Laurie Kimball Abbott was born on August 26, 1928, in Hamlet, North Carolina. He graduated from Armstrong State College and received a law degree from the University of Georgia. He was a member of the Georgia Bar Association and the Savannah Bar Association and was active in government and community affairs around the state. He was a member of the Georgia State Property Commission, a member of the Board of Visitors of the University of Georgia, a member of the Board of Directors of the Research Foundation of the University of Georgia and chaired the committee that organized the Skidaway Institute of Oceanography on Skidaway Island, for which he was honored by the General Assembly. Abbott died on November 17, 2006, and is buried in Savannah’s Catholic Cemetery.