Induction Year: 2008

Aubrey Derrill Crowe

  • October 4th, 2021

For most of Dr. Crowe’s medical career, he was engaged in balancing a successful medical practice with building one of the largest medical malpractice insurance companies in the United States.

As a practicing urologist, in 1976, Dr. Crowe was chosen by the State Medical Association to lead a group of physicians in the development of a plan to form a malpractice insurance company.  This became necessary when all but one of the major national insurance companies left almost all Alabama physicians with the prospect of practicing medicine without liability insurance.

After unsuccessful attempts to find coverage with companies in the U.S. and Europe, Dr. Crowe and his colleagues formed the Mutual Assurance Society of Alabama (MASA) in 1976.  A key part of their strategy was the defense of every single case in which there was no negligence. At that time, the national trend was to settle most cases, and that had spawned a large number of frivolous malpractice suits, resulting in the unsafe depletion of the reserves of the companies that wrote this insurance.

Mutual Assurance was one of nearly 50 policyholder-founded companies to emerge from the turbulent liability climate in the U.S. in the seventies. They were derisively called “bedpan mutuals” by the traditional insurance industry experts who predicted that most of them would not survive (and this prediction proved true).

This was not the case for MASA, and by 1985, had paid off both its $5.5 million bank loan and the direct $2.5 million capital loans from physicians. At that time, the company had expanded through the provision of dental liability insurance and hospital liability insurance.  Under Dr. Crowe’s leadership, the company continued to prosper.

Mutual Assurance demutualized and began trading on the NASDAQ system in September 1991.  Policyholders received stock valued at $10.00 per share and the company’s market capitalization was $69 million.  In 1993, Dr. Crowe retired from the active practice of medicine to devote all his time and energy to leading the company.  In 1994, Mutual Assurance began to move outside Alabama and acquired insurance companies and books of business in West Virginia, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri while once more changing the name of the company to MAIC Holdings.  By 1996, MAIC Holdings moved to the New York Stock Exchange with a market capitalization of $129 million.  Expansion continued throughout the Southeast and Midwest.

In 2001, its merger with Professional Group, a Michigan-based insurer of similar size, was completed.  The merger resulted in the creation of ProAssurance, a New York Stock Exchange company with a market capitalization of $450 million.  The combined company is the product of 13 separate M & A transactions and employs almost 600 people.

Today, ProAssurance is the 4th largest medical malpractice company in the United States and its market capitalization is approaching $2 billion.  Over the past 30 years since its founding, the written premium has grown from $8 million to approximately $550 million in 2007.  The company insures more than 30,000 physicians with more than 35,000 policies in force, including most physicians in private practice in the state of Alabama.

The leadership and determination of Derrill Crowe led a dedicated group of employees who adopted his vision, and in three decades, turned a single-state insurance company into a market leader that has delivered financial security and lasting value to its policyholders, shareholders, and employees.

In the 1980s, Dr. Crowe was also a leader in two revolutionary advances in Alabama healthcare.  He was instrumental in developing the first free-standing, physician-owned outpatient surgery center in Alabama (now known as the Outpatient Care Center); and he initiated outpatient treatment of kidney stones by Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy.  This treatment alternative was established in a manner that minimized the cost of care while making it readily available within a cooperative physician network throughout Alabama.

Dr. Crowe is a native of Troy, Alabama, and did undergraduate work at Howard College (now known as Samford University) in Birmingham.  He completed his graduate medical education at the University of Alabama Medical College in 1962.  Dr. Crowe completed his internship in 1963 and a surgical residency in 1964, both at Lloyd Noland Hospital in Birmingham.  He underwent residency training in Urology at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, which he completed in 1967.  Dr. Crowe is also a 1990 graduate of the prestigious Owner/President Management Program at Harvard University’s School of Business.

Throughout his 40-year career, Dr. Crowe has been active in organized medicine, serving his colleagues and The Medical Association of the State of Alabama in a variety of positions including their Board of Censors and the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners among others, he was also a member of the Jefferson County Medical Society.  In early 1985, he was asked to serve as the chairman of the Alabama Certificate of Need Board.

Dr. Crowe sits on the Board of Advisors at his collegiate alma mater, Samford University, and was the commencement speaker for Samford’s 1996 graduation at which time he also received his undergraduate degree.

