William “Bill” Self Propst, Sr. was born February 15, 1937, in Walkers Chapel, AL. His father Paul Propst was a Methodist minister, and his mother, Margaret a secretary to the President at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. From an early age, Propst was encouraged by his mother and grandmother to work hard and take risks, and as a teenager he started his own business fabricating and installing steel beams and ironwork.
At 21, Propst decided to follow in his brother Michael’s footsteps and go to pharmacy school. He entered Howard University – now known as Samford University – in 1958, going to school during the day and working full-time at night. After graduation, Propst briefly worked for Walgreens pharmacy. By 1963, he opened his own pharmacy in Huntsville, followed by four more locations shortly thereafter. With his business rapidly expanding, so was his competition. A then-small chain named Kmart opened a store in Florence, AL, selling health and beauty aids below Propst’s cost. Since Kmart at the time didn’t have pharmacies in their stores, he quickly began working to convince Kmart management to open pharmacies within Kmart stores across the country. After some initial resistance, Kmart agreed, and Propst moved his family to Detroit to become president of Kmart pharmacies opening over 1,800 pharmacies during his time there. While at Kmart, Propst started a generic drug division for Kmart called Qualitest Pharmaceuticals to help control the cost, insurance, and consistency of drugs for his pharmacies. In 1986 Propst retired from Kmart, bought a minority interest in Qualitest, and moved the business and his family back to Huntsville, later purchasing the remaining stake in Qualitest in 1989.
To be successful long-term in the generic drug business, Propst knew he would have to manufacture them to compete. In 1990, he purchased a solid dose pharmaceutical manufacturing plant in Charlotte, NC, named it Vintage Pharmaceuticals, and soon thereafter expanded further opening state-of-the-art liquid and solid dose manufacturing facilities as well as an automated distribution center in his hometown of Huntsville. The enterprise composed over 1 million square feet of manufacturing, warehouse, and office space.
From 1986 to 2007, Propst grew Qualitest/ Vintage to one of the largest generic drug companies in the country, producing billions of doses from over 160 drug products, and employed close to 800 employees. He sold his business to private equity firm Apax Partners in October 2007 for close to a billion dollars.
After the sale of Qualitest/Vintage, Propst founded Propst Properties, a real estate company with offices in Huntsville and Birmingham. He also turned his attention to philanthropy, establishing the Paul Propst Center for Precision Medicine — in honor of his father — at Hudson Alpha Institute in Huntsville, funding the construction of the Eloise McDonald Propst Welcome Center at Huntsville Botanical Gardens, as well as starting the Propst Foundation. He also gave generously to organizations such as Samford University, Randolph School, and the Von Braun Center.
He passed away in 2019 and is survived by his wife, Eloise McDonald Propst, and four children: William Self Propst, Jr., Emily Propst Reiney, Charles Vincent Propst, and Michael Jay Propst, as well as nine grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
