John Gregory Odom

John Gregory Odom died on May 15, 2021, at his farm “Respite” near Hahira, where he spent the earliest years of his childhood. He was 69 years old.
Greg Odom was born in Hahira on November 29, 1951, into a farming family with Southern roots going back to Colonial Virginia of the 1600’s. His parents, James Childs Odom and Helen Marnelle Parker Odom, predeceased him, as did his brother, James Childs Odom, Jr., MD.
He is survived by his wife, Debbie Powell of Hahira and New Orleans, who will carry on their tradition of hospitality at Respite; his sister, Elizabeth Ann Odom; and by his niece, Lauren Odom Brogdon, her husband Dusty, and their children Madelyn Faith Brogdon and Mason James Brogdon.
Odom attended school in Hahira and graduated from Lowndes High School in 1969. He entered Yale University at age 17 and graduated cum laude in 1973 with a degree in English literature. At Yale, he was a member of numerous organizations, including Wolf’s Head Society.
After Yale, he spent two years studying at The Queen’s College, Oxford University, and received an M.A., in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics. He attended the University of Virginia School of Law and received his law degree there in 1978.
Odom was admitted to the Georgia Bar in July of 1978 and joined the Savannah law firm of Bouhan Williams & Levy as an associate, a connection he greatly enjoyed. After three years in Savannah, and a brief stint in Washington, D.C., he gravitated to New Orleans for the greater part of his successful legal career of some 40 years. Upon his mother’s declining health he returned to Hahira and opened an office of his law firm, Odom & Des Roches, LLC, in the old Cohen’s Department Store building which he acquired for that purpose. He later donated this building to the City of Hahira. He derived humor and satisfaction from having the only law firm in the world with offices in both Hahira and New Orleans. Odom’s long association with Stuart E. Des Roches, fifteen years his junior, was one of the great joys of his professional life.
Odom was a trial lawyer with a strong belief in the adversary system of justice. His career was divided between work on the corporate defense side and on the plaintiff’s side. For over 25 years he represented the international accounting firm KPMG, and during this period also defended numerous banks and other professionals in business litigation. Ultimately, though, he gravitated to plaintiff’s business litigation, and achieved a large degree of satisfaction and success from an on-going series of ground-breaking antitrust cases against major manufacturers of prescription drugs. He and the rest of the law firm, as well as close colleagues from other firms, generally represented pharmaceutical wholesalers against prescription drug manufacturers, based upon their anticompetitive tactics of keeping less-expensive generic drugs off the market. Several of these complex cases were taken to trial in federal courts in New York, Boston, Delaware, and elsewhere, and many continue to this day.
One of the public highlights of Odom’s professional career came in 1998, when he argued before the United States Supreme Court and obtained a 9-0 reversal of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, thereby contributing to the jurisprudence of federal court jurisdiction.
Odom had a lifelong interest in music and enjoyed a wide variety of musical forms, from grand opera to bluegrass. He was keenly interested in architecture, particularly Romanesque and Gothic churches, and Palladian domestic buildings. He was an outdoorsman and particularly enjoyed bird shooting of all types. A traditionalist by nature, Odom enjoyed entertaining his many friends and being entertained by them. He was a collector of fine things and was a student of wine for over 40 years. He traveled extensively, especially in Europe, treasured his friendships around the world, and did his best to keep up with them.
Odom was raised in the Hahira Methodist Church. Later he joined St. John’s Episcopal Church in Savannah in 1979. There, he met Rev. William Ralston, who became one of the greatest influences of his life. Over the last 20 years he has been a member of All Saints Episcopal Church in Thomasville, where he served on the vestry.
Odom served as an officer or director of many social and community organizations over the years, including several years on the board of the G. K. Chesterton Institute, an international Catholic charity, acting as President of its British branch for a time.
For many years, Odom made charitable contributions to the Church, the City of Hahira, and various educational institutions, as well as private gifts to persons in need.
Visitation will take place at Martin McLane Funeral Home in Hahira from 6-8 PM on Friday, May 21, 2021, and a funeral service will be held at All Saints Episcopal Church in Thomasville at 11 AM on Saturday, May 22, 2021, followed by burial in his family’s plot in Friendship Cemetery near Hahira. Odom specified that his epitaph should be these words from the Book of Job, immortalized by one of his favorite Handel arias:
“I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand in the latter days upon the earth. And though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.”
In lieu of flowers memorials may be made to All Saints Episcopal Church, 443 S. Hansell St. , Thomasville, GA, 31792, or the Georgia Sheriff Boys Ranch, 5671 GA-122, Hahira, GA 31632. Condolences to the family may be expressed on the obituary page at www.mclanecares.com. Martin McLane Funeral Home