Induction Year: 1995

John H. Dove

  • October 25th, 2021

Both smiled when they spoke of him. When John H. “Red” Dove left this life in February 1994, what remained behind him was a legacy of love. John Hal “Red” Dove was born to John and Vera Stallings Dove on October 7, 1909, in the little sawmill town of Shubuta, Mississippi. The story of his rise to the top of the transportation business is one that began when he was a young man. In his own words, told Alabama Trucker magazine in 1983, “We would take all the logs too large to handle through my father’s sawmills to the railroad siding and ship them to bigger mills in bigger towns. That was the 1920s. At that time, I hauled forest products with teams of mules and oxen. Then in 1926-27, we started using Model T Ford trucks to haul the lumber and logs too big for our mills.”

In 1931, Red, 24, and his bride Sybil Bentley moved to California to seek relief from the Great Depression. When the automobile plant where he was working shut down, the Doves headed back South penniless – and with 6-month-old son Earl. By 1932 Red Dove’s father had settled in Dothan, Alabama, so Red moved his family there and began hauling pulpwood and produce, forming his own company, Dove Truck Lines. With the advent of motor carrier regulation in 1935, he hauled produce and other commodities until forced by ill-health to sell out. When his health returned, Red formed his second company, John H. Dove Transportation, which hauled livestock, produce, and other commodities between points in Alabama and Florida. He later merged this operation into D&D Transportation Company, Incorporated, which was based in Dothan. The company established branch offices in Atlanta, Andalusia, and Mobile, and specialized in less-than-truckload shipments.

He sold his interest in D&D in 1950. In 1955, he purchased two small Alabama trucking companies and combined them to form AAA Motor Lines, Incorporated, based in Dothan. In 1969, the rapidly growing company bought the Brewton-based firm of Cooper to Transfer, Incorporated. AAA Cooper Transportation was formed to operate both companies. When sons Earl and Mack came home from college with degrees in transportation, as the story goes, Red calculated that they probably knew more about how to take the family business into the future than he did, so he sold his interest in the company to the two young men.

That is the chronological history. It is the man who lived it that makes the story unique. Red Dove is considered a pioneer in motor freight transportation in the state of Alabama. When he began his career, the highways of the South were mostly mud or sand. In fact, he helped pave U.S. Highway 80 between Selma, Alabama, and Meridian, Mississippi. Bridges in those days were rare to non-existent – even over the Mississippi River. In the 1930s and early ’40s, trucking meant long, hard hours and small, under­ powered equipment on primitive, poorly­ marked roads. As late as 1945, the 200-mile haul from Birmingham to Dothan took eight hours, driving through the center of each of the cities and towns en route. Again, Red’s own words from 1983: “There’s no way for anybody to start like I did in ’31. It’s just too complicated with computers and everything else. You didn’t have anything then but a shoebox. You put what money you collected into it, and you paid for everything out of that box. Whenever the box was empty, you were broke.”

Red put in long hours on the road during the week and built flatbed trailers in his backyard on weekends. But he always took time for and enjoyed his growing family: wife Sybil, boys Earl and Mack, and daughter Faye.

Remembering Red, Alabama Trucking Association Director Jim Ritchie points to the H. Chester Webb Distinguished Service Award the man received from that organization, of which he was past president and chairman of the board. The Award, the highest presented by the body, recognizes distinguished service by an individual associated with the trucking industry in Alabama for his or her outstanding record of service to the industry, the Association, and to his community. Inscribed on the Award are the words of Sophocles: “This is man’s highest end/ To other’s service/ All his powers to bend.”

Alabama Senator Richard Shelby recognized that life of service in a tribute he paid to the late Red Dove on the floor of the United States Senate Tuesday, March 1, 1994. Entered into the Congressional Record, the testimony said: “He was a man of faith and family who exemplified the best of the American character in both enterprise and community service … he truly exemplified the American spirit of commerce, thrift, and hard work.”

