Celebrating the power of possibility.
I'm George Wallace and I believe anything is possible.
Welcome to Anything is Possible. I'm Hallerin Hilton Hill.
These are great stories about great people whose lives prove that anything is possible.
And today my guest is George Wallace. Thank you for being here today.
Thank you. Thanks for having me.
You know, you are a lifelong Knoxville resident.
And I always love to talk to people born and raised in Knoxville.
Tell me your story. Tell me about growing up in Knoxville.
We have. Both my parents are from Knoxville and both attended the University of Tennessee.
And we grew up in Sequoia Hills in a life that I thought everyone lived.
What did your parents do?
So my dad was in the real estate business.
And with his brother and their father, they started Wallace & Wallace in 1936.
And they were, and my mom did not work.
And so after the life I lived, I thought everyone lived.
So tell me about this.
When I've had the opportunity to talk to people that have a deep legacy,
I learn a lot about family business that goes back for generations.
Can we take a minute and tell me what you learned from growing up in that environment
with a father and an uncle that were in business and they were building a business in Knoxville?
What were they like? What did you learn?
Well, they went to, they lived close by and our families were really close.
And they went to work with each other. They drove to work.
They were in the office downtown in Knoxville.
And so they drove to work together in one single car.
And they dressed with a suit and a tie and a fedora.
And they drove to work and they were very close.
And we had dinners together and they talked about business together.
And I learned that they did people fair and they treated people fairly and right.
And I learned, I observed that and observed that they took care of each other.
They cared for each other and they took care of other people that worked for them.
I saw they have close relationships with the people that worked for them.
And they knew very personally and that they were engaged with them and that they cared for them in that way.
So they demonstrated that and they demonstrated leadership into this community
that showed me that giving back into the community was a vital part of who they were
and it was important to them and it became important to me.
So business is in your blood. So you go to school in Knoxville. Where did you go to school?
I went to Sequoia. I went to Webb until Mr. Webb said he thought it would be better if I went to West.
And then I went to West High School and graduated from West High School.
Is there a story there?
There is a story there.
What happened?
I don't know. Too immature I would say for the moment.
But it ended up being a really good time for me to go to West.
And as I look back and I see the things that are important to me now and I see the things that I like working on now,
I can see how some of that began at West High School.
It's an integrated school which wasn't always the case in Knoxville.
And so I began, even then, African American teachers and students.
And so that relationship and that understanding really began to change for the way I was grown up.
I mean we grew up with, as I thought everyone did, with help and kind of in your home service.
And I thought that's the way everyone did. And that was the relationship that I had racially across, you know, in Knoxville.
You finished West High School. What was next?
So I went to Lise McRae College in Banner Elk, North Carolina, a two-year school then.
And then came back to UT after that and have a degree in agriculture and landscape design, ornamental horticultural landscape design.
Really? Why did you pick that?
You know, that's what I wanted to do. I was in the late 70s, early 80s, and that's what I wanted to be outside and working with my hands.
And I like the way things look and I like shaping the way things look and kind of have a little bit of that artistic interest.
And so I loved it. And so I had people that mentored me and that showed me that work through the years, through my college years.
And so that's really what I wanted to do. So I enjoyed it. And I did that for a while after I got out of college and then when I got out of college.
Did you anticipate that that would be your life and your business or did you think that you would end up in the family business?
I think at that time I thought that's all I wanted to do. I want to be different. I don't want to do what the family is doing and I want to do this.
I found that it was very seasonal and it was harder, much harder than I thought to start that business and to run that business and figure out how to make a living.
And so my brother said, why don't you come work for us? Our father passed away by that point. Our grandfather was gone and we were working with our uncle for a few years.
And so my brother and I really started working together in the mid 80s. And I've always had a relationship of respect, great respect for him.
He's six years older, so I always wanted to do what he did. But he is that older brother that says, you know, I'll be bigger.
I'm bigger than you and I'm stronger than you. I'll beat you in basketball. And, you know, I'm the older brother. Let's keep that.
Let's keep that understanding. So we've always had a mutual respect for each other.
And he likes doing things that I don't like to do. And I like doing things he doesn't like to do. And it's been a really good teamwork.
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Do you think your father and uncle would have imagined a company with eight locations, 450 people working on your team?
Did they imagine this kind of scale? I don't think so. I mean, they liked it. They kept it small.
They kept it really between them and just a few people. And they did the hands on production and sales and, you know, and all the pieces to go with it.
