Industry: Construction

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.

William D. Harrigan, Jr.

  • October 26th, 2021

William D. (Billy) Harrigan, Jr., built Scotch Lumber Company into the third-largest employer in Clarke County and one of Alabama’s leading lumber producers.

The Fulton, Alabama native graduated from Barton Academy in Mobile and earned an LL.B. degree from Georgetown University Law School. He joined the company in 1931, a year after the mill had been destroyed by fire. He oversaw the rebuilding of the mill and under his leadership, Scotch pioneered several types of state-of-the-art logging equipment that improved the productivity of the operation. He made sure the company followed modern timber management and wildlife preservation practices and instituted myriad employee relations programs. He helped establish the Alabama Forestry Association, served as a director of the Southern Pine Association, and was a director of the National Forest Products Association. At one point, he held a controlling interest in the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas. He often helped patients who could not afford medical care and sponsored college education for several people who otherwise could not have afforded them. The Alabama Legislature on August 16, 1976, approved a memorial resolution mourning his death and citing him as an outstanding leader in his company and community.

Ray E. Loper

  • October 22nd, 2021

Friends say Ray Loper likes to refer to himself as an “old lumberjack.”

And while perhaps that phrase aptly depicts the gentleman’s career roots, it belies his tremendous ensuing success in the fields of the lumber industry and in philanthropy.

Ray E. Loper was born May 20, 1904, in Meehan Junction, Mississippi – in Scott County, near the more familiar and bigger city of Kosciusko. His parents were Robert Emmett Loper and Nora Bell McEwen; at age twenty Ray went to work checking log tallies for his father, then a logging superintendent for the W.P. Brown & Son Lumber Company in Zama, Mississippi. An article he wrote for the company newspaper, “Cutting the Cost,” indicates that even as a young payroll clerk Ray understood what it would take to get ahead in business. “The men who are handling lumber could save quite a bit if they would stop and pick up a board instead of running over it or lay it to one side of the tram till the pick-up crew could get around and get it,” he wrote. “It doesn’t matter if it is nothing but a 1 x 4 x 4 feet No. 3 with bark on one side. Save it! We can get something out of it.”

By the time that Zama plant closed, in 1932, young Ray was plant manager. As one of his last responsibilities in that position, he very profitably liquidated the Zama inventory and equipment, prompting company CEO James Graham Brown to ask him to become plant manager at a sawmill the corporation had just purchased in Falliston, Alabama.

After a few years there, in 1935 Ray Loper moved to Fayette, Alabama, headquarters for Mr. Brown’s southern operations, and assumed the responsibility of supervising the operations of all wood products plan, owned by Brown Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. A letter he wrote to a friend many years later captured his mood at the time: “I felt this was a tremendous responsibility at my age,” wrote. “I talked to my father and brother, Leo Loper, and expressed them how much of a responsibility I felt this was and asked them to look after getting the timber and lumber to the plants with as few mistakes as possible and I would do my best to look after plant production … It is my opinion that my brother and my father did a better job looking after their responsibilities than I did.”

His actions and subsequent progress, however, told a much different story. For nineteen years Ray would make Fayette his home base, traveling to various operations during the week and spending his weekends in the office with the ace books. By then some of the operations sites, including ones in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Fayette, bore his name. During this time he would purchase timber, mineral rights, and land until W.P. Brown & Son owned approximately 125,000 acres of timberland. In one of the areas where Ray Loper had made a substantial land purchase, Escambia County, Alabama, oil was discovered in 1951 – and the company profited with some twelve wells.

In 1954 Ray moved the base for southern operations to Bay Minette, Alabama where he had negotiated the purchase of a sawmill, pole peeling plant, and several large tracts of timber. Over the years he guided the Brown organization as it became a very important part of that small town and the area surrounding it, and in 1975 Ray Loper was honored as Man of the Year by the Bay Minette Chamber of Commerce.

In 1969, James Graham Brown passed away. His will left very specific instructions: The James Graham Brown Foundation would be incorporated as successor to all his holdings. And Ray E. Loper would be named president and chief executive officer of that $100 million charitable foundation. In addition to the prestigious Foundation positions, Ray was also named a trustee of that body, and selected to head the Brown operating companies, as well. It is worth noting that this concern at the time included the largest estate in Kentucky, lumber mills, three creosote traveling companies, the Mobile & Gulf Railroad (which served as a common courier), vast real estate holdings, oil wells, three hotels – one which was the famed Brown Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky – and 26,000 shares in Churchill Downs.

