John Portman. RICH ADDICKS / AJC FILE

When Jarelwalked in theroom, ReginaBrewer all butrolled her eyes.She recognizedhis last nameand the familiar-looking face,and sheexpected theswagger of ahigh-rollingdeveloper.

Jarel, the youngest of sixchildren, in his 5th-grade classphoto from The Lovett School.CONTRIBUTED BY FAMILY

SUNDAY, MAY 18, 2014 THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION

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PERSONAL JOURNEYS

a year, he scoured Atlanta forthe perfect site to develop. Hewould find it in a hodgepodgeof old buildings in InmanPark, home to tenants belovedby the neighborhood, includ-ing Dad’s Garage Theatre andVictory Sandwich Bar.

Jarel, Traylor and Sa-bu moved to Atlanta in ear-ly 2012. A couple of monthslater, Julien was born at Pied-mont Hospital — in the Jan andJohn Portman Newborn Nurs-ery.

4Tough project

Established in 1890 andlisted on the National Regis-ter of Historic Places, InmanPark is billed as Atlanta’s firstplanned community. ReginaBrewer, president of the In-man Park Neighborhood As-sociation in 2012, was the ul-timate arbiter of proposedchanges to a neighborhood fa-mous for Victorian mansionsand hip business districts.Brewer was known in develop-ment circles as a no-nonsenseexpert of submarket politicswho, like her board, demand-ed strict control of the neigh-borhood’s development.

Brewer and the neighbor-hood association took pride inbeing well versed in city zon-ing and building processes. Af-ter all, the neighborhood wasloaded with attorneys, build-ers, architects and communi-ty preservationists who coulddeftly make a case for whatthey wanted. They’d sentplenty of developers packingover the course of 30 years,and they played a major rolein thwarting former U.S. Pres-ident Jimmy Carter’s plans tobuild a “Presidential Parkway”through intown neighbor-hoods in the early 1990s. Theyhad a large legal fund andweren’t afraid to use it.

So Brewer was cau-tious when Jarel and his JPXWorks partner Bruce Fer-nald, a networking whiz witha background in finance, ap-proached with plans thatwould forever change theneighborhood’s dynamics.

The partners had boughta cluster of aging (but ful-ly leased) buildings in thecommercial heart of InmanPark, with hopes of demolish-ing them and erecting a proj-ect with 200 upscale apart-ments, rooftop and poolsideclubrooms, 40,000 squarefeet of retail space and a 570-space parking deck. It wouldfront Elizabeth Street, andbe bounded by North High-land and Lake avenues to thenorth and south, with the In-man Park Village project tothe west. It aimed to be InmanPark’s town center, its beatingheart.

From the outset, the devel-opers knew they faced a gant-let.

When Jarel walked in theroom, Brewer all but rolledher eyes. She recognized hislast name and the familiar-looking face, and she expect-ed the swagger of a high-roll-ing developer surrounded by acadre of well-paid attorneys.

But Jarel was different.He had clearly done his

homework. He’d formed ajoint venture with Mark Ran-dall of South City Partners,who was on good terms withthe neighborhood associationafter transforming the derelictMead Paper Co. site into theInman Park Village project.He’d hired Smith Dalia, an ar-chitecture firm Brewer consid-ers among the best in Atlanta.

And she found Jarel’s man-

ner refreshing.“He is so genuine and

thoughtful, and he doesn’t ev-er come to a decision or makea remark casually,” Brew-er says. “He really takes it allso personally and seriously —maybe to his detriment, but tomy benefit.”

After the initial meeting,Brewer urged anyone who’dlisten to embrace the chanceto work with Jarel’s “dreamteam.”

Still, not everyone was wonover.

To garner support, Jarel andhis cohorts opened the floorto Inman Park residents. Dur-ing a series of Saturday meet-ings, they offered an array ofarchitectural styles and letneighbors vote on which theypreferred.

The challenge was soon ob-vious: No one was willing toaccept a rudimentary proj-ect, no staid apartment block.They wanted bountiful restau-rants with outdoor seating. Agreen corridor that would adda new dimension to the neigh-borhood. And an 18-foot-widewaterfall.

Beyond that, from an aes-thetic standpoint, they want-ed an eye-pleasing urbanpatchwork of architectur-al styles that paid homage to

the neighborhood’s histori-cal charm while offering themodernity that Millennialscrave. What’s more, the proj-ect would have to be designedto shield its six-story parkinggarage from public view.

The residents’ demands leftJarel feeling overwhelmed andbogged down by uncertain-ty. He and Fernald would of-ten look at each other afterthe meetings and ask: “Is thisworth it?”

“Every time, we’d conclude,‘Uh huh, it is,’” Fernald says.“Gotta keep going.”

Besides, Jarel was too finan-cially committed to walk away.

After more than 24 meet-ings that spanned a year anda half, Jarel and his partnerstook their plans to the neigh-borhood association for avote. Although a few at-largemembers of the board object-ed to the project’s size, the fullboard voted in favor. The de-velopers breathed a sigh of re-lief.

But the hurdles kept com-ing.

For starters, the market wassizzling. Their 200 apartmentswould have to beat a ground-swell of competing projectsto the punch. Roughly 8,000new apartments are current-ly under construction in Atlan-

ta, with another 8,000 in thepipeline.

And just as JPX Works waslining up equity partners fromBoston who were bullish onAtlanta again, and just as theygained approval from the cityand toed the starting line forconstruction, four homeown-ers filed a lawsuit that broughtthe project to a halt. At ques-tion were three varianc-es granted by the Atlanta Ur-ban Design Commission andwhether they were in line withthe Inman Park Historic Over-lay District Ordinance.

For the partners, the litiga-tion was deflating.

