Kirby's Augusta - Lester S. Moody The Man Who Made a Difference

Harry Truman once said: "Actions are the seed of fate, deeds grow into destiny."

WHEN IT COMES to Augusta few men have done more and gotten less attention for it than Lester S. Moody.

He looms as the man behind the curtain who somehow got others to help make the magic that turned this community into what it is today.
The late Lester Moody was the longtime director of the Augusta Chamber of Commerce, a job he held for 38 years before retiring half a century ago.

``He really deserves more recognition than he's gotten,'' said Ed Cashin, Augusta's foremost historian. ``Almost everything that involved Augusta, he had a hand in.'' Mr. Cashin said.

A native of Jacksonville, Fla., arrived in Augusta in 1926 to take over as secretary of the Augusta Chamber of Commerce. He served for 38 years.
He always said he drove here from Salisbury, N.C., and it wasn't easy.
``There wasn't a paved road leading into Augusta," he once told a newspaper reporter. "It took nearly three hours to drive from Aiken,"
Moody made highway paving his first endeavor with the chamber, but it wasn't the last.
He was a genius at getting help from powerful allies in Washington.
Moody met and became friends with U.S. Sens. Dick Russell, Walter George and U.S. Rep. Mendel Rivers, all Southern Democrats.
His timing was perfect.
Those Southern politicians gained seniority and political prominence during the 1940s and 1950s.
That influence - and Moody's ability to tap it - pumped millions of federal and state dollars into the region surrounding Augusta.
During World War II, Moody lobbied intensively for Camp Gordon' - then a training camp for Army recruits and draftees - and then campaigned to make it a permanent fort.
After the war, he lobbied for money to build a dam on the Savannah River. He came home with the $86 million Clarks Hill Dam and Reservoir and its hydroelectric plant, and although now call it Thurmond Lake, its value remains.
The dam's low-cost electricity helped convince the federal government to build what was then called the Savannah River Plant, now the Savannah River Site. With the weapons plant came thousands of good-paying jobs.
He also joined other Augustans to push development of Bush and Daniel Fields.
Moody retired from the Augusta Chamber in 1964, having become its director. By that time, he had received the U.S. Army's highest award for civilians, the Decoration for Outstanding Civilian Service, the first resident of the Southeast to receive the commendation.

There's no statue of Lester Moody ere in town, but there are monuments:
Fort Gordon, the Savannah River Nuclear Site and Lake Thurmond and the Clark Hill Dam are just a few.
The old saying is true, you can accomplish a lot if you don't worry about getting the credit.
Just ask Lester Moody.

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