And where we farmed a lot of that out and we've hired more people and expanded it and tried to bring growth to it.
So I don't think so. I don't think they really they didn't quite have that vision for it. So you decide also to get into public service. I did.
Talk about that arc. You're building a business with your brother and your uncle. You're blowing and going, why in the world would you do that?
You know, I had seen friends of my parents, their friends step out in in the late 60s and early 70s and go from business on to city council.
I saw their names on the bronze plaques on community centers and on on schools and different places around town that I would go.
And I was like, that inspired me that they would jump out and my dad knew them well.
And we had them in our home and we knew them well. And so we just talked a little bit about that. But that was inspiring to me.
And I'm missing. I never forgot it. And so I I really started digging deep on at that point in 2010.
I was like, well, what what's this? What is my purpose? I've served. I've worked hard and we're still working hard.
But, you know, what other kind of service? What am I good at and what could be a service that I could do?
And so I just I went back to that and went back to that. I was inspired by those men then.
And that's what I want to do. And that's what I'd like to do.
And so I told I came home, I thought about it and really put a lot of time into it kind of on my own and went to my wife, Stephanie.
And I said, well, I think I think I'm I'm going to run for city council. I feel a calling to that.
I feel like an opening to do that. And Bill and has long been run for and served as mayor.
That was inspirational to me that again, and a business guy that would step into that community service.
That was inspirational. We've been friends for our lifetime. And that was that was a big deal.
And so my wife said, well, I believe it when God writes it in red lipstick on my bathroom mirror.
But she became comfortable with it. And and so it just began a journey that that.
Honestly, that that it's been life changing. And for me and how did it change you?
Well, my years in real estate prepared me well for that job because we work on land use issues and property rights and municipal projects.
So that that's what city council, those are the main issues that they deal with every other week.
And so I was prepared for that. I knew about zoning. I knew the importance of of development.
I mean, that all that became very natural to me. And I could speak right into it very confidently that, you know, that these things.
But it was the people. And then I met the people and I realized that I maybe didn't really know Knoxville quite as well as I thought I did.
And I didn't know the people and I began to learn the people and I learned their story.
And I realized that they were really speaking into my life and that life was a lot different than the way that I had been shaped growing up by where I grew up and the way we grew up.
That now it was a lot different than that. And there was a lot more meaningful to me than that.
Did you consider running for mayor? I did. And I wanted to.
I really wanted to and put my heart into thinking about that and and really wanted to do that.
And I was like, this is what I want to do. And honestly, I wrestled with God about that.
And I had planned it. I pulled people together around me and spoke into me about that.
And I was like, you know, this is what we're going to do. I mean, I love it.
But when it came time to make that decision, I couldn't get a piece about it.
And I decided it just wasn't the right thing for me to do.
And it's not honestly for me, it just wasn't what God was calling me to do.
And so I said, I'm not going to do it after serving eight years on council.
You also have been very, very active in bringing people together across racial and socio economic divides
and getting people in the room to get to know each other better, understand each other better,
so they can work and live together better. When did this start to emerge in you?
Maybe speak to your faith journey.
You know, I think it really began way back at West High School.
And as that became, but then I started serving on council and the people I met
and seeing the needs in the city outside of the land use and zoning and property rights
and that piece of council and meeting people, honestly, in East Knoxville that I had not treaded in and not been there.
I was in city council at large, so I didn't have a district or the city was my district.
And it became, I knew West Knoxville, I knew what was going on in Bearden,
but I didn't know what was going on in East. And I think I clearly began to see in Knoxville
that we're very segregated and unless we're intentional about building relationships across racial lines,
we're not going to have them, sadly. And I saw that and I felt that in Knoxville.
And I felt the political divide in that as well that like, well, they're just different, they're different groups.
And it felt that really parts of East Knoxville felt like they were uncared for and unspoken for,
particularly from someone that looks like me from West Knoxville.
And so I felt that divide in that. And I just, I felt ashamed of that.
I just didn't understand that that was reality. And so it led me, it drew me into that
and drew me into the concerns that they had outside of council.
But what I could use the platform of being on council,
how I could use that to maybe make some changes that would benefit Knoxville.
And so it began with relationships. It began, and when I left council, I said,
I'm not going to run for mayor, but I'm going to not give up on the relationships that I've built over these last eight years.
And I think one of the reasons that I did not run for mayor is like, OK, that was really big things.