Ray Bobo, former vice president, and general manager of the operating companies of the J. Graham Brown Foundation remembers Ray Loper in his then-new position. “Mr. Loper continued to work tirelessly and was a pivotal leader for the company, demonstrating his skills in marketing and the sale of lumber, pressure-treated utility poles, and other southern pine products to many states in the South, East, Midwest and the northern United States, as well as exporting timber products to many foreign countries,” Mr. Bobo said. “He has a mastermind, yet maintained a genuine compassion for his employees.”

He also truly cared for and about his neighbors, as is evidenced by a story Dr. Thomas J. Davidson III of Gulf Shores, Alabama, tells. The physician was a young neighbor of Ray’s in Bay Minette in the 1970s, and the lumber executive found out the man was about to enter medical school with no financial assistance, something that would be difficult for his family. Ray Loper ensured that the Brown Foundation provided Dr. Davidson with support from 1977-1981 while he studied at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, asking in return only that the youth return to his Baldwin County home to set up shop.

“To me that says that Ray Loper, even with all of his business success, has never forgotten that the most important thing in life is how we touch those around us,” Dr. Davidson said. “He set quite an example for an impressionable young man.”

In his role as president and chief executive officer of the foundation, Ray Loper would also establish with others his well-deserved reputation as a wise and caring benefactor, along the way guiding the organization’s growth to some $200 million. Some of the organizations with which he has been personally associated over the years include the United Way, Special Olympics, the Jemison House Foundation and the Tuscaloosa Preservation Society, North Baldwin Hospital, and First United Methodist Church in Tuscaloosa. In 1988 The University of Alabama received $1 million from the James Graham Brown Foundation to establish the Ray E. Loper Endowed Chair of Geology to honor Mr. Loper as a leader in the forest products industry.

Ray Loper is in his 90s now but keeps a home and office in Bay Minette, and a home in Tuscaloosa, where he is well known because of his business and civic activities through the years – particularly his avid support of scholarships at The University of Alabama through his support of the football team. Until 1996 he also had an office in Louisville, Kentucky, which required his attention for bimonthly administrative meetings and duties. He is married to Mary Frances Bird and has three children, son Graham Brown Loper, who is now vice president of the James Graham Brown Foundation, and daughters Cynthia L. Kelly and Connie M. Chambers.

“He is a giant,” said Ray Bobo of his long­time friend and associate, “not only in his working career, but in his care for others and his genuine interest in the well-being of those he lived with, worked with, and enjoyed life with.”

Earl M. McGowin

  • October 20th, 2021

Earl McGowin decided early on in his career as an elected official not to play political games with the voters of Alabama.

“I went out to the people of Butler County with a number of disadvantages,” he recalled late in his life. “I was inexperienced, young, and I had a mustache.” That mustache, wrote Alabama journalist James Saxon Childers, told a story about McGowin that nothing else could tell so well.

When he was thinking of running for office, a friend told him to shave it off. Earl said, “It’s my mustache. It’s a part of me. If I should shave it off, I’d be doing a political trick and I’m damned if I’ll start by tricking them, by pretending something merely to get their votes. They’ll have to take me with my mustache and all my other detriments, or else they’ll have to leave me out.” They took him.

Earl Mason McGowin was born November 18, 1901, to James Greeley McGowin and Essie Stallworth McGowin in Brewton, Alabama. A product of the public schools of Chapman and Greenville, Alabama, he received a degree from The University of Alabama in 1921, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. Out of fourteen candidates from Alabama, he was elected a Rhodes Scholar and attended Pembroke College at Oxford University in England from 1922-1925. Earl’s zest for politics, friends said later, was kindled during that time. Again, words from journalist James Childers: “Earl would go to the House of Commons to listen to the debates … always it was government with McGowin. That was what he was studying at Oxford.” Although Earl returned home to the family business after his experience abroad, his ties with the British institution and the program remained strong. The well-stocked McGowin library at Pembroke College, donated by the family in 1974, is one of the prominent landmarks of the campus, and Earl served for many years as secretary of the Alabama Rhodes Scholarship selection committee.