Along with other members of the Alabama Trucking Association, Red was a charter sponsor of a Chair of Transportation in that organization’s name at The University of Alabama and was also honored in 1984 with the naming of The John H. Dove Chair of Transportation at the University of Tennessee. He served as a member of the Board of Directors and as Alabama vice president for American Trucking Associations, Incorporated, and was an active member of his home community of Dothan, serving as chairman of the board of the Salvation Army, as a member of the First Baptist Church of Dothan, the Dothan­ Houston Chamber of Commerce, the Masonic Lodge, and the Exchange Club.

John Hal “Red” Dove died February 7, 1994, survived by his wife, three children, eight grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren. There is a building on the grounds of AAA Cooper dedicated to the memory of its founder, inscribed: “As we carry on, may we continue with the vision and vigor that he represented.”

But it is, perhaps, the letter son Mack, now president and chief executive officer of what was once his father’s company, wrote to firm employees a month after Red’s death that best captures the essence of the life of the man.

“At the funeral, the preacher, who had known Pop a long time, said Pop brought ‘color and music’ to the life situations of those who knew him. He observed that Pop fit in and was an influence on all types and classes of people. To him, everyone was an individual and he had great respect for each individual. The calls and letters I have received certainly verify this observation.

“He was remembered by those who knew him a long time ago. A driver who worked with Pop at D&D Transportation in 1948 brought in a tattered picture of him and Pop taken in front of his truck. Mrs. Andrews, a former customer who ran a food warehouse in Dothan in the ’40s and ’50s, came to show her respect.

“Both smiled when they spoke of him.”

For family, friends, and the business community of the state of Alabama, memories of Red Dove – and the good times, as Mack put it so well – will surely last forever.

George A. Lemaistre

  • October 25th, 2021

One man: lawyer, banker, civic leader, teacher, friend. One man of courage. One man who mattered to us all. That was how The Tuscaloosa News described George Alexander LeMaistre in an editorial published the day before the former chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was laid to rest in September 1994.

George LeMaistre was born in Lockhart, Alabama, on September 8, 1911, to John Wesley and Edith McLeod LeMaistre, and came to live in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in 1930 with his widowed mother and four younger siblings. Although he had not completed his undergraduate study, the young man entered The University of Alabama School of Law that year, and upon his graduation in 1933, commenced his first profession, the practice of law, in Tuscaloosa. The following year he was joined in law practice by his close friend Marc Ray “Foots” Clement. The two would remain partners in law practice for the rest of George Faith LeMaistre’s career as an attorney, and the closest of friends, as well as partners in politics and various business ventures, until Foots Clement died in 1961.

In 1939 George began teaching, part-time, as an adjunct professor at the UA law school. He would continue teaching at the university, in the School of Law or College of Commerce and Business Administration, for 49 of the next 56 years. He was co-author, with Professor Garrett Hagan, of Real Estate Handbook: Land Laws of Alabama, and author of Legal Aspects of Real Estate Transactions.

Throughout his life, George LeMaistre demonstrated a deep devotion to both his country and his God. In 1941 he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and served through 1945 as a lieutenant commander in Naval Intelligence, participating in the Normandy invasion and the invasion of southern France. It was during his military service that, on July 17, 1943, he was married to Virginia Mosby, a graduate of the University who was then working in the Washington, D.C., office of Alabama U.S. Senator Lister Hill. After the war ended, George returned to Tuscaloosa and resumed the practice of law as a founder of the firm LeMaistre & Clement, which became LeMaistre, Clement & Gewin in 1951 after Walter P. Gewin, later appointed a federal appellate judge, joined the firm.

An active member of the Democratic Party, George LeMaistre worked in the campaigns of Senators Lister Hill and John Sparkman, as well as campaigns of many other state and local political figures. He took active roles in the Alabama presidential campaigns of John F. Kennedy in 1960 and Lyndon Baines Johnson in 1964. In 1968, he was asked by New York Senator Robert Kennedy to serve as Alabama coordinator for that senator’s presidential campaign, a position which he enthusiastically accepted.

