Induction Year: 1993

Sloan Y. Bashinsky, Sr.

  • October 26th, 2021

The career of Sloan Y. Bashinsky, Sr., is indicative of what a person with business acumen can accomplish under the free enterprise system. He started as a route salesman and rose through the ranks to the position of Chairman of the Board of the parent company of the Southeast’s largest snack food manufacturer.

Sloan Y. Bashinsky, Sr., was born in Troy, Alabama, on November 2, 1919 – the son of Cora (Young) and Leo E. Bashinsky. He received his primary and secondary education at Avondale Elementary School and Ramsey High School; McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tennessee; and Lawrenceville Prep School in New Jersey. He then entered Princeton University. In 1940, he left college to join the United States Air Force. He served as a radar navigator until his discharge in 1945.

In 1946, he went to Birmingham, Alabama, as a route salesman for Golden Flake Snack Foods, Inc. (then known as Magic City Foods Products Company, Inc.). Within ten years (in 1956), he had become president – a position he held until 1972. He reassumed the presidency between 1984 and 1985. In 1972, he became Chairman of the Board. Between 1976 and 1991, he also served as Chief Executive Officer.

Today, Sloan Bashinsky is Chairman of the Board and major stockholder of Golden Enterprises, Inc. – a holding company that owns all outstanding shares of Golden Flake Snack Foods, Inc.; Steel City Bolt and Screw, Inc. (a Birmingham-based manufacturer and distributor of bolts and special fasteners); and Nall and Associates, Inc. (a distributor of bolts and special fasteners).

He is also a director of Steel City Bolt and Screw, Inc. and Nall and Associates, Inc.

The history of the Company reflects Sloan Bashinsky’s leadership. In 1958, the company changed its name from Magic City Foods Pro­ ducts Company, Inc. to Golden Flake, Inc. Five years later, the company purchased Don’s Food’s Inc., a Nashville, Tennessee-based Manufacturer of snack food products. Don’s Foods was operated until 1966 when Golden Flake was reorganized as a Delaware Corporation and combined Don’s operations with those of Golden Flake.

The company acquired Steel City Bolt and Screw, Nall and Associates, and a real estate subsidiary in 1971.

In 1977, Golden Enterprises, Inc. was formed as a holding company with its operating division, Golden Flake Snack Foods, as a wholly-owned subsidiary. In September of that same year, the assets of the real estate and insurance subsidiary were sold, leaving Golden Flake and the Steel City group as subsidiaries.

Golden Flake manufactures and distributes a full line of snack foods. The main office and production plant are located in Birmingham. There are also plants in Nashville, Tennessee, and in Ocala, Florida. Golden Flake has approximately 1,500 employees and its annual sales exceed $100 million.

Through the years, Sloan Bashinsky has shared what he has called his “good fortune” to improve the quality of life for others.

For example, while serving on the Board of Directors of the Eye Foundation Hospital and St. Vincent’s Foundation, he was instrumental in raising funds for needed centers. He has also been an active supporter of such worthy institutions and charitable organizations as the Crippled Children’s Clinic and Foundation, Children’s Hospital of Alabama, Big Oak Ranch, and United Way.

His desire to enhance higher education can be seen in the time and financial support that he has given to educational institutions throughout the state of Alabama.

He is currently a trustee of Samford University, where he also serves as Vice-President of the Board of Directors and Chairman of the Executive Committee. In honor of his father, he donated the Leo Bashinsky Field House. Samford also received financing for the Bashinsky Press Tower. For his many contributions to Samford University’s growth, he was the recipient of the Honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 1990.

He also contributes to all Alabama independent colleges and universities. And he established the Bashinsky Foundation to fund the Golden Enterprises Scholarship Awards presented each year to dependent children of the employees of Golden Enterprises and its subsidiaries. The scholarships are given on the basis of scholastic achievement, demonstrated leadership, and participation in school and community affairs. In 1992, Sloan Bashinsky again shared some of his good fortunes with the people of Alabama who, he has said, have been so good to him. He made a $3 million gift to The University of Alabama which is being used for the construction of a new computer center for the College of Commerce and Business Administration. The computer center will be known as the Sloan Y. Bashinsky, Sr. Computer Center. It and a new business library (named in honor of Angelo Bruno, Chairman of the Board of Bruno’s, Inc. until his death in December 1991) will share a $9 million building.

