George H. Carley

George Holmes Carley (September 24, 1938November 26, 2020) was an American lawyer and judge. From Decatur, Georgia, he served on the Supreme Court of Georgia from March 1993 until July 2012, acting as Chief Justice for the last two months of his term. Early life and career Carley was born in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1938, the only child of George L. Carley Jr. and Dorothy Holmes Carley. His family moved to Decatur, Georgia, in 1948. His father was a member of the United States Public Health Service and while posted in Burma, Carley attended the eighth and ninth grades at the Woodstock School in Mussoorie, India, from 1951 to 1953. Returning to the United States, Carley graduated from Decatur High School in 1956. He served in the United States Army Reserve from 1956 to 1960, and was on active duty in 1956. Carley received his A.B. from the University of Georgia in 1960 and his LL.B. from the University of Georgia School of Law in 1962. He was a member of Alpha Tau Omega. He stated that his favorite professor in law school was the property law expert Verner F. Chaffin. Carley was admitted to the bar in 1961 and for three months served in the title department at the Atlanta law firm of Hansell, Post, Brandon & Dorsey before quitting and returning to Decatur, where he practiced from 1963 until becoming a judge in 1979. He was briefly an attorney for the U.S. Public Housing Administration before leaving to start a solo practice that grew into a larger law firm. Carley served as a member of the Georgia House of Representatives in 1966 and in 1971 became a partner with the Decatur firm of McCurdy & Candler. He represented the Housing Authority of the City of Decatur and also served as a Special Assistant Attorney General for the Georgia Department of Transportation, handling eminent domain cases.