George Hammond Law Jr. liked to talk.

And he really liked to talk about the Georgia Bulldogs.

"George was probably as rabid a Georgia fan as you could ever meet," said Rick Aiken, a friend and fellow member of the Athens Touchdown Club.

Law, 82, died Saturday, after a 12-year battle with Parkinson's disease.

Aiken and Law would ride together to Athens for club meetings in the fall, and Aiken remembers the excitement in Law's voice as he would talk about his favorite team.

"You better be ready to listen, because he was going to talk to you," said Aiken. "When he told you something, there was just so much excitement in his voice, it was kind of fun."

Aiken "thought a lot of" Law, and apparently others in Athens did, too.

"Everybody over there knew him," said Aiken. "He was kind of a fixture over there."

Law was a fixture in Gainesville, too, serving as president of Law Construction Company and later, working alongside his brother Harold at the Law Lincoln Mercury dealership on what used to be called Broad Street in Gainesville.

He came to Gainesville at the age of 4.

For more than a decade, Law was the dealer behind Bulldog coach Vince Dooley's Lincoln Town Car. It's one of the things his friends and former colleagues say first about him.

"They would give Vince Dooley demos to drive," said Brian Gordon, a former mechanic for the Law Lincoln Mercury Dealership.

Gordon, who now owns Gordon Automotives, was Law's go-to mechanic until he no longer had the ability to drive. As an employer, Gordon remembers George Law as the Law brother with the "best sense of humor" and as a fair employer who was slow to anger.

"When he got angry, he was good and angry, but it took a lot to get him there," said Gordon. "He always went out of his way to be fair with us."

Abit Massey, president emeritus of the Georgia Poultry Federation, called Law's death "a big loss for Gainesville."

Massey knew Law as a member of First Baptist Church and from the Rotary Club, where Law was a past president. The two men were also members of the secret Gridiron Society together.

"I've seen him as a good businessman and a good citizen and a good active church member," said Massey. "I've seen him in a lot of different situations over the years with all good reports."

Of the friends who spoke to The Times about Law's life, all mentioned his love of University of Georgia football.

As well as a member of the Gridiron, Law served as an out-of-town director of the Athens Touchdown Club and was a member of the Lanierland Bulldog Club.

Charlie Johnson and Law traveled to a lot of games together over the years. Chuck McDonald, too, drove Law to a number of Athens Touchdown Club meetings. The two men also were members of a coffee club at Longstreet Cafe.

Like Aiken, on the rides, McDonald noticed Law liked to talk.

"He didn't want for things to say," said McDonald. "He was very verbose."

McDonald remembers Law talking about everything about the sun. But mostly, he talked about the Georgia Bulldogs.
"He was a big Bulldog fan - probably one of the best Bulldog fans there'd ever been," he said.

Funeral services for Law will be held at First Baptist Church in Gainesville at 11 a.m. today.

In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that donations be made to the First Baptist Church, where Law was a member for 75 years, or the National Parkinson Foundation.