According to Dr. Roger Sayers, University President, the Bashinsky Computer Center, and the Bruno Business Library will be one of the most modern of such facilities in the nation and a centerpiece for the business school complex. Dr. Barry Mason, Dean of the College of Commerce and Business Administration, has said that thousands of students each year for generations to come will benefit from Sloan Bashinsky’s investment in the future.

The building is scheduled for completion by the end of October, with final details and moving planned for November and December. It should be “open for business” by January 1, 1994. The computer center will include a wall of memorabilia from Sloan Bashinsky.

Sloan Bashinsky is a very active member of the Mountain Brook Baptist Church where he has served as Chairman of the Endowment Trust. He is also a member of the Rotary Club of Birmingham, the Birmingham Monday Morning Quarterback Club, Shoal Creek, Birmingham Country Club, and the Downtown Club.

He is married to the former Joann Fulghum of Nashville, Tennessee. They have four children – Sloan, Jr.; Major; Elizabeth (Krebs); and Suzanne (Ash) – and nine grandchildren.

Sloan Y. Bashinsky, Sr. has reaped the rewards of hard work and business success. But he has returned some of the abundant harvests to his native state for the generation of growth in future years

William Houston Blount

  • October 26th, 2021

William Houston Blount has had a long and remarkable record of achievement and leadership in the corporate world and in many facets of community life. He was born in Union Springs in Bullock County, Alabama, on January 3, 1922, one of the sons of Winton M. Blount, Sr., and Clara Belle Chalker Blount. He attended Union Springs High School and Staunton Military Academy before entering the business school at The University of Alabama in 1940 where he completed his sophomore year before enlisting in the United States Navy Air Corps after the onset of World War II. Within one year, he had received his wings. (In that same year – 1943 – he married Frances Dean of Birmingham, Alabama. They are the parents of three daughters and two sons: Barbara (Viar); Beverly (McNeil); Frances (Kansteiner); William Houston, Jr.; and David.) Houston Blount later (in 1959) continued his education at Harvard in the Advanced Management Program.

After discharge from the service, he began his corporate career as a partner in Blount Brothers Corporation based in Montgomery, Alabama (now Blount, Inc., of which he is still a director). Between 1946 and 1957, he was President and Director of Southeastern Sand & Gravel Company of Tallassee, Alabama, and Vice President of Southern Cen-Vi-Ro Pipe Corporation of Birmingham.

In 1957, he began his thirty-five-year association with Vulcan Materials Company, as the President of the Concrete Pipe Division. His astute business and leadership skills led to a rapid rise up the corporate ladder. Within two years he had been named Corporate Vice President, Marketing, and a Director and then to Executive Vice President, Construction Materials Group, a member of the Executive Committee, and a Director.

By 1977, he had become President and Chief Executive Officer of Vulcan Materials Company, as well as a member of the Executive and Finance Committees and a Director. By 1983, he had become Chairman of the Board, retaining his positions as CEO, member of the Executive and Finance Committee, and Director. In 1992, he became Chairman of the Board Emeritus.

Throughout his rise up the corporate ladder, Houston Blount fostered growth in Vulcan Materials Company. The company today is the largest producer of construction aggregates in the United States (crushed stone and a diversified line of aggregates and construction materials necessary for highways, public works projects, housing offices, and stores). The company is also recognized as one of the nation’s leading producers of basic industrial chemicals.

Vulcan’s customers are now served by 129 stone quarries, three chemical plants, and approximately 127 other production and distribution facilities. The construction materials and chemical “Segments also operate advanced research and development laboratories in Birmingham, Alabama, and in Wichita, Kansas. After Houston Blount became Chairman of the Board Emeritus in 1992, the current Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Vulcan Materials stated in the company’s annual report that Houston Blount’s “contributions to the Board during the years he served as a member and his leadership as Chairman have had, and will continue to have, a significant impact on the company. He was instrumental in attracting to the Board highly competent and respected leaders from industry, academia, and the public sector.”

Houston Blount has also fostered the development of the community and state by his contributions of time, support, and expertise to many of the facets vital to the welfare of citizens.

For example, he still serves on the Board of Directors of the: Alabama School of Arts Foundation; Birmingham Area Council, the Boy Scouts of America; Birmingham Football Foundation; Eye Foundation Hospital; University of Alabama Health Services Foundation; and the Friends of Psychiatry, the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He serves on the Board of Trustees of Birmingham Museum of Art, and he is a member and past Chairman of the Board of Birmingham-Southern College. He is co-chairman of the Birmingham Plan, a corporate and civic project to increase participation by women and minorities in the city’s economic development.