They were like, that was going to take a lot of effort and it was going to take a lot of change in my business and in my life.
But really what I said to, I felt, and I felt the call there was, I said,
I'm calling you to the small things, not the big things.
And it's the small things that matter. And will you be diligent and will you be responsible with the small things
and not just the big things, the big things that bring the lights and bring all the attention.
But will you be, you know, will you be responsible for small things?
And that began this, I was like, OK. And that is building relationships and building friendships
that are cross-cultural and cross-racial that really make a difference.
What's interesting is you describe your life growing up and, you know, an idyllic life in Sequoia Hills.
You mentioned almost like a caste system that existed there.
And now you're outside of that bubble.
How did that reconfigure the way you see life and the way you look back on your life?
I mean, did you have any moments where you're like, I don't think I had an idea about what it really was like
to be somebody other than me.
So one of the turning points of that when I was running and in the first year of service,
and a friend of mine that I'd met along the way while running, African-American gentleman,
he was working at UT and he told me, he said, I'm, I said, well, where are you staying? Where are you living?
And he says, well, I'm living, I'm really just sleeping in my office at UT.
And so I'm talking with Stephanie about that. And I was like, oh, and we're walking, you know, we're exercising.
And I said, oh, well, we met today and we were talking and he's, you know, he sleeps in his office.
And she stopped walking at that moment. She's like, what? He's sleeping in his office, George.
We have to go get him. And I was like, well, what do you mean go get him?
He goes, he's not living in a home and we have a home and we have room for him and we're going to, wow, bring him in.
And I was like, and so we did. I was like, come, come live with us and stay with us and we will work on finding permanent housing.
That was part one. Part two of that story was I went, this was my son's room going off to college.
And in the next morning, I went in, we welcomed him in, I took him, we got, you know, we got coffee, got breakfast and got him where he needed to be.
But I went back into his room, kind of clean it up. And for the first time, I noticed, I was like, wow, here I've asked what's on pin to the ceiling?
And the ceiling was a large rebel flag.
And I had just asked this black man into my home and I made him sleep under that rebel flag.
And I was ashamed. I was heartbroken.
So he did his day and came back home that night and I'd taken it down. I mean, my realization was, this is right.
And he said, well, I have to ask you a question. How come you took the flag down?
And I said, you know, I never saw that flag and I'm ashamed. And it was that moment that began this realization of the life that I thought I knew.
But here was a God that I cared for and loved. But I really wasn't showing that.
And I obviously had some prejudices built up that I'd never explored, that I'd never thought about and never talked about and never kind of worked on.
And so that really began—that was when kind of the curtain was pulled back for me and I said, what other prejudices that I have inherited by the way I've grown up that I don't even realize are there.
So how have you been transformed by that? What's this new possibility?
Honestly, I see black people and African-American people can really influence my life in such a positive way and they can have an integral part.
And we can have friendship relationships with that. We can build friendships. And what do we want to talk about?
I want to talk about football. I want to drink beer and eat pizza. And I want to share life with people that can add to that.
And so that's been the journey. But it's like this is like a whole new thing that I can gather with people that don't look like me and I can learn from them and they can learn from me that I just never thought was possible.
Or why would you even want to do that? And it's the depth of the friendships and the relationships have been—just been—it's changed my life.
That is absolutely amazing. Before you get away, talk about your wife and your son. And I understand you are a granddad too.
Yeah. So my wife's a 35-year career Knox County schoolteacher and elementary and has a long, long list of people that she's had in first and second grade all through Knoxville and kind of taught all through the city.
I think our son Nick is a federal public defender. Wow. And that's been part of the journey too because I encouraged him, you should go to law school. I thought that would help me.
And it did. But not the way I quite thought it would because real estate and law, I thought it was the perfect setup. And I explained that. But what he got into was criminal defense.
But public, good public, where for the state public defender's office in Alabama now he's a federal public defender. And so in a way to learn more about why he would do that.
And what I've learned is more about what he's doing and the way to do that is being able to mentor people coming out of incarceration and the importance of the reentry and mentoring men formerly incarcerated now kind of getting back into society.
How do we do that? And how do we do that well? And being a mentor to some men doing that has also been life-changing as well.
What a great story. What a great turning point for both you and your son and the contribution you have made in our making to our community. Really a representation of possibility. George Wallace, thanks for being on the broadcast.
Well, thank you. Thanks for having me.