BRISTOL — A man at the forefront of the automobile business in the Tri-Cities since the late 1960s, one who later helped fund the college of pharmacy at East Tennessee State University, has died.
Among other philanthropic ventures, he is the largest single contributor to the University of Kentucky, his alma mater, in its history.
Kentucky native Carol Martin “Bill” Gatton, 89, died at Bristol Regional Medical Center on Monday, multiple news outlets and some who knew him have reported. He was well known starting in the late 1960s with television commercials for “Wild Bill” Gatton Chevrolet in Bristol, Tennessee, and wore a cowboy hat in them.
No funeral arrangements were available Monday evening.
“Bill is an icon, and how a lot of it started was from the character he played on TV,” Sullivan County Mayor and former state Rep. Richard Venable said. In real life, Venable said, Gatton “was a quiet guy,” basically a banker who used his accumulated wealth to…
