Tom Forkner
Lawyer, real estate developer, co-founder of Waffle House, champion golfer
Thomas F. Forkner was born in Hawkinsville, Georgia, one of seven children, and grew up in Avondale Estates, where his father managed the town’s construction. He practiced law, served in Army intelligence during the Second World War — including a posting at Oak Ridge, where he met Martha — built a real estate business, and in 1955 opened a restaurant with his neighbor Joe Rogers that became Waffle House.
Golf came later, and on doctor’s orders: warned he was working himself to death, he took up the game he had grown up beside — as a boy he and his brothers were barred from the course next door. He went on to play the senior circuits, spent five years ranked among the top ten senior players in the country, and was inducted into the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame.
These stories were recorded in 2014 in conversations with Daniel Forkner and Jim Rosenberg, with Martha Forkner joining in.