In the book Earl McGowin of Alabama, the story is told of the young McGowin’s return to Chapman to work at W.T. Smith Lumber Company. He arrived from Europe Friday, September 1, 1925. His father greeted him with warmth, but also with the admonition: “I’ll expect you at work Monday morning. Remember, you’re on your own.” Earl quickly became immersed in and conversant with the administrative acts of sawmilling, learning of lumber and mills, ripsaws, and railroads. He and his brothers, as operators of one of the largest lumber companies in the South, were front-runners in putting into practice the concept of the sustained yield – the idea of treating trees as a crop and adhering strictly to selective cutting to extend the lifespan of a forest indefinitely.

And some of the Oxford-educated mill worker’s most lasting accomplishments were in the area of resource management and forest conservation. He spearheaded the passage of legislation outlawing the practice of burning millions of acres of woodlands for pasture (Alabama’s “stock law “); improving forest fire protection and control programs; and forming the Alabama Forest Products Association. In 1941 he was elected president of the Southern Pine Association – at forty, one of the youngest executive officers in the group’s history. He was also instrumental in Governor Chauncey Sparks’ selection at the end of World War II of Auburn University as the site of Alabama’s School of Forestry.

And although the family sold W.T. Smith Lumber and its some 197,000 acres of timberland for approximately $50 million at the height of the concern’s success in 1966, Earl would remain in the lumber business, becoming increasingly active in the fight for improved lumber standards and quality control with the Southern Pine Inspection Bureau, of which he had been chairman of the board since 1960. He was simultaneously engaged in other efforts to develop uniform American lumber standards as chairman of the American Lumber Standards Committee of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

But Earl McGowin was not known in the public service arena strictly for his work regarding forestry issues. The gentleman began his political career in 1930 as an elected member of the Alabama House of Representatives, and throughout his five-term career as a state legislator, displayed a stubborn integrity – perhaps best exemplified in his refusal to have any dealings with the then-powerful Ku Klux Klan, and in his efforts in the reform of state government while serving as Governor Frank M. Dixon’s House floor leader. In recognition of his contributions, he was voted “Legislator of the Year” in 1939 by the Alabama Press Association, and Dixon also appointed him as a member of the State Board of Education.

While Earl was making his mark on state history as a legislator, he also added some extremely significant chapters to his personal history. He married Miss Ellen Pratt December 29, 1937, and the couple would go on to have two children, daughter Florence McGowin Uhlhorn and son Earl Mason McGowin, Jr. And in 1942, much to the chagrin of those in Butler County who would have had him remain at home in charge of a lumber concern that was then playing a vital role in the war effort, he volunteered his services to the U.S. Navy, turning down an opportunity to serve as speaker of the House.

Earl was accepted by the Navy as a senior lieutenant, and after a few weeks was assigned to open a Navy lumber unit in Jacksonville, Florida. He eventually became chief of the Memphis and New Orleans offices of the Central Procuring Agency and Navy Lumber Coordinating Unit, jointly operated by the Army and Navy, and was also in charge of a unit at Shreveport. The Alabamian’s contributions to his country while on active duty did not go unnoticed; he received a citation for outstanding performance of duty during World War II from Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal.

In 1949, at the age of 48, Earl declined to run for a sixth term in office. That did not, however, end his career as a statesman. In 1950 he was appointed director of the Department of Conservation, and he served as director of the Alabama State Docks from 1959 to 1963. It was during this time that Ellen Pratt McGowin, who had been fighting a battle with cancer, passed away in 1962. Earl remarried July 28, 1964, taking Claudia Pipes Milling, widow of New Orleans attorney Robert E. Milling, as his bride.

As a member of the legislature, Earl McGowin had led extensive efforts to reform and enhance education in Alabama, and his interest in this area continued throughout his life. He served as president of the University of Alabama National Alumni Association from 1950-51, was an emeritus trustee of the Alabama Association of Independent Colleges, and in 1970 at the age of sixty-nine was named the first chairman of the newly formed Alabama Commission on Higher Education. In 1975 his former political foe, Governor George Wallace, inducted him into the State Academy of Honor for these and other accomplishments.

