Remembering former Monroe County Commissioner Harold Carlisle

FORSYTH, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT)- Monroe County and neighboring communities are mourning the loss of a former Monroe County Commissioner. Harold Carlisle died suddenly this past weekend.

Carlisle was a man who loved taking care of his lawn, an avid reader, businessman, a loving father and devoted husband. Now, family, friends and communities are remembering Carlisle and his accomplishments as commissioner and as a military veteran.

“It’s just been overwhelming and wonderful. Just a wonderful experience to know he was liked and loved by so many,” his daughter Julie Busbee said.

He served as Monroe County Commissioner for two terms before being elected as chairman. Busbee says he was also very proud of his military service.

“He was also in the National Guard for 35 years, 11 months and 3 days. Every time you’d ask him that, that’s what he would say,” she said.

Carlisle and his wife were getting ready to celebrate their 62nd wedding anniversary later this month.

“They were an amazing couple. You never saw one without the other. They genuinely love each other,” Busbee said.

She says her father fought hard to get a decision on the Bibb and Monroe County line.

“That was really something he felt so strongly about, that he wanted settled,” she said.

His accolades didn’t stop there.

“He was on the commission when the new law enforcement center was built. He was around when the courthouse had their cornerstone time capsule opened and was able to put some things in there for the next 100 years,” Busbee said.

Last Friday, Busbee says her father fell in the flowerbed, but told her he was fine.

“He woke up during the night and was sick and then was weak and unable to get up out of the bed and, so my mother tried to help him and he fell on the floor and on her,” she said.

They rushed him to Coliseum Medical Centers in Macon and from there, Carlisle was air-lifted to Emory Hospital in Atlanta. Doctors there told his family he suffered from a “massive brain-bleed stroke.” Busbee says the damage was irreparable. That’s when they decided to pull him off the ventilator.

“So, the general got his last helicopter ride, and he would’ve loved that.”

41NBC News did try to reach out to the Monroe County Commissioners office, but did not receive a call back. Services will be at Ingleside Baptist Church, and also a military honoring at Riverside Cemetery Wednesday at two.