Dr. Crowe was honored by the Birmingham News as “CEO of the Year” for 2004 for his role in establishing ProAssurance as a leader in Alabama and the nation.  One of the judges said of him, “Derrill has line up ProAssurance against all the competition, and they have the best balance sheet, the best management, and the best reserve situation.”  In March 2008, Dr. Crowe was elected to the Alabama Healthcare Hall of Fame, which honored him for his work in medicine and at ProAssurance.

Nimrod T. Frazer, Sr.

  • October 4th, 2021

Mr. Frazer was born on December 10, 1929, in Montgomery, AL where he resides today.  He received his undergraduate degree from Huntingdon College in Montgomery in 1954 and his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1956.  Mr. Frazer was a Lieutenant and Tank Platoon Leader in the Korean conflict where he received the Silver Star for Gallantry in Action.

The majority of Mr. Frazer’s business career has been spent in the financial services industry.  He was a broker for Sterne, Agee & Leach, executive vice president at Thornton, Farish & Gaunt, and co-founder and chairman of Frazer Lanier Company (dealer in both corporate and municipal securities).

In 1990, shortly before its bankruptcy, Mr. Frazer was elected to the Board of The Enstar Group, Inc.  He later accepted the chairman’s role and resigned from Frazer Lanier.  The company was in dire straits with the bankruptcy as well as former executives under indictment and massive debt.  Mr. Frazer took on the challenge.  He divested assets, collected judgments from executives, and paid down debt.  He transformed the company into a holding company of financial assets, primarily insurance and reinsurance companies.  Enstar’s market capitalization is over $1.5 billion.

Mr. Frazer has been active in numerous civic and charitable organizations such as chairman of the Montgomery Chamber of Commerce, member of Leadership Alabama, trustee of Huntingdon College, president of Lurleen B.Wallace Cancer Foundation, director of Alabama Mental Health Association, and many others.

Mr. Frazer and his wife, Lee, have been married for 51 years and have five children in addition to nine grandchildren.

James R. Hudson, Jr.

  • October 4th, 2021

Mr. Hudson is founder, president, and chief executive officer of Research Genetics, Inc. He is also the founder of the Hudson-Alpha Institute.

Mr. Hudson grew up in Huntsville and graduated from Huntsville High in 1960.  Prior to beginning his professional career, Hudson served as an officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from 1967 to 1970.  During his tour of duty in Vietnam, Hudson flew many missions over North Vietnam.  Hudson’s actions during one of these missions resulted in him being awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the highest honor awarded to a military aviator.

He received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from The University of Alabama as well as a master’s degree in biology from UAH.

Mr. Hudson’s business acumen was nurtured by his father.  The senior Hudson, together with sons, Jim and Gary, operated Hudson Metals which was an aluminum and gray iron foundry in Huntsville.  Jim helped elevated Hudson Metals to the most productive small foundry in the Southeast before it was sold in 1982.

Having sold Hudson Metal in 1987 and, while earning a master’s degree in biology at UAH, Mr. Hudson founded Research Genetics with an initial investment of $25,000.  While conducting research that required a piece of synthetic DNA, Hudson was appalled when he learned it would take up to four weeks to receive his order.  It took only four hours to produce DNA but his order was in line behind many others that were to be produced by a single machine.  “In that instant, I knew exactly what my business model would be.  I was going to have enough machines that I was going to ship tomorrow everything ordered today.”

Launching from that initial business model, Research Genetics became a biotech business icon.  Through thoughtful balance and key relationships with leading academic researchers, Hudson grew the world’s leader in genetic linkage products.  Research Genetics was a chief partner in the Human Genome Project, the international effort coordinated by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health, to identify the sequence of the DNA found inside human cells.

Mr. Hudson served as chief executive of Research Genetics until 2000 when he sold the company to Invitrogen in a deal valued at more than $130 million.

“Having the capital (from Research Genetics) opened a lot of doors to help biotech gain a foothold in Huntsville,” he noted.  Mr. Hudson has advised and incubated six successful biotech companies.  He is co-founder and served as the first president of the Biotechnology Association of Alabama.

In addition to his business career, Mr. Hudson has initiated a number of projects to revitalize Huntsville’s downtown area and make it enticing to young professionals.  His vision and passion toward ensuring its vibrancy have resulted in new arts venues, restaurants, and a greatly enhanced after-hours scene.

