William Hunter Gammon ’70, of Raleigh, N.C., died Aug. 23, 2012, of complications from acute pancreatitis. Born July 16, 1948, in Norfolk, Va., to Hunter Oakley Gammon and Nancy Watkins Gammon, Gammon was a proud graduate of Davidson and an avid supporter of the UNC Chapel Hill. He was a recognized leader in the field of construction law in North Carolina and a generous volunteer with the Rex Hospital Foundation, working on the Rex Hospital Open and heading its affiliate Corporate Challenge for many years. Gammon graduated in 1970 from Davidson, where he was the center on the football team which captured a Southern Conference title in1969. He went on to law school at UNC, graduating in 1973.
While in law school, he followed his love and passion for football by serving as a graduate assistant under Coach Bill Dooley and accompanying the team on three consecutive bowl trips. He then began his law career clerking for N.C. Supreme Court Justice Carlisle Higgins from 1973-74 before serving four years with the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps. He then was in private practice in Washington, D.C., for 11 years, most of those years with Lewis Mitchell and Moore. While in Washington, he earned a master of law at George Washington University, though he would be the first to tell you that if there was not a parking place around the law school when he went into D.C. for class, he would find his way home early! He returned to his beloved North Carolina in 1989 to join Moore and Van Allen, PLLC in Raleigh and practiced there for 14 years, serving on the firm’s executive committee for five years.
In 2003, he joined Nelson Mullins Riley and Scarborough, where he practiced at the time of his death. He was currently serving a three-year term on the N.C. Bar Association Board of Governors and its Foundation Board of Directors. He previously chaired the construction law section and took great pride in leading the Bar’s Citizen Lawyer Task Force. He was currently serving as the co-chair of the Carolinas AGC/NCBA Construction Section Joint Committee. In 2012 he was proud to be listed at the top of construction lawyers in Business North Carolina’s Legal Elite. He has also has been honored in Best Lawyers in America and North Carolina Super Lawyers.
Gammon had many loves in his life: his wife, Jessica, 2118 White Oak Rd., Raleigh, NC 27608, to whom he has been a loving partner and cheerleader for 42 years; his daughter, Meg Gammon Blythe (Bryan Blythe ’98) and their children, Margaret Davidson, William Hunter (that announcement made him cry), and their yet-to-be-born baby brother; his father, Hunter Oakley Gammon; his brother, Tracy Watkins Gammon (fiancée, Jettaka Alexander); his nieces, Courtney and Katie Gammon and Paige, Anna Walker, and Grayson Gillespie; his sister-in-laws, Lane Gillespie Cooke and Mary Margaret Gillespie; his brother-in-law, David E. Gillespie, Jr. (Dana); and his mother-in-law, Margaret C. Gillespie. His mother, who taught him what it was to be a true Southern gentleman, preceded him in death in 2001. He was a man of integrity, honesty, loyalty, and unceasing energy.
Gammon’s passion was golf. He continued to display the beauty of an elegant golf swing at his beloved Carolina Country Club and Blowing Rock Country Club. Nothing was finer than to enjoy a round at Blowing Rock and get home to relax on the porch and look at “his mountain,” unless, of course, he could fit in a Carolina game before getting on the golf course. He was a master trip planner and as recently as month of his death had planned a trip to play golf in Scotland with 12 friends, a trip, unfortunately, that he never had the chance to complete. He loved his church, White Memorial Presbyterian, and looked forward to ushering, driving the church van, and singing the old hymns. And, he loved a good party.
Memorials may be made to his beloved Davidson College, Box 7174, NC 28035-7174.