He is also chairman of the Management Improvement Program initiated by Alabama’s governor. In 1987, he was appointed Chairman of the Alabama State Docks Advisory Committee and, in 1989, a member of the Advisory Committee for Mental Health and Mental Retardation. In 1991, he was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the Alabama Heritage Trust Fund.

In addition to serving on boards of organizations vital to the well-being of a well­ rounded community, Houston Blount has been active in fund-raising efforts for these essential components.

For example, he has been a catalyst in fund­ raising for the American Cancer Society; the Baptist Medical Center; the Arthritis Foundation; the Children’s Hospital; the Heart Hospital; the March of Dimes; and the United Way.

He has also helped raise funds for the Alabama Association of Independent Colleges and Universities; Birmingham-Southern College; and the University of the South. He has been active in fund drives for the Birmingham Area Alliance of Business (TOPS Program); for Junior Achievement; Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs; Boy Scouts of America; Cahaba Scout Council; YMCA; and the National Council of Christians and Jews. He received the Silver Beaver and the Silver Antelope awards from the Boy Scouts of America.

He is a member of Canterbury United Methodist Church in Mountain Brook and serves on its Administrative Board. He formerly served on Canterbury’s Board of Stewards and Finance Committee. He is a member of the Rotary Club and former chairman of its Membership Committee. He is a member and past chairman of the board of the Ethics Resource Center, Washington, D. C.

He serves on the Distribution Committee of the Greater Birmingham Foundation and on the Allocation Committee of the Hugh Kaul Foundation. He is also a member of the Finance Committee for the Robert E. Lee Memorial Association; and he and Mrs. Blount co-chair the Planning Committee for Stratford Hall, the ancestral home of the Lees of Virginia. He also serves on the board of the VF Corporation.

For his multi-faceted contributions, Houston Blount has been recognized by State and local groups. In 1981, he was elected to the Alabama Academy of Honor. He has been awarded two honorary Doctor of Laws degrees – by Birmingham-Southern College in 1983 and by the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1987.

In 1984, he was the recipient of the Greater Birmingham Community Service award.

In 1986, he was the recipient of two honors. The Alabama Chapter of the National Society of Fund-raising Executives named him co­ recipient of the 1986 Outstanding Philanthropist Award. And the Oxmoor Chapter of the American Business Women’s Association chose him as Employer of the Year.

In April 1993, he received the Entrepreneurial Award at the third College of Commerce and Business Administration Alumni Reunion and Awards Banquet at the Capstone, his alma mater. He was cited for the use of his expertise in the development of a thriving business.

Houston Blount has retired from his corporate life but not from his active participation in the many facets of community life. He continues to serve.

Harry B. Brock, Jr.

  • October 26th, 2021

On March 2, 1964, when Harry B. Brock, Jr. and a group of his friends opened the first new bank in Birmingham in 18 years, no none could have predicted that this small beginning would change the structure of banking in Alabama and lay the foundation for Birmingham to become a major regional banking center.

The new bank was an instant success in making a profit the first year. Harry Brock has said that this early success of Central stemmed from the fact that he is as much a salesman as a banker. The bank’s motto was, “Ask for business.” Everybody at Central – from directors to employees – sold the bank and its services.

This “unabashed salesman,” as he has been called, spearheaded the multibank holding company concept in Alabama. In 1968, Harry Brock announced that he and a group of investors consisting almost entirely of his board of directors had gained voting control of the State National Bank of Alabama … the only bank in Alabama that enjoyed the right to operate branches out­side its home county … and planned to merge it into Central.

Almost all the banks in Alabama, including the ones in Birmingham, tried to stop the merger while the Alabama Bankers Association filed a bill in the legislature that would not only prevent merger across county lines but would prevent the creation of multibank holding companies.

Harry Brock worked almost singlehandedly to kill the bankers’ bill. His determination and perseverance prevailed and the bill that might have bankrupted him and fossilized banking in Alabama failed to come out of the banking committee of either house.

While Harry Brock battled in the courts and in the legislature, some of the plaintiffs began to form a holding company of their own. Brock’s vision for banking change in Alabama and his dream for Central came true, but another holding company was the first in Alabama by three months.