A Life Elder of the First Presbyterian Church of Tuscaloosa, for more than 50 years he taught Sunday School there, the men’s Bible Class, every week. The Rev. Charles Durham, a pastor of First Presbyterian, recalled that George LeMaistre’s Sunday School class was well attended by people interested in his biblical teaching as well as his insights into the world of national and international events. “The man is known for his incredible, brilliant mind, and for his just overwhelming wisdom, yet he’s a very quiet and true gentleman in every sense of the word,” said the Rev. Durham. “He could have wielded all sorts of power but did not.”

What he did do was turn his attention and efforts to further the cause of human relations, and was particularly proud, friends recalled, of his work with the National Conference of Christians and Jews – he was a member of its Board of Trustees and National Board of Governors from 1967 through 1978 – and of the Brotherhood Award he received from that organization in 1983. Former Tuscaloosa City Council President Bill Lanford recalled: “He was a true Southern gentleman above everything else. I never heard him get angry or raise his voice. He was always very deliberate in his decisions and his mannerisms, and he was a people person.”

George LeMaistre also devoted much of his life to the business and civic affairs of his community. In 1960, he embarked upon his second profession, giving up the practice of law to accept the position of president and chief executive officer of the City National Bank of Tuscaloosa.

It was during his tenure at City National Bank that the state of Alabama experienced the turmoil of the Civil Rights era, and it was George LeMaistre’s actions during this time that won him national acclaim. An article in the Thursday, November 24, 1962, New York Times, reporting the infamous pledge of Governor-elect George C. Wallace to defy federal authorities on the issue of desegregation, also contained the following account:

On the same day, George LeMaistre, president of the City National Bank of Tuscaloosa, warned the local Civitan Club of the economic penalties of racial violence. He then urged that they accept the Supreme Court as the final interpreter of the Constitution.

Mr. LeMaistre stated that no state official had the right to put himself above the law and that includes a Governor or a Governor-elect. “What happened in Mississippi does not have

to happen again – it would be tragic to think we learned nothing from the first incident,” he said.

The Tuscaloosa News reported that the bank president received a standing ovation.

In 1970, George LeMaistre was named president of the Alabama Bankers Association. In 1972 and 1973, he served for the American Bankers Association as vice chairman of its government relations council. It was his dedication to, and knowledge of, the second profession that caused President Richard M. Nixon to appoint him to the position of director of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), a seat that, by law, was to be held by a Demo­ crat. In 1977, following the election of Jimmy Carter as president, the Board of Directors of the FDIC elected George LeMaistre chairman of the corporation, and he served in that capacity for fourteen months. In 1978 he returned to teaching at the University as holder of the Alabama Bankers Education Foundation Chair of Banking in the College of Commerce and Business Administration, and as professor of law.

During George LeMaistre’s tenure as chairman, the FDIC proposed that state-chartered banks be permitted to offer interest-bearing checking accounts and allow customers to transfer funds automatically from savings to checking accounts, a controversial proposal at the time. He was also opposed to allowing banks to charge for such transfers, or to requiring customers to forfeit any interest accrued in a savings account.

Closer to home, he is remembered as the first chairman of the board of directors of Druid City Hospital, now known as DCH Healthcare Authority, and for leading the fund drive to move the hospital from the Northing­ ton campus to its current location. A life-long proponent of public education, he firmly believed in the unique benefits society can realize by ensuring that its citizens are pro­ vided with opportunities for quality education. In addition to the nearly half-century that he was engaged in teaching at The University of Alabama, he served as a member and as chairman of the Stillman College Board of Trustees; member and chairman of the Helena, Alabama, Indian Springs School Board of Governors; trustee of the Southwestern Graduate School of Banking at Southern Methodist University; first president of the Alabama Coalition for Better Education; member of the board of Alabama Educational Television; and as a member of The President’s Cabinet of The University of Alabama.

George LeMaistre is remembered by his colleagues in the banking and legal profess­ ions, his friends at the University, his neighbors in Tuscaloosa, and his colleagues in worship at the First Presbyterian Church as an individual of uncommon warmth, intelligence, judgment, and humor. He is survived by his wife of 51 years, Virginia Mosby LeMaistre; three children, Virginia L. Jones (Mrs. A.A. Jones, Jr.) of Decatur, Alabama, Ms. Alice LeMaistre of Bethesda, Maryland, and George Alexander LeMaistre, Jr., of Fairhope, Alabama; two brothers, Sam A. LeMaistre of Eufaula, Alabama, and Dr. Charles A. LeMaistre of Houston, Texas; seven grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

John R. Miller, Jr.

