Espy, Goodman Basil, III, Dr., 2007 June 05

This is a Living History interview with Goodman Basil “G.B.” Espy, class of 1957, conducted by Marilyn Somers on June 5, 2007 at his home in Atlanta, Georgia. The subject is the interviewee’s life, and experiences at Georgia Tech.

Dr. Goodman Bail “G.B.” Espy was born in 1935. His father was commander of a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and later a land surveryor, and his mother was a school teacher. He has three younger brothers and moved twenty-six times in the first eleven years of his life. He moved to Nashville, Tennessee with his family and convinced his second grade teacher to promote him to the third grade. During his senior year of high school, Dr. Espy was greatly in greatly inspired to pursue higher education by Dr. Willis A. Sutton, who was president of the American Education Association twice and the principal of Tech High. When Dr. Espy was not accepted as an agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), he applied to the Georgia Tech Evening School of Applied Science. While working at the Varsity and Liberty National Insurance Company, he earned sufficient grades to be accepted into day school for the winter quarter of 1953. He co-oped with the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). He lived in Cloudman Dormitory with All-American football stars George Morris, Hal Miller, and Buck Martin, frequented the Baptist Student Union (BSU), was business manager of the Rambler, wrote for The Technique, and was president of Beta Theta Pi fraternity his senior year. He graduated from Georgia Tech in 1957 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and entered Tulane University School of Medicine. He chose OB/GYN as his specialty to avoid serving as a general medical officer during the Vietnam War and served his residency under Dr. Conrad Collins. Dr. Espy was honorably discharged to care for his daughter Anne after a year and a half in the Army. He worked in the emergency room at Georgia Baptist Hospital and at the Armed Forces Enlistment and Examining Station (AFEES) until he opened his own practice. Coach Bobby Dodd helped Dr. Espy gain a position on the staff of WellStar Kennestone Hospital and invited him to be physician to the Georgia Tech freshmen football team. With Dr. William Saye, Dr. Espy developed a new Laparoscopic Assisted Vaginal Hysterectomy Doderlein Technquie. Dr. Espy participates in international humanitarian projects, often in the name of his father, who had the compassion but lacked the resources to offer support. Dr. Espy has run in twenty-seven New York Marathons and sixty-five total marathons. He and his wife Cheryl, a former model, have been married for twenty-eight years. Their daughter Brittany graduated from Southern Methodist University (SMU) with a degree in communications, worked with health issues under Senator Johnny Isaacson for five years, and then moved to New York to enter the fashion industry. Their youngest daughter Margo graduated from the University of Alabama with a degree in communications and has worked for Senator Saxby Chambliss in Washington for two years.