The Journey From "Who's Who" to "Who's He!"

Brunswick, Georgia, native A. D. “Pete” Correll had a lifelong career in the pulp and paper industry and is the chairman emeritus of Georgia-Pacific Corp., the company he served as President, CEO and Chairman for thirteen years. He also serves as Chair of the Board of the Grady Health Foundation. 

Correll’s involvement with Grady began in 2007 when he agreed to lead an effort to save the then-failing hospital. Drawing upon his relationships with Atlanta’s business and philanthropic communities, he formed and co-led the “Saving Grady Task Force” and helped raise $325 million that has since been invested in new facilities and services including the Correll Cardiac Center. He also served for eight years as the inaugural Chair of the new Board of Directors formed after the health system’s governance was restructured into the non-profit Grady Memorial Health Corporation. 

Correll and his wife, Ada Lee, continue to make a significant impact on organizations throughout the state including the University of Georgia, Emory University, College of Coastal Georgia and the Teen Center of the Boys and Girls Club of Southeast Georgia, which was named in honor of his late mother, Elizabeth F. Correll. When Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King, Jr. preached before his death, needed funding for restoration, Correll again reached out to the business community and quickly raised the funds needed to ensure the future of the historic site. He also played a leading role in the renaming of Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to honor the late Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson. 

Correll currently serves on the boards of the Georgia Aquarium and the University of Georgia Foundation.  He is a graduate of the University of Georgia and received

his master’s degree from the University of Maine. He has also been bestowed honorary doctorate degrees from the University of Georgia and the College of Coastal Georgia, in honor of his ongoing impact on his home state.  Pete and Ada Lee Correll have two children and five grandchildren, all of who reside in Atlanta.