D.D.GARRETT, Sr.
Born May 6, 1914 in Fairmont, NC, Denison D. Garrett later came to Pitt County where he attended Greenville Industrial High School. He then attended North Carolina College at Durham from which he earned a B.S. Degree in Commerce. Prior to graduation from college, he interrupted his pursuit of formal education in order to serve in the United States Navy from 1942 until 1946. In the fall of that same year, 1946, he founded the D.D. Garrett Agency which still serves as one of the two oldest real estate firms in Pitt County, North Carolina.
Aside from professional activities, he has always found time for his church and his community. In this regard, the A.M.E. Zion Church and the NAACP have been the primary recipients of his tireless dedication during all of his adult life. He was a founding member of the Greenville Good Neighbor Council, which was later adopted by the City and is now the Greenville Human Relations Council. He has also served on the Pitt County Board of Commissioners of which he was the first black person in history to be elected and sworn into that Board. Before and after the passage of national voting rights legislation, Mr.Garrett has been an unwavering force in the effort to urge African Americans to exercise the right to vote in all public elections. In 1993, the Pitt-Greenville Chamber Of Commerce named him "Man of The Year".
As for service to the Church, he has been devoted to his denomination at the local, district, conference and connectional level. Mr. Garrett serves as a Member, Trustee and Sunday School Teacher at Saint Stephen AME Zion Church, Farmville, NC. The past and present duties and offices that he has held in his church are much too numerous to mention. However, he is the Historian for the Board of Lay Activities as well as the Chairman of the Committee On Social and Political Affairs of the AME Zion Church. He is currently President of the Laymans Council of the Washington District in the AME Zion Church's North Carolina Conference and national Chairman of The Bishop George Leake, III Memorial Scholarship Fund Committee.
A brief list of other civic affiliations have included The Mayor's Advisory Citizens Council, Governor Jim Hunt's Sickle Cell Advisory Committee, The Pitt-Greenville Housing Resource Board and The Executive Committee of the First Congressional District Black Leadership Caucus.
Mr.Garrett's professional associations include the North Carolina Association of Realtors, The Pitt-Greenville Board Of Realtors, The Pitt-Greenville Chamber of Commerce and the National Association Of Public Accountants.
He a member of the Nu Alpha Chapter of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Incorporated, American Legion Post #160 and he is a Master Mason of Mount Herman Masonic Lodge.
"D.D", as he is known and called by nearly all who know him well, has been married to the former Clotea Williams for 62 years. They are the parents Rev. Denison D.Garrett, Jr. and Michael W.Garrett and have 5 grandchildren and 5 great-grand children.
Pitt County Democratic Precinct Chairs
