He also completed graduate work at Duke University and Winthrop College.

He served as staff for United States Representative James P. Richards from 1942 to 1951.

Past member and chairman of the board of trustees of Rock Hill School District Three from 1953 to 1960.

Gettys was elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-eighth and to the Eighty-ninth Congress by special election to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of United States Representative Robert W. Hemphill, and reelected to the four succeeding Congresses (November 3, 1964 – December 31, 1974).

He was interred in Neely's Creek Associate Reformed Church Cemetery, Rock Hill, South Carolina.