Johnny Isakson, the first Georgian ever to have been elected to the state House, state Senate, U.S. House and U.S. Senate, died Sunday, Dec. 19, 2021. Here are some key moments in his public life:
Dec. 28, 1944: Born in Atlanta.
1966: Graduates from the University of Georgia. Also joins the Georgia Air National Guard and serves until 1972.
1968: Marries. He and his wife, Dianne, have three children.
1967: Opens the first Cobb County office of Northside Realty, a small, family-owned real estate business. He later becomes president of Northside, and over 22 years he guides its growth into the largest independent residential real estate brokerage company in the Southeast and one of the largest in America.
1974: Runs unsuccessfully for the state House.
1976: Wins election to the state House. He serves seven terms in the chamber.
1983: Republicans elect Isakson as the state House minority leader. At the time, there are only 24 Republican members in the state House. Isakson holds the minority leader title until 1990.
1990: Runs unsuccessfully for governor.
1993: Enters the state Senate and serves there until 1996.
1996: Runs for the U.S. Senate but loses in the primary.
1997: Gov. Zell Miller names Isakson chairman of the state Board of Education.
1999: Wins a special election to fill the seat Newt Gingrich vacated when he resigned from Congress.
2004: Wins election to the U.S. Senate.
2010: Wins re-election to the U.S. Senate.
2015: Takes the reins of the U.S. Senate’s Veterans Affairs and Ethics committees. (He’s the only senator currently holding two chairmanships.) In June, he also reveals that he has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
2016: Wins re-election to the U.S. Senate.
July 2019: Suffers four broken ribs and other injuries in a fall.
August 2019: Reveals that he underwent kidney surgery and that he would resign from office on Dec. 31.
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