“We really felt like we’dachieved something,” Fer-nald recalls, “and so to have acitizen step up who believedit was his obligation to knowbetter — it was very discon-certing.”

Jarel was sitting in his officewhen he learned of the law-suit. He immediately calledthe company’s lawyers, andthe stress that had precededthe neighborhood associationvote crept back in.

“We felt we were right,” hesays. “We were told by all ourexperts that we were right — Imean, the city of Atlanta saidwe were right.”

The suit was eventually dis-missed, but it cost the teamthree months of work andjeopardized their constructiontimelines.

5Circle complete

One pristine day in April,reddish dust clings to Jar-el’s designer boots, while nailguns thwack and cherry pick-ers hoist plywood. He is wear-ing a hard hat and touring theskeletal floors of IQ, where heenvisions renting a two-bed-room apartment with Tray-lor and the boys — a pied-à-terre for the weekends, and ameans to satisfy his own appe-tite for a walkable lifestyle.

“I got to tell you,” he says,“it’s like a kid with an Erectorset, being on site. My Dad usedto take us to his projects. Itnever gets old.”

Fernald joins the tour. Theypoint to concrete husks thatwill house five restaurants andan array of boutique shops. IQwill incorporate five differentstyles to reflect its surround-ings, with aesthetics varyingfrom chic warehouse to Brook-lyn brownstone.

Together, the partners areclearly pleased with the prog-ress. They tease each otherlike brothers, and as Jarel pos-es for a photo, Fernald pinch-es his butt as a prank. Every-one laughs.

Given recent leasing suc-cesses, their giddiness is prob-ably warranted. Celebrat-ed restaurateur Ford Fry hassigned a 20-year lease for aprominent corner space at IQ;Barcelona’s sister concept,Bartaco, and former Buckheadstalwart MF Sushi have alsoinked long leases. Fry’s restau-rant and some apartments areexpected to open in Septem-ber, and the whole develop-ment should be completed inJanuary if all goes as planned.

As of early May, John Port-man had visited the IQ site on-ly once. That day, Jarel ledhis father into a construc-tion trailer, and together theypored over blueprints, con-templating the layout of apart-ments. The meeting was brief,but Jarel says his father wasimpressed with the size of thesite and expressed happinessfor the company. His father’sapproval “means the world,”

Jarel says.Jarel’s dream scenario plays

out in his mind like this: Whenthe project fully opens in Jan-uary, 90 percent of the apart-ments and retail spaces willbe leased and neighborhoodfolks will cheer the projectand shake his hand, not unlikethe admirers of John Portmanwho recognized him on down-town’s streets decades ago,with his youngest son in tow.

IQ bears the fingerprints ofthe Inman Park NeighborhoodAssociation and JPX’s “dreamteam,” but aspects of it reflectJarel’s personal history, too.The rooftop vegetation andgrassy retail corridor are rem-iniscent of the Hyatt’s long,leafy vines. The wall of wa-ter that will rush and swirl be-hind Fry’s restaurant evokesEntelechy’s creek. These areechoes of Jarel’s father — hisultimate mentor, his hero.

It’s hard to say whether Jar-el’s career as a developer willhave as much impact on Atlan-ta as his father has had. Even ifit was a friendly competition,Jarel’s modesty would pre-clude him from admitting it.

By the time John Portmanwas 52, the Hyatt Regencywas already a decade old. IQmay not be as flashy and rev-olutionary as that iconic ho-tel’s design, but it speaks to anew sensibility in urban de-velopment — one that encour-ages pedestrian traffic and in-corporates more green space,a return to Main Street. Re-gardless of what he does next,for the residents of InmanPark and those who flock toits commercial district to shopand dine, Jarel Portman willhave made his mark.

Jarel gives a site tour of the IQ project in Inman Park between North Highland Avenue, Elizabeth Street and Lake Avenue. The project will in-clude 200 apartments, retail space and several restaurants, including one from restaurateur Ford Fry. PHOTOS BY CURTIS COMPTON / COMPTON@AJC.COM

Jarel (left) and his business partner Bruce Fernald have reason to behappy. Their project is on schedule, and in addition to Fry’s restau-rant, they’ve signed leases with restaurants MF Sushi and Bartaco, asister concept to nearby Barcelona.

Jarel and his wife Traylor Howard-Portman, an actress who ap-peared regularly on the TV show “Monk,” live in an art-filled house inBuckhead near the JPX Works office.

ONMYAJC.COMTo see more photos ofJarelPortman, go toMyAJC.com/personaljourneys.

Last week’sPersonal Journey:

Tell us your Personal Journey atpersonaljourneys@ajc.com.

Josh Green is a freelancejournalist and fiction writer wholives in Atlanta with his wife anddaughters. AnIndiana native,Green’s newspaperjournalism haswon top awards inthe Hoosier stateand in Georgia,where he relocatedto work for theGwinnett Daily Postin 2007. His debut book,“DirtyvilleRhapsodies,”a short storycollection set mostly in Atlanta,was published last May to criticalpraise. This is his third PersonalJourney for the AJC.

Curtis Compton joined the AJCas a photo editorin 1993 beforereturning to thefield as a staffphotographer.Previously heworked for theGwinnett DailyNews, United PressInternational andthe Marietta Daily Journal. Hehas a bachelor’s degree from theUniversity of Georgia and wona World Hunger Award for hiscoverage of the famine in Sudan.

ABOUTTHEREPORTERANDPHOTOGRAPHER

To comment on thisstory and read what othersare saying, go toMyAJC.com/personaljourneys.

COMINGNEXTWEEKStaff writer Craig Schneider neverknew his Uncle Al. So he set outto discover what he could aboutthe death of the WWII soldier whomet his fate in a plane crash.