Sunday Interview with Cecil Cheves
Cecil Cheves has run head first into retirement -- if you want to call it that.
The Columbus attorney, philanthropist, triathlete and director of the Soldier Marathon touches a wide number of organizations and events in Columbus and the Chattahoochee Valley.
Recently, he sat down with reporter Chuck Williams to talk about his interests and works.
Here are excerpts from the interview, with the content and order of the questions edited for length and clarity.
Lawyer, fitness freak, philanthropist, grandfather -- you've got a long list of things you do. I don't know where to start this interview, so I'm going to let you tell me. Of the things you've been involved with in your life, where do you want to start it?
... The Soldier Marathon has been a fun project to work on, and the real story to me is the buy-in -- the community buy-in -- of this event. I am pleased just to be a coordinator or a director. This event would not happen if we did not have an incredible volunteer committee who have running in their heart. ...
I made a list of them -- there's 42 that came to mind that are actively involved working on little pieces of the Soldier Marathon -- but collectively, their piece is very important. Then you've got another group of about 25 sponsors who give either money or in-kind donation or product, and collectively you have this buy-in from about 25 of the major corporate employer sponsors in this community and about over 40 individuals who are giving up their time. This is a volunteer committee.
You started six years ago with how many runners?
We had probably 800 the first year.
How many do you expect this year?
About 2,000. We'll have maybe 600 runners -- maybe 650 runners -- do the full marathon, which is 26.2 miles. We'll have another 1,000 runners do the half marathon, which is 13.1 miles. We'll have another 250 or 300 runners do the 5K, we'll have another 200 runners do the kids' marathon, and we'll probably have another 40 or 50 runners do the relay marathon. And then we've added this year a virtual marathon, which means that runners can run our race wherever they may be. We have probably 14 or 15 doing that. I see that aspect growing as we develop this virtual marathon idea. ...
Let's switch gears a little bit. How did you become such an avid runner?
Like all things, it's often the suggestion of a friend or a person of influence who sees something in you and suggests it. In this case, my daughter suggested that I run a 5K.
Which one?
Avery, my eldest daughter. I was 45 years old. I had always been athletic. I played sports and I played basketball at Columbus High School and I played intramural ball all through University of Georgia and even in Columbus.
But you'd never been a runner?
I'd never run a mile in my life as far as I could remember, but the challenge of running three miles appealed to me at age 45 and so we signed up and ran the Country's Midnight Run. That was my first run in 1994 and I barely could finish. I was so sore the next morning, I could not walk and go to church on Sunday morning. I remember telling my wife Bettye that everyone will understand because I ran three miles last night and that was a big deal. We chuckle at that now, but at the time that's where I was, and running three miles was a big deal, so it was a start.
What appealed to me was just the challenge of 'Can I do it faster?' 'Can I do it longer?' Over the course of a few years, I did more 5Ks and enjoyed it. I enjoyed the fellowship, I enjoyed the energy, I enjoyed the health benefits -- it was just a fun activity.
You eventually broadened into triathlons and Ironman races. When did you bring the cycling and the swimming into it?
Well, it was a process. I became interested in a triathlon around 1998 because I was seeing running and I was also seeing and hearing about biking and swimming. About the same time as I became interested in the triathlon piece of it, another good friend, Alan Rothschild, suggested that I run a marathon. That was so beyond anything that I had ever thought about doing. ... A guy named Mike Stephens, who was the cross country coach at Shaw, was putting together a class to train runners to do a marathon. Mike has become a close friend and a key component of the Soldier Marathon along with John Teeples and Reggie Luther and Carol Lee Luther. I met him and he helped train me to do my first marathon in Chicago in 1998. That was a wonderful experience. It introduced a whole new arena to me of long distance sports, long distance running.
How many marathons have you done?
Well, I've done over 60 marathons if you include 15 Ironmans as part of that.
How many Ironman races have you done?
I've completed 15 full Ironmen.
For people who don't know, what's an Ironman?
Well, an Ironman is really one of the world's richest athletic experiences. You first swim 2.4 miles, and that can be in an ocean, it can be in a river, it can be in a lake and incredible venues -- open water swims. You then bike 112 miles and, again, the course, the hills, the terrain, all of those are tremendous factors depending on the venue. Then finally, you run 26.2 miles after that. You're given a period of time ... usually 17 hours to complete that distance.
With all due respect, that's insane.
