Owen Robertson Cheatham

Early life

Owen Robertson Cheatham was born on July 9, 1902, in Concord, Campbell County, Virginia. He attended New Concord Presbyterian Church in Concord.

In 1927, he founded the Georgia Hardwood Lumber Co., (now known as Georgia-Pacific), a wholesaler of hardwood lumber headquartered in Augusta, Georgia. It was a publicly traded corporation on the New York Stock Exchange from 1949 to 2005. Under his tenure, it became a $750 million enterprise with a $1 billion+ asset base. The company became one of the world's leading manufacturers and distributors of tissue, pulp, paper, toilet paper, paper-towel dispenser, and other products. It is now a subsidiary of Koch Industries.

He was married to Celeste Wickliffe Cheatham. She collected thirty-seven pieces of Dalí-Jewels, which were exhibited at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Virginia after her death. Cheatham died of a heart attack on October 24, 1970, at a football game in Eugene, Oregon. He was buried in the New Concord Presbyterian Church Cemetery. Following Cheatham's death, his widow Celeste Wickliffe Cheatham O'Neil was noted for her connection to the family's art holdings, including the Salvador Dalí jewelry pieces previously exhibited at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.