So much could be written to memorialize the life of Earl Mason McGowin, but perhaps his own words best capture the spirit of the man. “In retrospect,” he said in the mid-1980s, “I have enjoyed a full life.”

Earl McGowin died June 2, 1992, at his home in Chapman.

Henry C. Goodrich

  • October 11th, 2021

Henry C. Goodrich has had four careers.

The first was as an engineer, beginning with the U.S. Navy in the Civil Engineering Corps. He then joined Rust Engineering Company, where he worked in design, construction, and management. Then he became chairman and CEO of Inland Container Corporation in Indiana, and then it was back to Birmingham to head up Southern Natural Gas. He was one of the founders of BE&K, which is now one of the largest engineering firms in the country. And along the way, he created Richgood, a venture capital and investment company, and the Goodrich Foundation, his charitable giving foundation oriented primarily toward needs in the Birmingham area. And through it all, Henry C. Goodrich has had a good time.

Henry Calvin Goodrich was born in Fayetteville, Tennessee, in 1920, the son of Dr. Charles Goodrich and Maude Baxter Goodrich. He attended grade school and high school in Fayetteville and studied pre-med at Erskine College. But he decided engineering was more his line and in 1939, he enrolled at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

Two years later Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and the ensuing war was going badly for the United States and its allies. Students were under pressure to finish their studies and join the war effort, and that’s exactly what Goodrich did. A year after Pearl Harbor he finished at UT, where he was chosen for both business and engineering honor fraternities and selected as president of the student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He finished his studies in 1942 and received his Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering in 1943.

After graduation, Goodrich enlisted in the Navy (he was already in the Naval Reserve) and was sent to Camp Perry, Virginia, a training area for Seabees. As a student at UT, he had met his future wife, Billie Grace, and the couple began making plans to marry. The wedding took place in Milan, Tennessee, on September 10, 1943. There was a quick one-night honeymoon and the couple headed back to Camp Perry. There was a period of training in Norfolk, Virginia, then a transfer to Monogram Field near Suffolk, Virginia. Goodrich began making plans to head overseas and Billie Grace returned to UT to finish her degree. His overseas duty was in Panama, where he served as an assistant public works officer at the naval air station.

In 1945, with the war winding down, Goodrich began looking for post-war employment and received a job offer from Daniel Construction Company in Birmingham to work as a field engineer on a new building in Gadsden, a job that would separate him from his wife and new son for long periods. But as luck would have it, while in Birmingham, he also stopped in to visit Rust Engineering, which also offered him a job. He explained the situation to Hugh Daniel, who understood the predicament. Goodrich went to work for Rust as a draftsman/ designer. In 1950 Goodrich moved from the drafting table to the sales office and began finding clients for Rust. As Goodrich began to “network” around Birmingham, business leaders began to recognize his talents and more invitations came his way to join the Birmingham Rotary Club, to become a director at Woodward Iron Company, to be on the board at Protective Life. The man from Tennessee had taken hold in Alabama.

In his first five years in sales at Rust, he brought on 64 contracts for Rust, and in 1956 he was named a vice president of the firm. In 1961 he was made a senior vice president and a member of the Rust board of directors, responsible for the day-to-day operations of the company.

In 1967 Rust was sold to Litton Industries and Goodrich decided it was time to look for new challenges. He found them in the Hoosier State with Inland Container Corporation where he became executive vice president and director and moved his family to Indianapolis. One of his first moves at Inland was to build a new containerboard mill on the Tennessee River near ew Johnsonville, Tennessee, a state-of-the-art facility producing 300 tons per day of containerboard. The contract for the new plant went to Rust Engineering.

As he had in Birmingham, Goodrich sought out ways to serve Indianapolis as he had Birmingham, and he became active in several major civic activities. In 1969 he was elected president and chief executive officer of Inland. It was a busy time at Inland, but as always, Goodrich was never one to turn down an opportunity. So, when three old friends from Rust approached him to discuss starting an engineering firm, Goodrich listened. He agreed to help raise start-up money and in 1972, BE&K was born. In less than a year, the firm had landed a major contract and was on its way.