Well, a lot of people enjoy it and do it. ... It appeals to a lot of people, and the venues are so beautiful and special, whether it's Louisville, Ky., or Frankfurt, Germany, or Kona, Hawaii, or Lake Placid, N.Y., or Panama City in Florida -- Tempe, Ariz.
Have you done any other cities?
I just finished one in Frankfurt back in July, a phenomenal experience. I carried the Georgia heat with me. It was over 100 degrees but the biking course -- biking through the small cities outside of Frankfurt -- was pretty much like a Tour de France experience.
Obviously, you couldn't do the training and the time to do this without the support of your family. How have Bettye and your kids and grandkids supported you in this effort?
Well, let me be very clear that Bettye's support has been essential and she has been such a trouper. ... She's not a runner herself, although let me brag on her because she has done two half Ironmen. Years ago, she did the Callaway half Ironman back when I was first getting into marathon. It was a very difficult experience for her not being a runner and she said, "I'll never do this again." She says, "I'd rather meet the Lord Jesus than do this again."
Are you encouraging your grandkids to run and to do this with you?
I have. Each one has run either the half marathon or the 5K. I'm really proud of my grandson Walter, who won the little 1-mile fun run last year. He was very proud of that, but my grandchildren Lucas Wolff, Levy Wolff, Graham Wolff, Russell Blanchard, Betsy Blanchard have all run the half marathon. Walter has not run the half marathon -- he's not of age -- but he's run the 5K and he's looking forward to when he can be. We have a 10-year-old age limit for the half marathon.
Let's switch gears a little bit. I want to ask you about the Columbus legal community. You spent 40 years in it almost. You were a partner at Page Scrantom, correct?
That's right.
In the next two months, our legal community is changing dramatically. What is your opinion of the breakup of Hatcher Stubbs and the fact that some of those attorneys are coming in to Page Scrantom and going into other firms?
Well, the Hatcher firm has been a wonderful legacy institution for this community -- going back to Madden Hatcher -- for really a century. ...
That whole firm, Hatcher, Stubbs, Land, Hollis & Rothschild, wonderful men who contributed greatly. I hate frankly to see that legacy broken up.
Now, all the individual attorneys in the Hatcher Stubbs law firm are wonderful, talented men and women who will make contributions wherever they go. Some are going with the law firm that I'm associated with, Page, Scrantom, Sprouse, Tucker & Ford. I'm still a counsel of that law firm.
Which means your name is still there but you're not actively practicing?
Not actively practicing, although I go to the firm retreat and I participate in discussions and I associate on different cases. There's more of an association and not a partnership. I'm not on any kind of retainer or pay. We just associate on cases but not as a partner.
You mentioned Alan Rothschild a couple of times in this interview. You and Alan are close friends, but you competed against each other on competing firms for many years.
For business, but there is plenty of business to go around and my plate was always full. Alan's plate is always full so there's no shortage of work for ... I find people that work hard, that are good at what they do, they are good professionals, they always have work to do.
You and Bettye, through her dad's involvement in Aflac and her involvement too, you all have been fortunate enough to have the resources to be a part of that philanthropic community in a big way. What does that mean to you to be able to make large charitable gifts?
It is a huge blessing. Let me be very quick to say that I think Bettye and I stand on the shoulders of her mom and dad, Bill and Olivia Amos, because they made the big sacrifice. They moved to Columbus, Ga., in the 1950s from a business that he had in Milton, Fla.
He was a dime store guy, right?
A dime store guy and he had a good little small town business, but the three of those brothers had a vision to start an insurance company. That was John's vision and he went to his older brother Bill and said, "Let's start an insurance company and let's pick out a city where ... this is the largest city in the South, it doesn't have a home office of an insurance company," so they strategically sought out Columbus, Ga., they had no ties here. A little side note -- when Bill and Olivia Amos made that decision to move here, Bill Amos almost made a mistake because he took his wife Olivia to see "The Phenix City Story" movie. She was not quite sure if she wanted to move to this community but they got through that. Bill and Olivia immersed themselves in the community. John and Elaine Amos did the same, and then Paul and Jean Amos did the same, too, and so they became part of the community and literally went door to door selling the insurance product.
It's a great story and I'm privileged to have watched it from the sidelines. I did legal work for Aflac for many, many years and loved that and I was blessed by that. I met Bettye Amos at Richards Junior High in the seventh grade.
The school had just opened, hadn't it?
