David Hankerson, the trailblazing former Cobb County manager who was the first African American to hold the position, died Thursday morning following years of illness due to cancer. He was 77.
Recruited from the U.S. Department of Agriculture as development control director in 1984 under former Chairman Earl Smith’s administration, Hankerson was named county manager in 1993 by then-Chairman Bill Byrne.
He would outlast three county chairs: Byrne, Sam Olens and Tim Lee.
The longest-serving county manager in Cobb, at 24 years, and one of the longest serving in Georgia during his tenure, Hankerson helped lead the county through explosive growth. In many ways Hankerson brought the county from a rural community with great roots to a modern, suburban community with state-of-the-art services, retaining the best of what Cobb County had while improving the services constituents demand, Olens said.
When Byrne appointed Hankerson in 1993, the county’s population was 496,000 and its operating budget was $277.6 million. While Hankerson was county manager, Cobb’s population grew to 748,000 and its budget ballooned to $857.9 million.
Rural roots
Born in Burke County in 1946, Hankerson had strong ties to the land dating back to his days growing up on a farm in the Waynesboro area.
Before making that move to Cobb County, Hankerson earned a degree in agronomy from Fort Valley State College (now University) and a law degree from the Woodrow Wilson College of Law.
Hankerson also served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps from 1967-1970 and was stationed in Seoul, South Korea.
Upon his return to the states, he went to work for the federal government as a district conservationist for the United States Department of Agriculture Soil Conservation Service.
He moved to Cobb in 1973 with his wife Janet, with whom he raised four children.
Former state Sen. Lindsey…
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