Chances are if you are a native Alabamian or have spent much time in the Southeast, you’ve had the opportunity to enjoy some of Jimmy Hinton’s work, probably in the form of a Zeigler hotdog, maybe at a football game, or roasted over a wood fire at the end of a bird hunt or on the bank of one of the state’s many lakes.
Hinton is the owner and chairman of the board of R. L. Zeigler Company, Inc., of Tuscaloosa. Under Hinton’s leadership and business philosophy, Zeigler has become one of the South’s leading processors of meat products, and its motto “Seasoned to Please” is a familiar saying in most Southern homes.
But Jimmy Hinton is much more than a hotdog maker. An entrepreneurial spirit, unwavering support for University of Alabama athletics, and a passion for wildlife conservation have been key elements in the life and career of James Lucian Hinton.
Hinton was born in Tuscaloosa on April 8, 1923, to George and Mary Alice Hinton. He attended The University of Alabama in the 1940s before serving in the United States Army during World War II. In 1958, he married Jean Jolly, a union that produced three children: James Lucian Hinton, Jr., Mary Katherine Hinton Gibson, Elizabeth Hinton Pruett, and eight grandchildren.
R.L. Zeigler was founded by Rebel Louis Zeigler and tradition has been a matter of quality and commitment ever since. When Rebel Zeigler bought his first grocery store in the early 1920s in Bessemer, Alabama, people came from all over to buy his homemade fresh pork sausage. When his pork sausage operation outgrew the store in 1927, he incorporated and opened his first packing plant in Bessemer, enabling him to increase the production of his prize-winning sausage. Mr. Zeigler introduced the first vacuum-packed lunchmeat in Alabama, an innovation that paved the road to meat packaging principles used today.
Zeigler remains the largest independent meatpacker in the Southeastern United States, producing the No. 1 selling wiener in the state of Alabama, along with a vast array of top-selling meat items. In over 70 years, Zeigler has built a strong business that takes pride in servicing its customers with the same commitment to excellence exhibited by its founder. Mr. Zeigler died in 1964 in Birmingham and three years later the successful business was purchased by Jimmy Hinton and two other Tuscaloosa businessmen of note, Mr. Frank Moody and Paul “Bear” Bryant. Over the years Hinton bought out his partners. Today Ziegler employs more than 400 people and has offices in Tuscaloosa, Selma, and Mobile.
Hinton’s business and professional relationships extend throughout the state. He is widely known for his diverse business interests. His business philosophy is often called entrepreneurial, and it is this philosophy that has made him one of Alabama’s finest businessmen.
“Jimmy has been one of Alabama’s most successful entrepreneurs and has done so in a wide range of businesses and industries, spanning fifty years,” Paul W. Bryant Jr. writes.
Other industries in which Hinton has thrived include farming and lumber. Hinton is the founder and owner of Tusco Wood Products Company of Tuscaloosa. Under Hinton’s direction, the company manufactures quality hardwood pallets for industry and pine boxes for national defense. The company, founded in the early 1960s, employs more than 150 people.
The company became nationally known during the Vietnam War as the largest manufacturer of ammunition boxes in the United States. Ammo box production trailed off until the Gulf War broke out and Tusco was asked by the Department of the Army to resume making the wooden ammunition boxes.
In addition to the processed meat and lumber industries, Hinton made has an impact on the West Alabama real estate industry as well. He was a co-developer of McFarland Mall, Tuscaloosa’s first shopping mall.
Throughout his career and across industries, Hinton has spurred business developments, guided successful businesses, and fostered business relationships and affiliations statewide. Bryant credits Hinton as being an integral part of the economic development of west Alabama.
Hinton has served on the boards of numerous Alabama companies including AmSouth and Fayco, Inc.
As further testament to his business initiative and planning, Hinton was a founding partner of Southern United Life Insurance Company of Montgomery and Olympia Mills of Tuscaloosa.
Like many successful businessmen, Jimmy Hinton has donated both time and financial resources to charitable causes without thought or expectation of recognition. Thomas W. Moore, president of Pritchett-Moore, Inc. describes Hinton’s contributions: “His support of and contributions to civic and charitable organizations, particularly The University of Alabama and Stillman College of Tuscaloosa, have been significant.” Hinton has served on The University of Alabama’s President’s Cabinet since its inception. He also was a founder of Tuscaloosa Academy and is a member of the school’s board of directors.
Both Bryant and Moore describe him as a low-profile individual. “He has been a major financial supporter of the University’s athletics programs … in many cases that have not been apparent to those not directly involved,” Bryant writes.
Along with his business success, Hinton has done much to preserve and protect the state’s natural resources and has become known as a preeminent wildlife conservationist. He spends a considerable amount of his time working on wildlife conservation and game management. He has served for 10 years as the Chairman of the State of Alabama Conservation Advisory Board. In 1998, Hinton received the highest honor for a conservationist; the Alabama Wildlife Federation recognized him as the 1998 Conservationist of the Year.
A lifelong passion has been training and owning bird dogs, and three of his dogs have won national championships four times. As part of his conservation efforts, he owns land in Dallas County, Alabama. His land, Sedgefield Plantation, is the site each year of state and national bird dog field trials. As a result of years of dedicated work, Hinton was inducted into the Field Trial Hall of Fame in 1975.
Hinton has used Sedgefield Plantation to give Alabama hunters with disabilities a unique opportunity. He opened Sedgefield Plantation to the Disabled Sportsmen of Alabama. Deer hunters in this group now have a wonderful place to hunt, all thanks to the generosity of Hinton.
Numerous Alabama industries, conservation groups, and University of Alabama programs have reached a higher caliber of excellence due in large part to the entrepreneurial and generous spirit of James Hinton.