  • October 25th, 2021

Like his father and grandfather before him, John R. Miller, Jr. will be a part of the T.R. Miller Mill Company until he dies.

And like his father and grandfather before him, John R. Miller, Jr., now serving as director and chairman of the board of the company where he has been employed for fifty years, believes with all his heart that the continued success is due to the vision his family shares for its future.

Born May 8, 1920, to John R. and Lucille McGowin Miller, John is a native of Brewton, Alabama, where he received his early education before attending Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana, from 1934-1938. Upon graduation from that institution, he then attended the University of Virginia and The University of Alabama, leaving his academic career to answer the call to service for his country. John served as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force, 8th Air Force, in the European Theatre of Operations in World War II, receiving the decorations of Air Medal, E.T.O. Medal, and a Presidential Citation, and was honorably discharged with the rank of major.

It was during his time in the service that he married Virginia Kersh of Monroe, Louisiana, with whom he would later have four children: Nancy M. Melton, J. Richard Miller III, David Earl Miller, and Jean M. Stimpson. Remembering his childhood, Richard Miller said his memories of his father will always be inextricably linked with fishing and fun, and with the image of a man who encouraged his children to follow their own paths. “He always did and continues to encourage us to pursue our dreams without constraints,” said Richard.

Upon returning to Brewton after his discharge from the service, John was formally employed by T.R. Miller Mill Company, where he worked at various positions in the manufacturing division before being elected a director in 1946. He served as vice president and director from 1947-1967, then assumed the presidency, which he held through 1986 when he was then named chairman.

Over the years, the Miller family’s vision for its business has played out into a solid reality. When John’s grandfather, Thomas R. Miller, purchased a small, water-driven mill along Cedar Creek in 1872, he in all likelihood did not envision its growth into a firm that is one of the largest timberland owners and diversified wood products operations in the South. In his day, the waters of Cedar Creek transported logs to the mill from the vast virgin forest nearby and turned the mill as well. Later those same waters transported the timber to Pensacola, Florida, for export. John Miller explained that with the expansion of lumber markets, T.R. Miller later decided to relocate the mill to the town of Brewton, where it was converted to a steam-powered operation in 1892. The new mill, built along the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, enabled T.R. Miller’s new· company to ship its products by rail as well as water.

“Timber has been good to us for many years,” said John. “Actually, I’m not the first Miller to say that. My father used to remind each of us that if the company was to survive and grow, we must constantly be aware of the land – and of what it can provide sensing that diversification was the way to go, John’s father was instrumental in the company establishing veneer mills, a wire-bound box plant, and a treating operation. Through the years, John has been involved in helping to establish any number of companies, from vineyards in California, television and cellular phone companies across the United States, and commercial and residential real estate, to name but a few. These operations are a bit more sophisticated and far-flung than they were in the days when Thomas R. Miller laid down his hoe and swore he’d never chop another row of cotton again, thus beginning a new era in his family’s history.

“My first thought when you mention my father’s approach to business is that Daddy always approached everything – business or anything else – from a totally honest standpoint,” Richard said. ”Whatever he was involved in, it had to be good for both parties. Integrity is the word that comes to mind. He is probably the nicest guy I’ve ever known – that’s not to say he’s soft in approach – he’s just basically a good people person.

“He can reach compromises when there are none to be had.”

And it was that combination of people skills, business acumen, and integrity that made John Miller and his company major players in the discovery and subsequent drilling of Jay Oil Field along with the Escambia County, Alabama-Florida line – a find that meant the discovery of the largest finding of oil in the lower forty-eight states in the last fifty years. That ability to facilitate a compromise also led in 1968 to a deal that John Miller will always consider one of the highlights of his more than half-century-long business career, said Richard. For it was that year that Container Corporation of America had acquired a more than 51 percent share of T.R. Miller Mill Company – an acquisition that would have meant the end of three generations of family ownership of the forest products industrial site. However, prior to the sale being finalized, John convinced Container’s chairman to allow the family to buy enough of the offered stock so that the Millers could retain controlling interest.