We were the first class. Betty and I became, let's say, much better friends in Columbus High and we had our first date as sophomores, but I was still growing. I was small and she was the apple of all the upperclassmen's eye and so I had to wait my time. By the time we were seniors, we finally started going steady.
So you are high school sweethearts?
High school sweethearts. We went to the University of Georgia together and, anyway, she was very kind to say "I do" when we were seniors in college.
With that background, go back now and talk about how fortunate you are to have some of that wealth and be able to disperse it and how the two of you go about that.
First, being generous is a blessing and a gift. I think it's something the Lord asked each of us to do. We all understand it's more blessed to give than receive and so to him whom much is given, much is expected. I think we understand those decisions. We -- Bettye and I -- try to be Christ-centered with our giving. Everything we look at, we want to make sure this is honoring to God and to Jesus Christ, so that's really our heartbeat.
A lot of opportunities come our way and we have to discern between them and we ... there's so many good works out there but we have been blessed to give in the field of both faith-based works where they're church-related but also community kind of works.
Give me an example of a couple of organizations that you support.
... We are very big supporters of our local church, Young Life, Navigators, Harvesters -- these are Christian-based organizations.
What church do you go to?
We are members of CrossPointe Church. We have been members in the past of St. Stephen's Church years ago, but really we ... like to support evangelical efforts. We recently just supported at Warm Springs the chaplains' program there; we are big supporters of The House of Mercy. All of those are faith-based initiatives that we think are carrying out the mandate the Lord would have us do.
Now education is big. We've just made a big commitment to CSU. ... We've made a big commitment to whitewater. We've made a big commitment to Columbus Regional Children's Hospital recently. ... We made a big commitment to ... a thank-you commitment to Cumberland Law School. We have made big commitments at Brookstone School. ... We probably support 100 different organizations here and there.
Your family obviously has been big supporters of Columbus Regional. You're on the board of Columbus Regional. Are you concerned about what you're seeing overall playing out right now in the Columbus medical community, particularly the hospitals?
I was a proponent of trying to bring all the healthcare services together under one umbrella, but for a lot of reasons that was not a possibility.
You were a bridge that tried to get St. Francis and Columbus Regional to talk, is that accurate?
I was one of the bridges. Those talks did take place but just there were a lot of other factors that were preventing that from coming about. Some of them are legal. You have also the business side of how do you finance an organization, so that's a huge component. I would say wherever this has ended up, I have great confidence in the leadership of Columbus Regional. I think the leadership team there is very strong -- strongest it's been in years. ...
Now, St. Francis has combined itself with another organization, LifePoint. I have confidence in and I know well the leadership of St. Francis. They are good men and women.
When you and Bettye married 45 years ago, Aflac wasn't the company it is today. Could you have ever dreamed Aflac would grow into this Fortune 150 company -- a $27.5 billion company now?
No, and I don't know if Mr. (Bill) Amos ever really saw that either.
What would he think if he could see this right now?
I think he would just be pleased as punch. I want to say this, too: I think the success of Aflac is certainly attributable to hard work by the Amos family and by men like George Jeter and this community's support, no question, but I recall their grandaddy, J. S. Amos, when those boys got together, he offered a prayer. I have it written down, I have it on a plate in our home. His prayer was that God would bless the efforts of these men and women, that they would earn the trust of all of their shareholders in this business.
I look at that foundational prayer that God would bless all these efforts and I just have to smile and wonder if that's not really the hidden mysterious hand behind this success is that you have all this human effort and all this work but if you take God out of the equation -- frankly, in any of our efforts, if you take God out of the equation -- I don't think you'll have as successful a result.
Obviously, Aflac has that component -- their family component to their work and stuff -- but Dan also, over the last 25 years, Dan has been a pretty steady and aggressive hand, right? I think Dan Amos is marvelous. I thank the Good Lord for him often because I think he's a very talented man.
Cecil Cheves
Age: 66
Job: Attorney for Page Scrantom Sprouse Tucker & Ford, P.C.; philanthropist; race director for Soldier Marathon.
Education: Columbus High School, 1967; University of Georgia, degree in business finance, 1971; Samford University, Cumberland School of Law, juris doctorate, 1974; Emory University, master's in tax law.
Family: Bettye, wife of 45 years; daughters Avery Wolff, Olivia Blanchard and Isa Meakes; nine grandchildren.
This story was originally published October 31, 2015 at 11:20 PM with the headline "Sunday Interview with Cecil Cheves ."