Philanthropist of the Year - R. Charles Loudermilk, Aaron Rents Inc.
Tim Darnell
January 1, 2008
Don Harp has known Charlie Loudermilk for a long time. In fact, Harp, now the senior minister at
Peachtree Road United Methodist Church, married Loudermilk and wife, Courtney, years ago. So in
2002, when the church needed an organ for its brand new sanctuary, Harp turned to one of his
congregation's most noted philanthropists.
"I told Charlie we needed this organ, and I knew he wanted to help," Harp says. "He asked me
how much it cost. The answer was $2 million. He said,
‘ Tell you what. I'll
give $1 million if you can get [Loudermilk's longtime friend and business associate] Mark Pope to
give you the other half.' "So I took both of them to dinner. Now, Mark always wants to do what
Charlie does. So he asked how much I wanted him to contribute, and I said, ‘ Your portion is $1
million.' And he asked, ‘ How big is the damn thing? Do we even have anyone who can play it?' "
Of course, Pope ended up splitting the cost with Loudermilk, whom Harp says isn't hesitant
about bringing heat onto fellow business executives whom he feels aren't being sufficiently
generous. "He does get after his friends," Harp says. "He's always challenging them to give,
reminding them you can't take it with you."
Besides being a role model for generosity – and enabling Peachtree Road United Methodist
Church to possess arguably the finest organ in the Southeast – there are other reasons why R.
Charles Loudermilk, chairman and CEO of Aaron Rents, Inc., is the 2008
Business to Business Philanthropist of the Year.
Belong to an Atlanta rotary or Kiwanis club, or maybe another downtown community
organization? Then, chances are, you've met at least once or twice at the Loudermilk Center for the
Regional Community at 54 Courtland Street, near the United Way headquarters. It was Downtown's
first major facility of any kind that offered sufficient meeting space and amenities for community
organizations to gather.
If you've ever been involved with, or even heard of, Junior Achievement of Georgia, you might
be interested to know that on the night he was inducted into the organization's hall of fame,
Loudermilk announced – on the same stage with fellow inductee Shirley Franklin – a $500,000
donation to the entity (rumors are that JA Georgia head Donna Buchanan almost fainted on the spot.)
Sending a son or daughter to the Lovett School? Well, he's on the board of directors there.
Remember the old Omni, the facility that enabled Atlanta's first entry into the NHL? Loudermilk was
chairman of the group that built the facility and owned the Flames as well as the NBA's Hawks. And
if you're brave and dedicated enough to have attended a Falcons' game over the years, you can thank
Charlie Loudermilk, who was one of the original $100,000 investors that it took to launch the
Georgia Dome (otherwise, the Falcons might have been inflicted on Jacksonville, Fla.) More than
anything else, Loudermilk seems truly motivated to donate money for reasons far and away from such
nauseatingly token clichés as, "It's important to remember where you came from," or "I want to give
back to the community that has given me so much."
"Charlie is definitely a doer, and he puts his money where his mouth is," says Sam Massell,
head of the Buckhead Coalition, an organization that was founded under the leadership of – you
guessed it – our BTB Philanthropist of the Year. "Frankly, he's so thankful and proud he was able
to come from a very modest income and economic level to build such an empire on his own. It wasn't
given to him or handed down from family members; he did it on his own. This is a true demonstration
of payback."
Loudermilk's history and that of his company have been well documented. Starting off with a
$500 loan, he's grown a company from $30 a day when it was founded in 1955 to a public, $2 billion
behemoth. The company has more than 1,400 stores in 47 states and Canada.
"He has a personal desire to help other people and share the blessings he's received," says
Marvin Cosgary, president of Buckhead Community Bank, which Loudermilk helped ... well, you get the
picture. "He came from humble beginnings, and he's never forgotten where he's came from. He's very
committed to community, and very family oriented. His mandate to me was not to start a bank and
make a lot of money, but provide quality service to Buckhead. And when we started here, there were
no community banks in this area."
Massell has personally seen the value of Loudermilk's contributions. "From my viewpoint as
someone interested in civic work, there was a great need for a place downtown where organizations
could meet and have forums and programs," he says. "I'm in and out of there all the time."
As a man who receives at least five requests for monetary contributions each day, Loudermilk
must employ some very stringent standards as to which organizations he should contribute. "Anything
that simply covers the overhead of an organization, I'm not interested in," he says. "So many
people want to start a nonprofit or a foundation simply because they want a salary. Nothing turns
me off quicker than that. You have to really look at each one. [But] 90 percent of them are very
worthy."
Loudermilk's future plans seem to be centered on helping organizations that make an impact in
children's lives. "Children are what I'm more focused on now," he says. "My wife and I have even
started talking about perhaps founding an orphanage."
And even though his pastor says Loudermilk has been frustrated with the bureaucratic red tape
that accompanies opening such a facility, don't expect Buckhead's patriarch to abandon his
current ambition. "Charlie was poor growing up, he's done extremely well, and he feels a
responsibility to give back," Harp says. "He loves Atlanta, and wants to do what's right for the
city and community as a whole."
Photography by Lance Davies.