“That deal in 1968 allowed the families to remain in control of what has been an asset for our family now into the fourth generation,” Richard said with pride. The original owners were able to purchase the remaining stock held outside the company in 1989.

And as John Miller has served as the third-generation patriarch for his family and business, he has also not neglected his commitment to his church, his community, or his state. He and his wife, Virginia, showed their firm commitment to the future of Alabama’s forestland and its wood products industry in the early 1990s when they made a gift of prime timberland to Mobile College. The proceeds from the sale of the property were directed to the college’s Forest Resources Learning Center, a joint initiative of the Alabama Forest Resources Center and Mobile College.

“The center is a worthwhile project,” said John Miller, whose company received the coveted Forest Conservationist of the Year Award from the Board of Directors of the Alabama Wildlife Federation in 1995. “I believe that the continued success of the industry depends on a better understanding of environmental stewardship and good land practices.” He emphasized that this will only happen if the next generation understands the importance of forestry issues.

Thanks to John R. Miller, Jr., the next generation has a better chance.

William M. Spencer, III

  • October 25th, 2021

Born to Margaret Woodward Evins Spencer and William M. Spencer, Jr., December 10, 1920, in Birmingham, Alabama, Bill Spencer spent his early childhood there, moving with his family to Demopolis during the Great Depression. “My father … took over the running of my grandfather’s plantation since my grandfather had been incapacitated by a stroke,” he wrote of the move. Young Bill began his high school education in the river town, moving to Chattanooga, Tennessee, to study at Baylor School, where he graduated with honors in mathematics. Next was college at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, where he distinguished himself as a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Omicron Delta Kappa, and Blue Key, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry (optime means) in 1941. He was named a distinguished alumnus of that institution in 1984.

While plans were for Bill to attend the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, a call to perform service for his country intervened after one year, and he joined the United States Marine Corps on April 1, 1942. Upon completion of training at Quantico, Virginia, he was awarded a regular commission in the Corps and assigned there as an instructor. He then applied for overseas duty and was assigned to the Second Marine Division, which he joined in New Zealand in 1943 and remained with until after the end of World War II.

Again, Bill Spencer’s words: “During my service with the Second Division, I was on five landings, starting with Tarawa, where I served as an artillery forward observer and a naval gunfire spotter. We were in Saipan, Tinian, Okinawa, and Iheya Shima – an island north of Okinawa – and finally Nagasaki. We were the first troops to land there after the atom bomb was dropped.”

Discharged a captain with a Bronze Star, Bill Spencer brought his college and combat education home to Alabama, a man changed by what he had seen in the Central Pacific Theatre – and a man with a firm determination to succeed in business.

In 1946 he and an assistant purchased Owen-Richards company, then a small operation with sales of about $500,000. Under his leadership, the firm would grow to be a much larger company by the name of Motion Industries, Incorporated, with multiple branches spread across the United States. Bill Spencer was elected president of the company in 1952 and chairman in 1973. Along the way, he also attended the Graduate School of Business Administration of Harvard University and oversaw a successful initial public offering of Motion Industries in 1972. Later in his tenure, Motion was merged into Genuine Parts Company, an Atlanta, Georgia-based company traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The merger was considered particularly noteworthy for its tax-free status.

After retirement from Motion, Bill Spencer joined with others to form a new company, Molecular Engineering Associates, the aim of which was to commercialize some of the outstanding research work being done at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He also served as chairman of this com­pany. Then, in 1986, along with Dr. John Montgomery of Southern Research Institute and Dr. Charles E. Bugg, director of the Center for Macromolecular Crystallography at UAB, he formed BioCryst Limited to make drugs by a novel method known as structure-based rational drug design. In 1994 this successful business venture by Bill Spencer had its initial public offering and is now traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange.

