Funeral On Friday For GOP Field Staffer Killed in Sandy Springs Wreck

Funeral services for the Republican field staffer who died in a Sandy Springs accident along Georgia 400 will be held on Friday.

Services for Maret Mackenzie “Mack” Burgess, 25, will start at noon Oct. 17 at St. Brigid Catholic Church at 3400 Old Alabama Road in Johns Creek. A celebration of life reception will follow at 1:30 p.m. at the Country Club of Roswell at 2500 Club Springs Drive in Roswell.

At around 1:20 p.m. Oct. 14, Burgess was driving a Ford pickup truck northbound on Georgia 400 at Interstate 285 when he “lost control of the vehicle on (the) wet roadway,” said Sgt. Ron Momon, spokesperson with the Sandy Springs Police Department. Momon said the vehicle traveled northwest through the gore and off to the west side of the roadway.

Once the vehicle left the road, it struck a guardrail, crossed over that damaged guardrail and “came to an uncontrolled stop on its drivers side in the grass area,“ Momon added.

Momon noted CPR was performed by first responders, but Burgess was pronounced dead upon his arrival to Northside Hospital. The truck‘s passenger, Neil Bitting III, was also transported to Northside where he was treated and released with non-life threatening injuries, the Sandy Springs police spokesperson said.

According to his obituary, Burgess graduated in 2008 from Centennial High School in Roswell and graduated in 2012 from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, magna cum laude, with a bachelor’s degree in government affairs and English.

Mack was a brother of Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity and served as president of the UT chapter in 2011. After graduating college, he managed the re-election campaign of Stan Wise for Georgia Public Service Commission.

The following week, he started work with the Hall County Chamber of Commerce, directing and managing the Lanier Islands Community Improvement District. He also was an associate lobbyist with Chandler Haydon during the 2013 legislative session.

Burgess later served as campaign manager for Tricia Pridemore, who ran for United States House of Representatives for Georgia’s 11th Congressional District. Most recently, he served as political director for Governor Nathan Deal’s re-election campaign.

“Mack was a rising star as a political strategist and beloved by everyone in Georgia’s political community, Republicans and Democrats alike,” his obituary states. “His work ethic was infectious. He will be deeply missed by all who had the great fortune to know him during his career in the political arena.”