Harry Brock was instrumental in the passage of the statewide Bank Merger Bill in 1980, and in 1981 was finally able to merge his banks into one bank with branches throughout the state.

In 1987, Central Bancshares of the South became the first bank in Alabama to own a bank in another state and the first out-of-state bank to own a bank in Texas. Brock named the Texas operation Compass Bancshares of Texas. Today, the assets of the Compass Banks in Texas compose almost 25 percent of Central Bancshares’ assets.

Harry Brock retired as an active officer of the Central Bank family in 1991, on his 65th birthday. He remains on the boards of the bank and holding company and holds the honorary title of Founder Chairman. At the time of his retirement, Central Bancshares ranked 98th in assets, 60th in profits, and 19th in return on equity among the top 500 banks in the United States. During his last ten years as Chairman and CEO, his stockholders enjoyed a total rate of return of 1,281 percent, the highest of any major bank holding company in the Southeast.

Harry B. Brock, Jr. was born in Fort Payne, Alabama, on March 31, 1926 – the son of Harry Blackwell and Cornelia Macfarlane Brock. The family moved to Gadsden, Alabama when he was very young. In 1944, he graduated from Tennessee Military Institute and joined the U.S. Navy. He volunteered for submarine duty and served on three submarines.

Harry Brock graduated from The University of Alabama in 1949 with a B. S. degree in Commerce and Business Administration. He returned to Gadsden where he worked in the family oil business and as a car salesman. (That same year he married Jane Hollock of Birmingham and they have three children, Stanley M. (Skip), Barrett (Mrs. Richard M. Mackay) and Harry, III (Buck), and six grandchildren.) In 1953, he took a job with Socony Vacuum Oil Company in Rochester, New York.

In 1955, he accepted a job with Exchange Security Bank in Birmingham to organize its first business development department. He was Executive Vice President when he left in 1964 to become co-founder of Central Bank and Trust Company.

Harry Brock has long been a leader in the banking industry. In 1957 – only two years after entering the banking profession – he was the first recipient of the Alabama Outstanding Young Banker Award presented by the Alabama Bankers Association.

In 1973, when the legislature adjourned without passing the budget, he prevented a complete shutdown of state government by offering state employees interest-free loans to equal their salaries until the legislature could reconvene and restore financial order. All but three state employees accepted the offer.

In addition to his leadership role in banking, Brock has given unstintingly of his time, expertise, and financial resources to help make Birmingham, Jefferson County, and the State of Alabama a better place in which to live and work.

He has been a trustee of Samford University for 30 years and served four terms as Chairman. He is currently Chairman of Samford’s Sesquicentennial Campaign with a goal of $80 million. He is a Past President of the Kiwanis Club of Birmingham and founded the Kiwanis Foundation during his term. As a certified instructor in the Dale Carnegie course for eight years, he helped hundreds of Alabamians achieve their personal goals. He is President of the Daniel Foundation of Alabama and the Brock Foundation. He is a trustee of Southern Research Institute, a member of the President’s Cabinet at The University of Alabama, and served as Chairman of the Challenge fund Division of the University’s Sesquicentennial Capital Campaign in 1980. The division exceeded its goal by 25 percent.

He was a member of the Young President’s Organization, an international group of business leaders who become President of their companies before the age of 40. He later served as President of the Chief Executives Organization, the YPO leadership graduate organization.

He was a charter member of the Metropolitan Development Board and served two terms as its President. He was also a member of Operation New Birmingham whose main purpose was to provide an avenue of communication between black and white communities and to improve race relations. He has served as Metro Chairman of the National Alliance of Businessmen, established by President Nixon to help find jobs for the hardcore unemployed and unemployed Veterans. He has served as President of the Diabetes Trust Fund and of the Governor’s Cost Control Survey. He served as co-chair of the Business Division of the Governor’s Task Force on Tax Reform.

Harry Brock has also given his time as a director or trustee of such worthy undertakings as Junior Achievement (serving on its National Board), the Jefferson County Community Chest, the Anti-Tuberculosis Association, the Jefferson County Society for Crippled Children, and the Supporters of the Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB. He has, and continues to be, supportive of and involved in United Appeal; and has been active in many worthy projects of the Chamber of Commerce (including the development of the Civic Center).

For his professional and civic leadership as well as his many contributions to his community, Harry Brock was elected to the Alabama Academy of Honor in 1983. He is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American History, and the Marquise Who’s Who in America.

