In 2006, Sellier was elected as the first Republican since Reconstruction in a district that is largely rural and Democratic. A native of Trinidad who grew up in Venezuela, he is also believed to be the first Catholic and the first Hispanic to be elected in the district. The district includes Crawford County, and portions of Bibb, Houston, Lamar, Monroe, Peach and Upson counties.
He is a licensed pilot with an airplane in his garage and a private landing strip on his Crawford County farm. He owns several antique automobiles, including three convertibles.
He helped build Blue Bird Corp., the Fort Valley school bus maker, into one of Middle Georgia's largest employers, and he spearheaded the construction of a Blue Bird plant in Mexico.
And yet, Sellier says the most important event of his life occurred on a summer day in 1960 when, at the age of 15, he stepped off a plane in Miami. It was the first time he set foot on American soil.
"I'm still in awe of it to this day," he said. "From the time that I can remember, I wanted to come to America. America was my biggest dream. As far as I was concerned, I had fulfilled my destiny in this world the day I stepped off that airplane in Miami. The rest of it was going to be gravy. Everything that happened after that was just a bonus."
There was something else about that day that made it even more significant for Sellier. Before his plane landed in Miami, it stopped in Havana, Cuba, less than two years after the communist revolution. Refugees were there to board the plane, but before they could, Sellier watched through the window as machine-gun-wielding soldiers relieved them of their luggage, jewelry and other possessions.
"They boarded that plane with nothing," Sellier said. "And when they got to Miami, they got off that plane and kissed the ground. That's a picture I have in my mind that will never go away, because people will, in fact, give up all material possessions for freedom."
BECOMING AN AMERICAN
Sellier went to a Catholic boarding school in Miami, then on to graduate from the University of West Florida with a degree in industrial management.Shortly afterward, in 1973, he took the oath of citizenship. After working in the textile industry, he was tapped by Blue Bird in 1975 to set up and run its audit department.
He got married in 1986,and in 1991 was diagnosed with throat cancer. When doctors performed biopsies prior to surgery, they told him the tumors were benign. But after the operation, they tested again and found that he had cancer in an advanced stage.
At about 3 a.m. following the surgery, he awoke and his wife, Judye, broke the news. He had cancer - and wasn't expected to live another year.
With all the tubes in his throat, he could not speak, so that left him with several hours to lie there in silence and think about his life and what he wanted to do next.
He would never be the same man again.
"I made a decision, and she did too, that we could either lay down and wait for a year and I could die, or we could fight this thing, and whatever time we had left would be for her memory," he recalled last week as he sat with his wife in the living room of hisCrawford County home. "It turned around my whole attitude about life. When you are facing death, life looks a lot different. I didn't take anything for granted."
Sellier started taking radiation treatments, and he also started living for others. "In order for me to feel some worth and reason for living, I got very involved in the American Cancer Society," he said. "That gave a lot of meaning to what I was doing. It took my mind off of me and put it on something else."
A year later, he was still alive - and doing well. Every three months he returned for a checkup and was found to be in remission. A key, he says, is he and Judye didn't think about cancer until it came time for a checkup.
In 1993, Blue Bird asked him to go to Mexico to lead an effort to get a new plant into operation. After accomplishing that, he returned and continued to work for Blue Bird until 2006.
That's when longtime state Rep. Robert Ray, a Democrat, announced his retirement. Ray called Sellier and suggested that he run for the seat. Ray said it didn't matter to him that Sellier was a Republican.
"He's more of a principled guy than he is a party guy," Ray said. "He fit what I would like in somebody taking my place. He enjoys helping people."
Sellier agreed to run, and retired from Blue Bird. He defeated Meg Nichols in the Republican primary, then won the general election with 68 percent of the vote over Democratic challenger Beth Perera.
BACK TO THE HOSPITAL
In August 2007, Sellier faced health problems again. It started with his blood pressure spiking, going way up and then back down. He had never had blood pressure problems before.
Doctors found that he had two tumors on his lung, and told him it looked like cancer. He went into surgery assuming the worst, but when he woke up, he got some surprising news. As it turned out, the tumors were benign.
"We were ecstatic," he said.
But then in October, in a completely unrelated issue, he began what would be his most trying test yet. He started feeling a soreness in his throat that became so bad he had trouble breathing and eating.
He developed pneumonia and went to the hospital. Doctors discovered a lesion the size of the palm of a hand that had developed from the intubation that was done when he had throat surgery in 1991.
The father of three returned home but was still unable to eat. He attended the first two weeks of the legislative session, then on Jan. 28, a Friday, he went to The Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon for what was supposed to be routine work over the weekend to help him get nourishment and build up his strength.
As the weekend progressed, he started having more trouble breathing. Monday, he went downhill rapidly.
"By Monday morning, he was just struggling," Judye Sellier said. "He was crashing. His heart rate was going crazy. He couldn't breathe. He finally coded."
That's when a team of doctors and nurses swooped into the room. Watching it all, Judye Sellier feared the worst.
"This man is dying," she said, choking back tears, in recalling her thoughts at the time. "He is either going to have a massive heart attack or a stroke right in front of me."
He was unconscious for two days, and remained in critical condition for several days. By Friday, after getting a tracheotomy and a feeding tube, he began to slowly improve. He came home after four weeks in the hospital and was able to make it to the final day of the legislative session.
"That meant everything," he said. "That was my goal all along."
Sellier still has the tracheotomy valve in his throat as a precaution until he finishes hypobaric treatments that are supposed to eliminate the lesion. The treatments are working, he said, as the lesion has been significantly reduced.
His voice is raspy, as if he has a sore throat, but that's only because of the tracheotomy valve, he said. He has no difficulty talking and has spoken at churches and local civic clubs recently.
When he was critically ill, whether to seek re-election wasn't even in his thinking, he added, but as he started to improve, he knew he wanted to run again.
His wife explained why.
"I can't tell you how much he loves his job," she said. "It's not just about being an elected official, but he really, really loves helping people. He loves getting out and talking to people."
Having missed most of the session might have seemed to have left Sellier vulnerable for a challenge. He, in fact, was expecting it. But when the deadline for qualifying passed on May 2, he was essentially guaranteed another term.
"It was an honor, but it was a surprise," he said.
Supporters say the fact that no one qualified says a lot about the impression Sellier has made on the district in his first term.
"It definitely left the door wide open for somebody to run against him, but everybody respects him so much for the life he has lived," said State Sen. Ross Tolleson, R-Perry. "I think people really respect him as a person and know they have elected somebody they know will represent them."
Judye Sellier credited her husband's sense of optimism, among other things, with helping him persevere through his health problems.
"Tony just has a strong, strong faith," she said. "He's just amazing to me because he just has a will. He really had to give it all he had this time."
To contact writer
Wayne Crenshaw, call 923-6199, extension 235.
