James Michael Gardner
December 16, 1969 ~ November 9, 2024
James Michael Gardner was born on December 16, 1969. He passed away peacefully on Saturday, November 9, 2024, at his home in Marietta, GA after a courageous battle with cancer. He was surrounded by his family and transitioned to his next life with absolute love and care.
Michael was preceded in death by his father James Arthur Gardner, his mother Joelda Williams Gardner, Elmo and Rebecca Gardner (Grandparents), James and Effie Williams (Grandparents). Michael is survived by his wife of 28 years Donna Deyton Gardner, son Ethan Reid Gardner, daughter Erin Reese Gardner, his brother Jeffrey Wayne Gardner (Tessa and Levi), aunt, nephews and cousins.
He was a devoted father, loving husband, uncle, mentor, cousin, and friend to many. Michael enjoyed spending time with family and friends, playing piano, driving his cool car, attending Atlanta Braves games, and helping his kids throughout their life.
Michael graduated from Kennesaw State University with a degree in Electrical Engineering. He worked for AT&T for 25 years and enjoyed retirement after.
A Celebration of Life service will be held at Southern Cremation & Funerals, located at 1861 Dallas Highway SW., Marietta, GA 30064 on December 14, 2024, at 2:00 p.m.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you donate to the American Cancer Society in Michael’s honor.
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Countess memories with MG the past 12+ years! He was family. We enjoyed many Labor Day trips, New Year’s Eve celebrations, Memorial Days, 4th of July pool parties, Braves games, weddings and many more! Thank you for loving our Donna so well! We will miss you friend and look forward to seeing you again in Heaven one day!
💙the Murray’s
When I think of Mike, I remember our daily meetings, where we transformed countless network elements into a new, automated architecture that he, along with a few others, had pioneered. Through those meetings, I developed a strong camaraderie with him. It wasn’t until he left that I truly appreciated the brilliance of the tool he designed, which effortlessly generated metrics without any manual intervention. I will always cherish the enjoyable work times with Mike, Joe, and Kim. I write this so that his family and children know about the legacy of the remarkable tool he created at work.
James Michael Gardner was one of the best neighbors we have had, we are so sorry for this loss. our deepest condolences to his family, always remember him with good memories. God bless his soul 🙏🏻
Jalal & Heshmat
Gary and I always agreed that Mike was one of the most intelligent people that we knew. He and Gary met in the college dorm and struck up a friendship that lasted a lifetime. They shared in their love of music, hockey, shooting sports, and Braves baseball. Mike was a groomsman in our wedding and we shared many special milestone celebrations with Mike and Donna over the last 30 years. There were many trips to the beach and mountains, birthdays and Christmas “Who” parties, amusement parks with the kids, and time out on the lake.
We reconnected as our children grew older and we are thankful for our conversations, meals together, and listening to him play the piano. He was truly gifted in so many ways. We were blessed to have know him and we will never forget him.
We love you Donna, Ethan, and Erin!
—-Joy and Gary
There are so many memories to share about Mike, but I don’t know where to start, or what to say.
There are times in life, when you have good friends, where a gap in time occurs between meet ups. You know you will get together again and catch up. We started to have those gaps occur when Mike and “work” separated, but we would still occasionally be able to get together. It is sad to realize I won’t be sitting across a table from Mike, having those times again.
Mike, you are missed.
Michael Gardner was a brilliant and humble engineer whose work left a lasting impression. I’ll never forget when he created a VBA-based monitoring system that tracked cell site metrics in Excel that the whole performance team enjoyed using it. He showed me that program so small, it fitted on a 3½-inch floppy disk. Even 25 years later, I’m still in awe of how he did it.
I treasure the memory of the trip with him to watch the first Falcon Heavy launch and the lunches we had. Mike, you will be deeply missed.
best dad ever
My heart goes out to each and everyone he leaves behind. I held him when he was a toddler when I was around 15 or 16. The cutest little feller. I grew up beside his parents home in Eastover NC. God bless and keep you in his loving arms.