According to a colleague, Harry Brock exhibits qualities that standard biographical data do not necessarily reflect. He has always been a fierce and formidable competitor who does not shrink from controversy. (Harry Brock’s leadership at Central Bank of the South and his involvement in the restructuring of banking in the state would support this assessment.) “He has been a leader and a motivator, and people have followed him because they wanted to,” said his colleague, and Harry Brock is “altogether larger than life.”

Emory O. Cunningham

  • October 26th, 2021

It has been said that Emory O. Cunningham, Chairman Emeritus of Southern Progress Corporation, is as Southern as his magazines. That is, he built a publishing dynasty from a small farm journal by blending gentlemanly ways with business acumen and Alabama charm with long-range planning. Certainly, he has long been an exponent of what is good about his beloved region, and the Southern Progress Corporation publications have reflected his attitude.

The youngest of six children, Emory Cunningham was born March 17, 1921, in Kansas, Alabama (Walker County). His father, Emory, farmed and mined coal at a time when farming was difficult and incomes low. His mother, Belle (Kelley) Cunningham was a well­known teacher in Walker County. After graduating from Carbon Hill High School in 1938, the young man entered Gulf Coast Junior College in Perkinston, Mississippi, on a football scholarship and had a distinguished junior college career. Following military service as a navy pilot in the South Pacific during World War II, he entered Auburn University and earned a B.S. in Agriculture in 1948.

He then joined the Progressive Farmer Company in Birmingham. Following a brief orientation program in Birmingham, he was assigned to the company’s Chicago office where he established several company records in advertising sales. In March 1956, he returned to the home office in Birmingham and was by 1960 promoted to Marketing Director.

In 1964, he made the very first presentation to the Progressive Farmer Company Board of Directors on the merits of the company’s establishing a magazine for Southerners. A little more than a year later, the firm launched Southern Living, and it was to become a phenomenon in the magazine publishing industry – becoming the largest and most successful regional magazine in the world.

Emory Cunningham became company president in 1968 and chairman of the board in 1984. Under his leadership the Progressive Farmer Company changed to Southern Progress Corporation which began to publish Creative Ideas for Living, Cooking Light, Oxmoor House Books, and Southern Accents.

In 1985, Time Inc. bought Southern Progress Corp. for $480 million. Emory Cunningham (then Chairman and CEO of Southern Progress) said that the firm’s 200-odd shareholders, mostly descendants of four founding families, sold their interests for estate-tax purposes.

He also said, ‘We are very pleased to be a part of Time, Inc., a company known for excellence in publishing. Combining the know-how and resources of these two companies should work to the benefit of both.”

Southern Progress Corp. continued to operate as a stand-alone unit. The management team remained in place, and his successor came from Southern Progress, not Time. The company continues to grow.

Through the years, Emory Cunningham’s belief in the South has led him to support educational endeavors in Alabama; to support community activities; and to support growth in Alabama’s economy.

He has served his alma mater (Auburn) as a member of the Board of Trustees and has established an Eminent Scholar Chair of Environmental Science there. He is a member of the President’s Cabinet at The University of Alabama and of the Advisory Board of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He has contributed his time and expertise as a guest lecturer at various universities, including the Capstone, UAB, Rice University, and the University of Georgia. He has been a Director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi and a trustee of the Alabama Association of Independent Colleges.

He and Southern Progress Corporation have made generous gifts for the development of education at UAB, such as the Alabama Heart Hospital, the Writer-in-Residence Program, and an endowment for the Preventive Dentistry Programs of the School of Dentistry.

In the community and state, Emory Cunningham has served numerous groups in a variety of capacities. For example, he has served on the Advisory Boards of the Salvation Army and the Boy Scouts of America. He has been a director of the Birmingham Kiwanis Club, the Birmingham Area Chamber of Commerce, the UAB Health Services Foundation, the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, and the Alabama 4-H Club Foundation. He has served on the boards of the Birmingham Museum of Art, the Birmingham Symphony, and the Alabama Heart Association.

Having been raised on a farm, Emory Cunningham has always been involved in helping the development of agriculture in the South, through his publications and personal involvement.

For example, in his editorials, he encouraged farmers to diversify, and he urged Congress to continue funding agricultural research which had eradicated problems and thus made productivity better and saved money. He even appeared before a Congressional Committee to plead the case for continuing funding. He has also led agricultural leaders of the South on a study – visits to dozens of foreign countries – from Europe to Asia to Africa.