Along with a successful personal business career, the gentleman has also directed his business acumen and expertise to the benefit of other organizations over the years by serving as a member of the Board of Directors of Alabama Great Southern Railroad, AmSouth Bank NA, BE&K Incorporated, Health Services Foundation, Mead Corporation, Robertson Banking Company, Genuine Parts Company and Southern Research Institute. He is a current member of the BE&K, Incorporated, Emeritus Board, and the Emeritus Board of Genuine Parts Company, along with serving as an active member of the Board of Directors of Altec Industries, Incorporated; BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Incorporated; Molecular Engineering Associates, Incorporated; Secretech, Incorporated; and Southern Research Technologies.

A member of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, he is currently a trustee for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Robert Meyer Foundation, and the UAB Research Foundation. These current service efforts come as the latest chapters in a long history of such service: in the past, he has served as president of the Alabama Safety Council, the Birmingham Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Birmingham Festival of Arts; as the chairman of the Baptist Medical Center Fundraising Drive and St. Vincent’s Hospital Foundation; as president and chairman of Baptist Hospitals Foundation of Birmingham, Incorporated; and as co­chairman of the Birmingham Symphony Fund and the United Appeal Drive. He has also served on the Board of Visitors for The University of Alabama College of Commerce and Business Administration and as a member of the UAB President’s Council. Bill also founded the Spencer Chair of Medical Leadership and the Evalina B. Spencer Chair of Oncology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Continuing the tradition of commitment to and leadership of the Birmingham Museum of Art begun by his father in 1959, Bill Spencer served as chairman of the Museum Board from 1986 to 1994, leading the Museum’s successful transition from an outstanding regional museum to an institution that is now enjoying national attention. His leadership was a key to the success of the $20 million campaign to renovate and expand the Museum, trans­forming it into the extraordinary new museum – with sculpture garden – that exists today.

Bill Spencer has served as president of The Club, The Downtown Club when it was operational, and The Mountain Brook Club. He was chosen as Outstanding Alabama Philanthropist in 1989 by the Alabama Chapter of the National Society of Fundraising Executives and named Citizen of the Year in 1992 by the Women’s Committee of 100.

Bill enjoys spending many of his so-called retirement days at Waldwick, the plantation home of his youth, in Gallion, Alabama. Architectural historians consider the home one of Alabama’s finest examples of Gothic Revival architecture.

The Alabama business community con­siders William M. Spencer, III, one of the finest examples of a life led in pursuit of business excellence, and in service to his community

Louis J. Willie, Jr.

  • October 25th, 2021

True, some Alabamians will always – and only – remember the son of Louis J. Willie, Sr., and Carrie Sykes Willie because he broke the color barrier at one of Alabama’s most exclusive golfing establishments, Shoal Creek, in 1990, thereby helping to avert major financial losses for the PGA and the club. And, helping to avert what to this native of Fort Worth, Texas, would have been the worst nightmare of them all – in his own words, “resurrecting the reputation of Birmingham as a racist city.”

But there are many, many others who when asked to talk of Louis Willie, will point to the more basic, day-to-day reality of his life – that he helped build and lead Booker T. Washington Insurance Company to its present-day ranking as one of the leading minority enterprises in the United States.

Born August 22, 1923, young Louis was raised by parents who instilled in each of their five children the value of an education, and the belief that if a job were worth doing, it was worth doing one’s best at that job. After graduating from Lincoln High School in Dallas, Texas, in 1939, Louis went on to pursue his bachelor’s degree in economics at Wiley College in Texas, receiving that in 1943. He then volunteered for military service during World War II, serving in the European Theatre as a sergeant in the Signal Corps until the war ended in 1945. At that point, Louis then pursued and received his Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Michigan in 1947. He took his college education to Nashville, Tennessee, to what was then Tennessee State College to serve as an instructor in that school’s business division from 1947-1950, leaving his post to become the office manager from 1950-1952 for McKissack Brothers, Incorporated, a Nashville based general contractor. It was during this time that he married spouse Yvonne Kirkpatrick, a Pembroke, Bermuda, native who is now a naturalized U.S. citizen. The two have been married for 45 years, as Louis is fond of telling people. He is also proud of the rest of his immediate family – son Louis III, his wife Mary, and grandson Louis IV.

