Former Phenix City city manager, United Cities Gas executive Bobby Gaylor dies at 83

On Monday former Phenix City city manager and longtime United Cities Gas Co., executive Bobby Gaylor was remembered as a tough, but fair leader who did things by the book.

Gaylor, 83, died Sunday at St. Francis Hospital in Columbus. There will be a graveside service Tuesday at 2 p.m. at Lakeview Memory Gardens in Phenix City. There will be a visitation at the cemetery following the burial.

“Bobby Gaylor didn’t break any rules,” Sammy Howard, former Phenix City mayor, retired bank executive and high school football coach, said on Monday. “There was no gray area when it came to Bobby. He was totally honest and the straightest arrow you have ever seen.”

Gaylor, a big man with a demanding presence and short, almost military-style haircut, served as Phenix City city manager under two mayors, Sammy Howard and Peggy Martin, from 1995 until 2001. He spent 31 years as an executive with United Cities, where he had a successful career in a number of executive and management roles, before retiring in the mid-1990s.

Howard knew Gaylor since 1971 when Howard was hired to coach at Glenwood, a private school in Phenix City. Howard had left Hardaway High School in Columbus for the Glenwood job, and Gaylor was the head of the school’s board which hired Howard.

“I met with the team the day they were going to announce me as head coach,” Howard said. “This kid came in late with chocolate milk and Fritos. I can remember it like it was yesterday. I blasted the kid.”

Howard later found out the player was one of Gaylor’s sons.

“I got home and I told Judy I was going to get fired the first day,” Howard said. “That night, Bobby called the house. I just knew I was about to get fired. He told me he was tickled to death with what I had done, and that was exactly what was needed.”

Nearly 25 years later, it was Howard who hired Gaylor.

“I saw him at the River Club one day and told him we were having trouble finding a city manager,” Howard said Monday morning. “He had recently retired from the gas company, and it just worked out.”

Gaylor pushed for a water deal with the Columbus Water Works, a new hospital which would be part of the Columbus Regional Healthcare System and dealt with issues inside the police and fire departments. The water deal was executed, then stopped by council.

“A lot of people thought Columbus was taking over, and politics got involved,” Howard said of the water deal that soured.

Gaylor considered retiring in May 2000 but changed his mind after a search for a replacement failed to locate a candidate who could win approval from the council.

“I wanted to be sure we had the very best at the helm as city manager, and I felt my experience in 4 1/2 years as city manager and my 31 years with United Cities Gas Co. gave me that experience,” Gaylor said in May 2000. “And besides, the fish will wait until I retire.”

He did announce his decision to leave about 16 months later, the day after Phenix City voters selected Sonny Coulter as mayor over incumbent Martin.

Gaylor and his strong and decisive management style had been an issue in the election, which also saw a pro-Gaylor incumbent councilmember, Baxley Oswalt, defeated. He left the job three days before the new council took over.

“I feel like the new mayor and council that’s coming on deserve the right to choose their city manager,” Gaylor, 67, said in an interview the day he said he would be retiring.

Current Phenix City City Manager Wallace Hunter was promoted to fire chief in 2001 by Gaylor.

“Now, Mr. Gaylor was tough as nails and he did it his way, but a lot of what he did needed to be done,” Hunter said. “He was fair and I really liked his style.”

Hunter tells the story of the day Gaylor fired a city employee for sleeping on the job.

“He walked up on this backhoe operator who was asleep on the backhoe,” Hunter said. “He woke him up to fire him. But you know what he did later? He worked to help the man get a job somewhere else. That tells you a lot about Mr. Gaylor.”

Before working for the gas company, Gaylor owned and operated a bowling alley in Columbus. In 1986, he was selected for the Georgia State Bowling Association Hall of Fame.

This story was originally published January 8, 2018 at 10:05 AM with the headline "Former Phenix City city manager, United Cities Gas executive Bobby Gaylor dies at 83."