To Emory Cunningham, nature is more than something to get out and frolic in – it provides solace to the soul. Thus, trees, land, flowers, etc. should be cherished and treated with respect. Such beliefs in the efficacy of preserving the environment led him to demand that the Southern Progress Corp. headquarters, built in 1973, disturb the landscape as little as possible. The resulting structure later earned awards for the design and preservation of the natural landscape.

Through the years, Emory Cunningham has received numerous accolades for his varied contributions and accomplishments. Professionally, he has been named, for example, as Man of the Year in Southern Advertising by the Birmingham Advertising Club and also as Magazine Publisher of the Year by the Magazine Publishers Association, New York City. He has been the recipient of the Communicator of the Year Award from the Sales and Marketing Executives International and the Alabama Free Enterprise Award from the National Farm-City Week Committee. He has been named the Man of the Year in Service to Alabama Agriculture by the Birmingham Area Chamber of Commerce.

He has been awarded honorary doctorate degrees from his alma mater (Auburn University) and from The University of Alabama. He has also been named to the Agricultural Hall of Fame at Auburn and to the Alabama Academy of Honor.

Neither awards nor profits have ever been of special interest to Emory Cunningham. He has been driven by a lifelong ambition to help improve the quality of life in Alabama and the South.

Emory Cunningham is married to former Jeanne Loftis. They have four children: James Emory, David Lee, Sara Jeanne Bright, and Mary Lou Beck.

John Murdock Harbert, III

  • October 26th, 2021

John M. Harbert, III (Chairman of the Board of the Birmingham-based Harbert Construction Corporation) has been called a maverick – a gambler intent on defying odds, trusting in his innate abilities and the benevolent smile of Lady Luck. Many would describe him as a true entrepreneur.

Through astute management and creative financing, he developed a one-man construction company into a diversified corporation that has had as many as 5,000 work crews on four continents and that has earned a reputation for making a valuable contribution to every community it has been part of.

John Murdoch Harbert, III, was born in Greenville, Mississippi, on July 19, 1921 – the son of Mae (Schooling) and John Murdoch Harbert (Jr.). Even as a youngster, John Harbert was one who “walked to the beat of his own drummer.” His only major accomplishment during his teenage years was earning the rank of Eagle Scout.

When he graduated from high school in Gulfport, Mississippi, in 1939, he had no idea what he wanted to make his life’s work. When he entered Alabama Polytechnic Institute (Auburn University), he chose engineering as a major because a friend had done so. His record at Auburn was not a distinguished one. In fact, at one point, the dean of the engineering school told him he would never make it as an engineer. Five hours away from earning a degree in civil engineering, John Harbert was called to active duty during World War II. His unwillingness to conform kept him a buck private; but perhaps it was that same resoluteness that kept him alive in the bitter months of combat, including the Battle of the Bulge.

After discharge, he returned to Auburn and completed his degree in civil engineering in 1946. Then, with the money he had won shooting dice on the troopship home, he started his one-man construction company. Using army surplus equipment and employing unskilled workers, he with his crew built a bridge in rural Alabama. John Harbert paid himself only enough money to cover his room and board. He had one all-purpose truck which he drove to and from work. When he was able to afford a second truck and realized he could not drive both trucks, he has since said that he learned a basic principle of management – delegate responsibility to responsible people.

This one-man construction company soon began to attract other young engineers who were willing to take a risk on him and on themselves. Together they embarked on a path with many ups and downs, a stop sign here and there, and more than one dead end – which they simply plowed through.

Harbert Construction Co. built bridges, highways, dams, and reservoirs. When competition became too keen in the Southeast, the company ventured into other markets often under circumstances that more rational contractors refused to tackle. In Central and South America, Harbert crews laid pipelines and constructed sewer and water systems to improve living conditions in underdeveloped countries. Projects in other parts of the U.S. and the world were subsequently undertaken. The company has since built, for example, an airbase in the Negev Desert; several power plants across the United States; a desalinization plant in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

In an effort to generate a steady cash flow, John Harbert led his company into various business ventures – ranging from producing limestone to developing one of the nation’s largest coal mining operations (with a “mountaintop removal method” since adopted as the industry standard). Real estate development and security services have also flourished under the Harbert umbrella over the years. In Birmingham, Harbert built the Red Mountain Expressway and Riverchase, a 3000-acre planned community that is a model for functional, attractive land use in a natural setting, the Riverchase Galleria, and the AmSouth/Harbert Plaza.

