Dan E. Sweat, Jr.

Dan E. Sweat, Jr., received the 1983 BOMA Atlanta Civic Leadership Award.

The following narrative was published in a 1983 “BOMA Awards” letter from F. Burt Vardeman, RPA, to the BOMA Atlanta membership. Burt was served as 1983 BOMA Atlanta Awards Committee Chair.

“Civic Leadership Award may be presented annually to any citizen of metropolitan Atlanta who has made an outstanding and continuing contribution to the progress and growth of our city and its people. While the basis for earning this award is on the merits of civic contribution and service, emphasis should be given, if possible, to a citizen who has demonstrated an alliance with the office building industry which BOMA serves. Election for this award is by majority vote of the Board of Directors.

“The recipient of this year’s Civic Leadership Award has friends and foes alike just as the rest of us and just as any person in public service does. But all of his friends and foes will agree that this man is one of those rare individuals who can move almost any issue to center stage, out in the open, where it can be objectively dealt with.

“Our honoree is Dan E. Sweat, Jr., President of Central Atlanta Progress, Inc. He is a tireless worker who believes in Atlanta and never ceases to work towards improving, boosting, and supporting what he believes to be good about and for our city. While he is not a BOMA member, it is through his professional career and his progressive efforts for Atlanta that he has become an example of one who, by what he does for all Atlanta, is indirectly supporting the industry BOMA represents – for what is good for Atlanta is most assuredly good for BOMA.

“Dan and his wife, Tally, were recently the subjects of a feature article in the Dixie Living Section of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Sunday, May 15, 1983. A portion of that article is repeated below:

• In the 1950’s both worked for the The Atlanta Journal. Sweat last worked for the Journal as City Hall reporter in 1961.
• In 1961, Dan Sweat went to work for DeKalb County as the first local research and information director in the state. Soon, he found “instead of badgering beleaguered public officials, I was one.”
• In 1963, Sweat became executive assistant to former DeKalb County Commission Chairman C. O. Emmerich. “He was 20 years ahead of everyone else.” Sweat recalls, and he helped develop a progressive bent in his assistant.
• In 1965, Seat became associate administrator of Economic Opportunity Atlanta Inc., the city’s brand new poverty agency.
• In 1966, the rising administrator signed on as director of governmental liaison essentially a federal aid coordinator, for the city of Atlanta during Ivan Allen’s administration. The first person to hold such a position in a city outside of New York, Sweat’s duties were to ‘shake the federal money tree,’ and he succeeded in bringing in (over a three-year period) $118 million in federal aid for local programs, including Model Cities, low-income housing and Urban Corps. Later, he became chief administrative officer and assistant to Mayor Allen. He also held that post when Sam Massell became mayor.
• In 1971, Sweat was selected to be first director of the new Atlanta Regional Commission, the metro-wide planning agency.
• In 1973, Sweat took his current job, as president of Central Atlanta Progress and became spokesman for downtown business interests, who said they were interested in forging a new kind of partnership with public officials. The CAP had been formed in 1967 through a merger of the Uptown Association and Central Atlanta Improvement Association.

“Dan has a vast list of honors and accomplishments. He has served on many boards and has received honors from many organizations as he has pursued his amazing career and outstanding dedication to service Atlanta. BOMA-Atlanta takes pride in presenting to Dan E. Sweat, Jr. the Civic Leadership Award for 1983.”