Inland continued to prosper and was on the Fortune 500 list. Goodrich was elected chairman of the board, and he began to spend more time at the family lake house on Lake Logan Martin near Birmingham and began to look for ways to make his exit from Inland. In 1978 Inland was acquired by Time, Inc. with Goodrich remaining in charge.

As Goodrich was relaxing at the Logan Martin Lakehouse, he received a call from John Shaw, president, and CEO of Southern Natural Resources, the huge Birmingham-based energy company on whose board Goodrich had served for seven years. At age 59, he was offered the job of president, and ultimately CEO, of Southern Natural Resources. Under Goodrich the company, renamed SONAT, set records for earnings, dividends increased and in 1981 Goodrich was named the top CEO in the gas pipelines industry.

In 1985 Goodrich retired from SONAT. Meanwhile, in Japan, the world’s largest enclosed semisubmersible offshore drilling rig was being constructed. And it was named the Henry Goodrich, for the chairman of SONAT Offshore (a SONAT subsidiary) and which was christened by Billie Grace Good rich.

Goodrich has held directorships in a host of companies, including SONAT, Inc., and subsidiaries; Time Incorporated, Ball Corporation, BE&K – Emeritus, Cousins Properties, Inc. – Emeritus, Temple-Inland Inc., Inland Steel, Indiana National Bank, Rust Engineering Company, and subsidiaries, Georgia-Kraft, Indiana Bell, BioCryst, Inc., Southern Research Technology, Protective Life Corporation, Woodward Iron Company, and Stokely-Van Camp.

His civic activities have included the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, the United Way of Birmingham, Community Chest of Indianapolis, Birmingham Council, Boy Scouts of America, Indian Springs School trustee, Salvation Army director, the University of Alabama at Birmingham President’s Council, director of Alabama Supercomputer Project, vice president and national trustee for the Birmingham Museum of Art and the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham.

He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and is registered as a professional engineer in 12 states. He is a member of the Newcomen Society and an emeritus member of the University of Tennessee Development Council, as well as a senior director for the UAB Research Foundation.

He received the Nathan W. Doughtery Award from the University of Tennessee College of Engineering and was Industry Man of the Year in Indianapolis in 1974. The following year he was named Papermaker of the Year by Pulp and Paper Magazine and received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Butler University. In 1978 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Business Administration degree from Marion College. Three years later, in 1981, he was chosen Best Chief Executive in Gas Industry. Two other honorary Doctor of Law degrees followed, from Birmingham-Southern College in 1985, and from UAB in 1986, the same year he was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor and selected as one of 12 Outstanding Scientists and Engineers from Tennessee. He received the Silver Beaver Award from the Boy Scouts of America in 1987 and was inducted into the Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame in 1991.

Bill L. Harbert

  • October 11th, 2021

Throw a dart at a map of the world and chances are you’ll hit a Bill Harbert construction project. Bill L. Harbert International Construction has been involved in projects ranging from renovating embassies in the Mideast to laying pipelines across South American rivers.

Bill LeBold Harbert, founder of Bill L. Harbert International Construction, based in Birmingham, was born in the Mississippi Delta in Indianola, Mississippi, on July 21, 1923, the son of John Murdoch Harbert and Mae Hamilton Schooling Harbert. His father was an engineer who moved his family to the Hollywood area of Birmingham in 1927, only to lose the home shortly thereafter in the Depression.

Harbert attended public schools in Birmingham, and eventually enrolled at Auburn University. World War II cut short his first trip to The Plains, however, and at age 20, in 1942, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Infantry, K Company. He served in Europe from 1943 until 1946 and earned a Bronze Star for heroic or meritorious service. When Harbert returned to Alabama, he re-enrolled at Auburn University, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering in 1948. A few years later, in 1966, he attended the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard University Graduate School of Business.

Bill Harbert got his start building swimming pools in Jasper. As a veteran, he was able to buy construction equipment at cheap prices and he obtained a contract to construct a series of swimming pools and other athletic facilities. And there was an added bonus. It was in Jasper that he met his wife, Joy Patrick, who died earlier this year. They were married in 1952 after seven years of dating. The couple has three children, Anne Harbert Moulton, Elizabeth

Harbert Cornay and Billy L. Harbert, Jr.