Through the years, Harbert Construction has executed every job – large or small – with quality workmanship and attention to the public convenience. Harbert Corporation – once the largest privately-owned company in Alabama – has in the last few years been “downsizing” (either closing or selling a number of its divisions). However, the company still has at least three major areas: Harbert Cogen, which has investments in alternative electrical generation facilities; Harbert Realty Services, which owns and manages various commercial properties; and Harbert Machine Co., Inc., a steel fabricator.

Perhaps because of his early training in the Boy Scouts, John Harbert has made sure that community involvement is a key component in his and his company’s life. He has contributed his time, funds, and leadership to numerous community organizations and activities including the Birmingham Museum of Art; the Eye Foundation Hospital; Junior Achievement of Alabama; and the Birmingham Council of the Boy Scouts of America. He has also served on the boards of various state and national corporations. To every meeting of every board on which he has served (whether that of a not­ for-profit or a for-profit organization) John Harbert has brought his engineer’s logic, vision, and decisiveness.

John Harbert has been especially generous of his time and support to educational endeavors, having served as a guest lecturer on several college campuses and on the Board of Trustees of Birmingham-Southern College; the American University in Cairo, Egypt; and the Alabama School of Fine Arts. He has donated funds for the construction of the John M. Harbert Engineering Center at Auburn University; the Marguerite Jones Harbert Building at Birmingham-Southern College; and has established and financed the Harbert Writing Center at the University of Montevallo, which has become a model for college composition labs.

The awards that John Harbert has received attest to the myriad contributions he has made over the years. He has been named Man of the Year (or its equivalent) by such diverse groups as Birmingham Women’s Committee of 100, the Alabama Society of Fund-Raising Executives, Alabama Lions Club, Alabama Marketing Association, American Society of Landscape Architects, and the National Management Association.

He holds honorary doctorate degrees from the University of Montevallo, Auburn University, Birmingham-Southern College, and Cumberland College (in Kentucky). He was among the first inductees into the Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame and was the 1981 Auburn Outstanding Engineering Alumnus. He has been inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor and been presented the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award by the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America. Just this year he was presented the Non-Member Outstanding Achievement in Construction Award by the Moles, an international association of leaders in the construction and engineering industry.

John Harbert is married to the former Marguerite “Wita” Jones. They have three children: John M. IV, Raymond, and Margie.

The story of the life of John M. Harbert, III, is a story of individual ingenuity in the American system of free enterprise. While building a company, he has been a useful, responsible, honorable, and compassionate citizen. He serves as a model for future generations of entrepreneurs to emulate.

Thomas E. Rast

  • October 26th, 2021

Thomas E. (Tom) Rast – Chairman Emeritus of Johnson-Rast & Hays Co. of Birmingham – has said that he is an ordinary man who has had extraordinary things happen to him. However, his extraordinary success in real estate – as well as his extraordinary service to the community and to higher education – belie this modest self-description.

Tom Rast was born in Holt, Alabama, on February 28, 1920, to Sarah A. (nee Blake) and Lucian Holt Rast. He attended Barrett Elementary School and Woodlawn High School in Birmingham (where the family had moved in the early 1920s) before he entered The University of Alabama.

At the University, Tom Rast was president of his fraternity; a member of the “A” Club and of Scabbard and Blade; and captain of the 1940 boxing team. He earned varsity letters in boxing and track. After graduating with a B.S. degree in Commerce and Business Administration in 1943, he entered the armed forces. He served in the Pacific Theater from 1944 to 1946 when he was discharged with the rank of Captain, Transportation Corps.

Returning to Birmingham, the 26-year-old veteran formed Birmingham Automatic Laundry, Inc., with his brother Holt and James Dickson. He found running three launderettes unsatisfying. It could be said that Tom Rast’s career began in 1949 when he and his friend Abner Johnson each borrowed $1500 from Johnson’s mother-in-law and established Johnson-Rast Realty in Homewood. He found that he “loved to sell I liked to get people, sign them up and study their needs. It was very exciting – meeting the needs of people – and very fulfilling.”