Today, Mr. Hudson is the founder and president of the Hudson-Alpha Institute for Biotechnology, a non-profit research institute that emphasizes high-throughput research tools and thrives on collaboration and cooperation of researchers in academia, industry, and government.  This not-for-profit institute uses biotechnology to improve human health, stimulate economic development, and inspire the next generation of scientists.  In a very real sense, the institute continues the work Mr. Hudson started at Research Genetics. The mission at Research Genetics was to find the latest cutting-edge tools that would accelerate research and make the findings of that research available to the rest of the world in an expedient and cost-effective manner.

With a $50 million commitment from the state, Mr. Hudson spear-headed a campaign to raise $80 million in private donations that together will create 900 direct new jobs.  Mr. Hudson’s initiative is positioning Alabama to become a worldwide leader in biotech research and one of the premier places in the nation for these high-paying jobs that can’t be exported overseas.  Governor Bob Riley has predicted that within ten years employment at the Cummings Research Park Biotech Campus (of which Hudson-Alpha Institute is the cornerstone) at close to 1,600 with a combined annual payroll of more than $83 million.

The Hudson-Alpha Institute’s new four-story, 270,000 square-foot facility, which opened in November of 2007, will initially provide accommodation for nine for-profit biotech companies, as well as institute researchers and administration.  The facility contains state-of-the-art laboratories for biotechnology research and development in the areas of genetics and personalized medicine.

Governor Bob Riley described Jim Hudson best at the announcement ceremony for the Hudson-Alpha Institute, when he said, “There’s always a driving force, one person….who has the perseverance to take a vision and turn it into a reality. You’re blessed, ladies and gentlemen, to have a person like that in your midst today.  I want to thank Jim Hudson for never backing down.”

Benjamin Russell

  • October 4th, 2021

Benjamin Russell was born in Alexander City, Alabama on January 18, 1938. After graduation from The University of Alabama, he began his career at Russell Corporation, a textile and apparel company founded by his grandfather in 1902. In 1970, Russell was named president of Russell Lands, Inc., a private land and timber company owned by the Russell family.

Russell Lands owns more than 25,000 acres and over 200 miles of shoreline on beautiful Lake Martin, one of the oldest, largest, and cleanest man-made lakes in the South. Over the past 35 years, Russell Lands has developed several, upscale waterfront residential communities adjacent to Lake Martin. Starting in 1970 with just 15 employees whose primary concerns were lake cabin maintenance and timber management, Russell Lands has grown into a multi-faceted business with over 500 employees and multiple operating divisions in several Alabama counties. Recent developments at Lake Martin have attracted purchasers from as far away as California. The quality of Russell Lands’ developments is undoubtedly one reason for consistent Lake Martin property value increases over the past 35 years. Russell Lands handles sales of these properties through a subsidiary brokerage firm, Russell Lands Real Estate, Inc. In addition to its real estate development activities, Russell Lands leases more than 300 “Russell Cabins” on the shores of Lake Martin. Wonderful family memories for generations of Alabamians have been created in these cabins.

Russell Lands also owns Willow Point Golf and Country Club, one of the top golf courses in the State of Alabama. A golf course renovation completed in 2003 has resulted in an exceptional test of golf, as evidenced by the hosting of the 2008 Alabama State Seniors Championship and the 2008 Alabama State Amateur Championship.

Other Russell Lands business interests are as varied as those created by Ben’s grandfather near the turn of the 20thcentury. The Russell Marine division operates four sales and full-service marinas on Lake Martin. Russell Marine was recently recognized by Boating Industry Magazine as the number nine ranked boat dealer in the world. The Company also owns and operates nine building supply stores affiliated with Do-it Best Corporation. Do-it Best Corporation, a $4 billion cooperative with over 4,000 members, recognized Russell Lands and its 4th largest customer in 2007.

Identifying a need for alternative fuel in the ’70s, Russell formed ECON Company to promote the use of wood energy in industry. Since that time, ECON’s work has led to the use of over 5 million tons of waste wood to replace 250 million gallons of fuel oil. ECON has also led the way in the research and development of a practical wood gasification power system for vehicles. An outgrowth of its alternative energy focus resulted in the expansion of ECON’s business to include landscaping products from waste wood.

