Weil left Lumpkin community a brighter place

Fred Weil worked hard to serve others. But he didn’t work hard to stay in the spotlight.
“He did so, so much,” said his daughter Katie Sessions. “And even I didn’t know.”
The 78-year-old Weil died Aug.19, 2021, following his wife Bonnie’s death last summer. The two would have been married 50 years this year. Both were struck down by COVID.
Weil was active in many of Dahlonega’s service organizations, especially those trying to help children. In the early 2000s he was one of several people instrumental in reestablishing Enotah CASA in the four-county judicial circuit.
Both he and Bonnie served for years as advocates and supporters of CASA from California, to Little Rock and Terrebonne, Louisiana. He was one of the original volunteers in Lumpkin County in 1999. However, local judges kicked CASA out of the courts in 2003 and the state organization dissolved the local group.
Weil, along with volunteers Dr. Rees Chapman, Bev and Bill Barton and Bill and Bernice Wilson (from White County), decided to fight for the program, however. Working with Georgia CASA’s Ann Barrett the local CASA group was reborn.
They were, Weil said in a speech at CASA’s 20th year celebration, “up and running—with no director, no office, no staff, no money.”
Weil was vice-president of sales and marketing for a large Atlanta company at the time. He mentioned to the owner what the small group of volunteers was trying to do, and a $3,000 check made out to Enotah CASA appeared on his desk later that day.
In his speech Weil, as was his tendency, gave the credit to others—Barrett and the volunteers who held on, and those who have joined the ranks as the program has grown.  

A FRIEND INDEED
              
Weil also spent six years on the board of Rainbow Children’s Home (RCH), acting as both vice-chair and chairman during that time.
RCH Executive Director Melinda Frausto met Weil and his wife when the home was reaching out to its long-time supporters.
“I wanted to get to know our supporters more personally, not to ask for money or anything, but to thank them for their support and tell them about the home and what that support meant to the children,” she said.
When she called Weil, he invited her to his home.
“A couple of years later,” Frausto said, “he called and volunteered to serve on the board.”
Weil served on the board from 2013 through 2019. He also served as chair of the home’s annual fundraising event, the Lobster Dinner. Even after he stepped down, Frausto said, he remained involved.  
“He made a real impact on my life. His work ethic, the way he interacted with other people, the way he conducted business taught me so much about being the kind of leader I want to be,” she said. “He just had a heart for helping people. I admired him so much.”
Again partnered with his wife, Weil was also active is supporting children as a mentor in the Lumpkin County School System, starting in 2014. The couple took on a sibling group at one of the elementary schools, a boy and a girl.
“Fred attended all the class special events. He showed up for everything for the boy,” said Family Connection Advocate Marianne Beliveau, who runs the mentoring program at the school. “He was passionate and super diligent about the boy’s grades, behavior, school meetings—anything that had to do with the boy he was there.”
“I’d need two words to describe Fred,” said Family Connection Executive Director Brigette Barker, “passionate and tenacious.”
Barker recalled a time when the mentee wanted badly to attend summer camp. “But it was a day camp and the child had no transportation. He picked the boy up and delivered him to camp then picked him up from camp and drove him home every day so he could attend.”
Frausto said such actions were typical of Weil.
“He was kind, patient and understanding,” she said. “He was there and showed he cared about whatever the child was going through, even if it was in the middle of the night.”
Sessions saw that first hand.
“The two children he and my mother mentored are now a part of our family,” she said. “We talk to those children about as much as we talk to my sister. We pray for them every day and love them as much as we can.”

‘BRIGHTEN THE CORNER’

Other organizations Weil supported in one role or another include Children’s Miracle Network, The Children’s Center For Hope and Healing and the Georgia State Mental Health Board.
Weil served two tours in Vietnam as an engineer and was an active member of the Vietnam Veterans of America #970 that serves Dawson and Lumpkin counties.
That organization’s president, Bill Martin, has known Weil for 10-plus years.
“He was very active in the organization, in fundraising. And he and I co-chaired a seminar on Agent Orange at the University of North Georgia that was attended by about 200 people,” he said. “He was always available for whatever needed to be done.”
Weil was “a soccer coach, Braves fan, and a strong Christian,” Sessions said. “He taught Sunday school at Christ the King Lutheran and Grace Presbyterian, and he was an amazing dad. He taught us a good work ethic. He didn’t need any thanks or accolades for what he did. His favorite quote was ‘Brighten the corner where you are.’”
Weil brightened many corners during his sojourn in Lumpkin County. He leaves behind his daughter Jenna and son-in-law David Lacy of Burford, Katie and son-in-law Jay Sessions or Dahlonega, son David and daughter-in-law Michelle Weil of Charlotte, N.C. and grandchildren Claire Lacy, Haley and AJ Weil and Charlotte Sessions.
The family has decided to wait until COVID numbers decrease before holding a memorial service. The service will be held at Dahlonega United Methodist Church at a future time.