The enthusiasm of Tom Rast and his partner soon generated the growth of the new firm. In 1955, Robert Hays joined Abner Johnson and Tom Rast to incorporate a separate insurance company – it was “a natural” for real estate people at that time because they could insure the houses they sold. The new company – Johnson-Rast & Hays – was a one-office business with about nine agents. Its major period of growth came in the 1970s and 1980s.

In the early 1970s, the company expanded into residential property development. (Before the development operation was phased out nearly a decade later, more than 1,000 acres and more than 2000 lots had been developed.) However, the company was “capital-poor.” Tom Rast and the president of Golden Enterprises “struck a deal.” The company became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Golden Enterprises; and Rast, a member of the Golden board of directors. But in 1975, he and Robert Reed (who had joined Johnson-Rast and Hays in 1972) bought back their real estate company.

Johnson-Rast & Hays then developed a ten-year plan for concentration in commercial development and property management, commercial brokerage and residential brokerage, and the phasing out of other aspects of the business.

Johnson-Rast & Hays has since expanded into the largest real estate firm in the state with 12 branch offices, 350 sales associates, and about 70 other employees.

The firm has been involved in just about every phase of real estate. Today, the company focuses on four main facets: residential, commercial sales, commercial leasing and management, and development and joint venture activities.

Tom Rast attributes the success of Johnson­ Rast & Hays to hard work and the quality of its people. As he has said, “Get the right people in. Do the right thing. Be fair and knowledgeable.”

He has also said that all at the firm have tried to be good citizens and ethical performers.

Through service, Tom Rast has certainly stood by his belief in good citizenship. For example, he has served in various capacities in community activities such as the Girls Club of Birmingham, the United Way, the Birmingham Association of Homebuilders, the Birmingham Board of Realtors, the Diabetes Trust Foundation, the Columbia Theological Seminary, and the Monday Morning Quarterback Club. His current community activities include, among others, serving on the boards of the Crippled Children’s Foundation, the Alabama Motorists Association, the Southern Research Institute, and the Executive Service Corps of Birmingham.

Tom Rast has also been a champion of higher education. The University of Alabama and subsequently The University of Alabama System have been a major focus of Tom Rast and his wife Minnie Hayes Rast since they met at the Capstone. (They were married in 1944 and have three daughters: Martha R. Debuys, Nan R. Arendall, and Jane R. Arendall, and seven grandchildren – 6 boys, 1 girl.)

At the Capstone, he was a charter member of the Commerce Executives Society (an organization of alumni and friends of the College of Commerce and Business Administration pledged to support better education for business). He has served and is still serving, as a member of the President’s Cabinet.

He is now also serving as National Chairman of the Campaign for Alabama – a multi-million-dollar campaign that reached the halfway mark in less than a year. About this most recent service, Tom Rast has said that he has never been a part of anything like the Campaign for Alabama because it is the most professional and most complete campaign he has ever encountered. From his point of view, he says that it has to be because “I think each of us recognizes that Alabama’s first University deserves only our best efforts.”

Through the years, he has also been actively involved in the growth of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He is a founding member of the UAB President’s Council (established in 1979) of which he is still a member. He also serves on the Board of Directors of UAB’s Medical and Educational Foundation, and both he and Johnson­ Rast & Hays, Co. have given generously to special projects and programs. In recognition of the Rast’s continuing support of UAB, the most recent residence hall was named Rast Hall in ceremonies on June 25, 1993.

In 1979, Tom Rast was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama System. During his 11-year tenure, he held several important committee posts. Among these were the chairmanship of the finance committee and the hospital committee. He retired from the board in 1990 and now serves as Trustee Emeritus. The appointment, he has said, was “the nicest thing that happened to me…I could feel and see what I was doing to help.”

Tom Rast has always had a desire to leave the world a better place – by doing good for humanity. For his efforts, he has been honored with many awards. Here are a few. In 1981, he was elected to honorary membership in the Rotary Club of Birmingham. In 1983, he was the first recipient of ‘The President’s Cup” awarded by the Birmingham Association of Realtors. In 1984, he was named alumnus of the year by The University of Alabama National Alumni Association. In 1986, he was elected to the Woodlawn High School Hall of Fame and the Alabama Academy of Honor. In 1989, at the first College of Commerce and Business Administration reunion and awards banquet at the Capstone, he was the recipient of the Award for Service to the Commerce Executives Society. In 1991, he received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Tom Rast has certainly served humanity and will leave the world a better place. He has given extraordinary service.

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