In 1949, he and his brother, John, formed Harbert Construction Corporation and Bill managed the company’s construction operations, both foreign and domestic. He served as executive vice president until 1979 and as president and chief executive officer of Harbert International, Inc., from 1979 until July 1990. He served as Vice Chairman of the Board from 1990 until December 1991, at which time he bought a majority of the international operations of Harbert International, Inc. He currently serves as chairman and CEO of Bill Harbert International Construction, Inc.

While the focus of Bill Harbert International Construction, Inc. is overseas work, the company has expanded in the past decade and is involved in several construction projects within the United States.

The overseas work has included such high-profile projects as a retail podium and parking structure for the Kuala Lumpur City Centre in Malaysia, the world’s tallest building, a $200 million-plus project. The firm has renovated embassies or consular offices in Hong Kong, New Delhi, Tanzania, and a number of former Soviet republics. The company has also been a leader in building and expanding water supply systems and water treatment systems in such countries as the Democratic Republic of Sudan, Puerto Rico, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Panama. Harbert has also been involved in renovating and building multinational force and observer camps in the Sinai and in airbase construction in the Negev Desert. Closer to home, Bill Harbert International Construction projects include the new Hoover High School under construction off Valleydale Road in Shelby County, several military projects in the Southeast, the Alabama Institute for Manufacturing Excellence at The University of Alabama, and condominiums along the Gulf Coast. Bill Harbert has also devoted much time and resources to his industry and his community. He will take over as president of the International PipeLine Contractors Association next year, having served as director for several years and as 2nd vice president. He also has served as president and director of the PipeLine Contractors Association, U.S.A. He has been a member of the Construction Indus­ try Presidents Forum since 1992 and a trustee and co-chairman of the Laborers’

National Pension Fund since 1968.

His affiliations with community organizations include director of the Birmingham Metropolitan Development Board; Newcomen Society of North America, Director, SouthTrust Corporation from 1979 until 1996, a director of the Birmingham Area Chamber of Commerce, a board member of the Health Services Foundation, and a board member at AMI Brookwood Medical Center. He attends Canterbury United Methodist Church and is a member of Vestavia Country Club (President, 1976) and Riverchase Country Club (President, 1980). He served as director for the Birmingham Ballet and was on the board of the YMCA. He has been a member of the Birmingham Kiwanis Club since 1980 and is a member of the Monday Morning Quarterback Club.

He is currently on the Supporters Board of the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center. He and his wife Joy recently made a $1 million gift to UAB to establish the Joy and Bill Harbert Endowed Chair in Cancer Genetics. Mrs. Harbert, who graduated from The University of Alabama, served on the UAB School of Nursing Board of Visitors. Harbert also created the Mae Schooling Harbert Fund for Residents in Training to honor his mother.

Bill Harbert has never been one to seek the limelight, but he has left his mark around the world, and he has distinguished himself in business and public service. His intelligence and compassion for others are well known from the deserts of the Mideast to the boardrooms of Birmingham.

Harbert maintains a very active role in his company and heads for the office each morning he is in Birmingham. He plays tennis every afternoon he is in town and likes to fish when the opportunity arises.

M. Miller Gorrie

  • October 5th, 2021

The “Can-Do” motto of the Sea bees best summarizes the philosophy of Miller Gorrie, who served for three years in the Civil Engineering Corps of the U.S. Navy after graduating from Auburn. Gorrie never forgot the positive Seabees attitude and made it one of the cornerstones of his life and his business.

Gorrie was born in Birmingham on October 20, 1935, to Magnus James “M.J.” and Margaret Miller Gorrie. His father’s family emigrated from Scotland to Montgomery soon after the Civil War. His mother was the daughter of Dr. Walter Taylor Miller, a DeKalb County physician. Miller Gorrie and his father, an electrical engineer, often spent time together, and when Gorrie was about 14, they decided to build a small cabin on the family farm near Trussville. This project ignited Miller’s interest in construction as a career.

Gorrie grew up in the suburbs of Birmingham until 1943 when IBM transferred his father to New York. After returning to Birmingham three years later, he attended Lakeview Grammar School and Ramsay High School and was graduated from Shades Valley High School in 1953. Starting with a paper route and later summer construction jobs, Gorrie began working and saving money, investing it all in IBM stock. Over the years this stock multiplied in value and became the nest egg that financed his business a decade later.