Russell’s charitable efforts have been as extensive as his business interests. In 1987, he founded and still chairs the first-ever statewide fundraising campaign for CARE, the world’s largest private relief and development agency. The campaign, CARE Alabama, has raised more than $9 million for CARE. In 1989, Russell founded and chairs Children’s Harbor, a not-for-profit childcare organization whose mission is, “Strengthening children and families.” The Children’s Harbor campus is located 15 miles south of Alexander City on the shores of Lake Martin, amid New England-style camping facilities. After a successful fundraising campaign, the campus has undergone an $8 million expansion to serve an even greater number of children and their families. Ben also made a significant financial commitment to Children’s Hospital in Birmingham, resulting in the construction of the Children’s Harbor wing, which houses the Children’s Harbor Family Center, an innovative child, and family care center. This collaborative effort with the hospital provides counseling to chronically ill children and their families.

Located adjacent to Children’s Harbor, is the Russell Lands/Lake Martin Amphitheater.

In addition to being the home of the annual Russell Lands fireworks display (one of the largest in the Southeast), the amphitheater has become a favorite destination for many talented performers. Recent performances have ranged from symphonic, bluegrass, and country to more modern forms of jazz and rock, and include names such as The Alabama Symphony, Rhonda Vincent, The Derek Trucks Band, and Sister Hazel.

Ben’s interests also extend to historical preservation and enjoyment of natural resources. On a portion of Ben’s property near Alexander City, he discovered the ruins of an ancient grist mill. He is currently restoring the grist mill to its former glory and has installed a 35-foot water wheel, one of the nation’s largest. Current plans for the site include a metal forging shop and several other period buildings, all of which rely solely on water power, wood, or gas for power.

James T. Stephens

  • October 4th, 2021

Mr. Stephens was born in Birmingham, AL on April 14, 1939, and son of Elton B. and Alys R. Stephens.  He attended Birmingham public schools before attending Yale University (A.B. in history – 1961) and receiving his M.B.A. degree in 1964 from Harvard.

He served in the United States Army as a lieutenant and he was airborne qualified.  His career with EBSCO began in 1965 at an early age.  He was named president and chief executive officer of EBSCO at the age of 30.  This was a major decision for his father to make but clearly speaks of his confidence in Jim’s leadership abilities.  In business matters, Jim’s mental and physical energy are constantly apparent to those who work with him.  EBSCO is a complex business organization with a very diverse mix of companies.  Mr. Stephens is engaged in all of them as if each is his only concern.

Currently, Mr. Stephens is Chairman of the Board of EBSCO Industries, Inc.  He served as president from October 30, 1970, through June 30, 2005, through the company’s major growth to its status as a worldwide company of over 5,000 employees at 36 locations in 20 countries.  EBSCO is a widely diversified sales/marketing and manufacturing company operating worldwide with 105 profit/service centers, and with sales of over $2,100,000,000.  It is the largest privately-owned company in Alabama and one of the top 200 privately-owned companies in the United States.  EBSCO has subsidiaries located around the world.

His civic involvement includes numerous positions with the Boy Scouts of America Central Alabama Council.  He is a strong believer in education which is evidenced by his civic involvement in so many different schools.  He was past president of the Board of Trustees of the Highlands School, past president of the Board of Trustees of Altamont School, a member of the Board of Trustees since 1989 of Birmingham-Southern College as well as chairman of the Board for 2005-2006.  He is on the finance committee for the University of Alabama Health Services Foundation and chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Alabama Symphony Endowment Board.  The University of Alabama College of Communication and Information Sciences inducted him into their Hall of Fame in 2003.

Mr. Stephens is philanthropically involved in the Elton Bryson Stephens Science Laboratory Center at Birmingham-Southern College, the Alys Robinson Stephens Performing Arts Center at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, the Alabama Symphonic Association, and the Boy Scouts of America.  He is a member of the United Way’s Alexis de Tocqueville Society.  He chaired successful campaigns for the University of Alabama’s School of Information Sciences in the 1990s.  He also chaired a successful campaign for the Boy Scout’s Character for Central Alabama Council.  The University of Alabama was privileged to have Mr. Stephens as the keynote speaker for the May 12, 2007 commencement ceremonies.  (nominated by Ehney A. Camp III in 2007)

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