It was in 1952 that Louis Jr. came to Birmingham, Alabama, and entered what was to be another key relationship in his life.

Louis Willie has recalled his first meeting with the founder of Booker T. Washington Insurance, Dr. A.G. Gaston, many times. Although Dr. Gaston had heard of the youthful Louis and was impressed, he was concerned about the businessman’s young age. “I balled up my fist, banged on his desk and said, ‘Nobody ever hired Louis Willie and regretted it.’”

Louis Willie got the job – and turned it into a career.

He served as controller of the company, founded in 1923 to sell burial insurance to African Americans, from 1952-1962, then assuming the position of executive vice president and holding it until he was named president, chairman of the board, and chief executive officer in 1987. He held the top office until his retirement in 1994 at the age of 71. Along the way he continued with his education, never forgetting his parents’ advice, and received the designation of Chartered Life Underwriter from the American College of Life Underwriters in 1973.

Also, along the way, the company grew – and saw other changes. In 1987 Dr. Gaston formed an Employee Stock Ownership Plan and sold the company to his employees. Today, the company has assets of approximately $50 million and is owned by its employees and employees of subsidiaries, including the A.G. Gaston Construction Company, Zion Memorial Gardens, Incorporated, and the Booker T. Washington Broadcasting Service, Incorporated, which owns WENN and WAGG radio.

And Louis Willie realized some other goals, as well. He remembers telling people that when he graduated from the University of Michigan, he knew he wanted to sit on the board of directors of a company whose stock was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. His corporate board membership roster now lists more than just one such company’s board. A comprehensive review reveals Alabama Power Company, 1984-1994; AmSouth Bank NA, 1977-1983; and the Southern Company, 1991-1994. He has also served on the boards of Citizens Federal Savings Bank, 1957-1987; the Episcopal Church Pension Fund of New York City, New York, 1973-1985; and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Birmingham Branch, 1979-1984 (including a term as president, 1981).

But work and professional affiliations have not kept Louis Willie from fulfilling what he considers his moral and spiritual obligations. An active and devout Episcopalian since moving to Birmingham, he has served in various capacities for St. Mark’s and St. Andrew’s churches, has an impressive record as a member of several diocesan committees in Alabama, and is now a member of the Cathedral Church of the Advent.

A life member of the NAACP and former member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated, he has served on the Board of Directors of the Birmingham Museum of Arts, the Board of Trustees of the Alabama Symphony, the Board of Directors of the Birmingham Area Chamber of Commerce, the United Way of Central Alabama (serving as general campaign co-chair in 1977), as a member of the Mayor’s Advisory Committee, on the President’s Council of the University of Alabama at Birmingham and as a member of the University of Alabama System Board of Trustees. In a position that was awarded because of a nomination by former Alabama Governor George C. Wallace, Louis has also served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Oil and Gas Lease Trust Fund of the State of Alabama from 1985 to the present.

While his membership in Shoal Creek may be the most publicized of Louis J. Willie, Jr.’s, breaking down of traditional color barriers, it was not the first. He became a member of The Club and the former Downtown Club. He is also a member of The Summit Club but will point with more pride to his work with Re-Entry Ministries, or to the Brotherhood Award he received in 1985 from the National Conference of Christians and Jews. Named Greater Birmingham Manager of the Year in 1991, he has also received the 1993 Greater Birmingham Area Community Service Award. He maintains his memberships in the American College of Life Underwriters and the Birmingham chapter of that organization and is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Alabama Association of Life Insurance Companies. He received honorary Doctor of Laws degrees from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1990 and Birmingham Southern College in 1992.

With a legacy of leadership, foresight, business acumen, and community service to his name, Louis J. Willie, Jr. sums up his views on life much better than anyone could do for him.

“As I see it, every day is a day of prayer,” he said. “And there is a lot of good going on in our world today. If someone else wants to be pessimistic, I say OK, that’s fine. But I’m going to find something to smile about. I think that’s important.”

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