Page 18 - South Mississippi Living - August, 2018

INMEMORIAM
COAST VISIONARY
ANTHONY TOPAZI
Although former Coast resident Anthony Topazi has passed from the earth, his legacy lives on. He was the founding chairman of the Gulf Coast Business Council (GCBC) and the CEO of Mississippi
Power, was integral in bringing the PGA Tour Champions to the Coast and worked in numerous other positions of community leadership.
Business Council President and CEO Ashley Edwards says Topazi was ahead of his time. “He had amazing leadership abilities and
a tenacious ability to make good things happen for the Coast,” Edwards said. “He was ahead of his time in that he was thinking about regionalism and overcoming political boundaries early on. His legacy is certainly one of being a visionary.”
Current GCBC Chairman John Hairston said, “It is with great sadness that we report the passing of Anthony Topazi. The Gulf Coast Business Council was created in the debris of Hurricane Katrina and embodied Anthony’s vision
of gathering all coastal business leaders to work as a team for restoring our communities.”
That rebuilding began
LEGACY LIVES ON
story by Lynn Lofton photo courtesy of Gulf Coast Business Council
immediately after the devastating 2005 storm when Topazi led the Mississippi Power team to get the lights back on in 11 days. “Every meeting, every tough decision, every priority — Anthony was in the middle of it,” Hairston recalls.
Edwards’ experience with Topazi began shortly after Hurricane Katrina when Edwards was serving as Gov. Haley Barbour’s director of the Office of Recovery. “Anthony was so heavily involved in the rebuilding and felt that too small a lens was being used on just overcoming Katrina,” he said. “He was also trying to put together an organization that could see the coastal region through generations, and that’s as important today as ever.”
Hairston knew Topazi as someone born into humble beginnings
and as a man who successfully balanced family with business and faith. “He loved his wife and two sons. On my last visit with him, in addition to being surrounded by
a table with a ventilator to help him breathe, he had photos of his family members, medical journals, his rosary and several copies of business newspapers,” he said. “He always liked to multitask and did so until he literally couldn’t blink his eyes. He will be missed.”
ANTHONY TOPAZI
18 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • August 2018
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