As a senior in high school, Gorrie was awarded an N.R.O.T.C. scholarship and he chose Auburn, enrolling in 1953 as a civil engineering student. He became a member and later president of the Sigma Nu fraternity. At Auburn, he met Frances Greene of Troy, and they were married following his graduation in 1957. Gorrie has often said that the best decision he ever made was to marry Frances.

After Gorrie was discharged from the navy in 1960, he returned home and began working with Daniel Construction Company as a quantity surveyor and entry-level estimator. Two years later, he joined Rust Engineering but was not challenged by taking preliminary drawings and making cost estimates for the design department. After a year, he accepted a job at J. F. Holley, a much smaller company but one where he would have broader responsibilities, including project management.

In 1964, Gorrie purchased the construction assets of Thomas C. Brasfield, who began a small construction company in Birmingham in 1921. For three years, Gorrie operated the company under the name of Thomas C. Brasfield, but in 1967 he decided to change the name. By this time Gorrie was so identified with the company that he could have dropped the Brasfield name, but Mr. Brasfield was still alive, and Gorrie believed the name meant something to him and his family, although Tom Brasfield was never directly associated with the company. The new name became Brasfield & Gorrie.

The company grew steadily through the 1960s, constructing small office buildings, schools, churches, industrial plants, and hospitals. In early 1970, Gorrie ventured into building apartments, a move that proved disastrous and almost broke the company. Through hard work and the dedicated loyalty of his associates, he was able to prevent a total collapse and used the lessons learned to strengthen his company. In 1977, Gorrie moved his company into wastewater and water treatment work. The first years were not successful or profitable, but he persevered, and this work is now very important to the company.

In the early 1980s, fueled by reconstruction needs after Hurricane Frederick, Brasfield & Gorrie became heavily involved in the construction boom that came to the Alabama Gulf Coast and the Florida Panhandle, completing over 40 projects. Condominium construction pushed Brasfield & Gorrie to another level. The volume of work allowed the company to expand and develop a large number of experienced superintendents and foremen.

As work on the Gulf Coast dried up, Gorrie expanded the company into new geographical markets. He established offices in Orlando and Atlanta and guided the company through a restructuring process that decentralized the company into divisions and assigned sales and marketing responsibilities to division managers. Rapid growth resulted. The Orlando office gained local recognition when it built the Orlando City Hall. The Atlanta presence was strengthened by the completion of the concrete frame for the Georgia Dome, which involved pouring 50,000 cubic yards of elevated, formed concrete in less than eleven months.

Brasfield & Gorrie’s retail presence grew substantially after landing the Parisian account. The Parisian Galleria store was the first of 26 Brasfield & Gorrie built across the South and Midwest. In 1997, the company expanded by opening offices in Raleigh and Nashville and organized an industrial division to concentrate on that construction discipline. This year B&G was recognized for its role in reconstructing a bridge in downtown Birmingham at the 1-65, 1-20/59 interchange, completing it in 37 days after the bridge was damaged by fire.

From annual revenues of $800,000 in 1964, Gorrie led Brasfield & Gorrie to become a company in 2001 with annual revenues approaching one billion dollars and 2000 employees servicing clients in 15 states. B&G has been consistently recognized by Engineering News Record as one of the nation’s top domestic general building contractors, currently ranking 24th in the U.S. Between 1998 and 2002 Modern Healthcare magazine named Brasfield & Gorrie as the largest general contractor in healthcare in the country for three years and the second largest for the other two years.

Miller Gorrie is known as a man of few, words, a quiet, humble man who never draws, attention to himself. But when he does speak, his words are powerful and respected. Because he is so soft-spoken and one must concentrate to hear his voice, he was once called “Silent Thunder.” Miller and Frances Gorrie have three children: Ellen Gorrie Byrd, Magnus James Gorrie II (married to Alison), and John Miller Gorrie, and five grandchildren, Frances Ellen, Ginny, and William Byrd, and Magnus Miller II (Mills) and Alie B. Gorrie.

Gorrie currently is on the board of directors of Colonial Properties Trust and ACIPCO and formerly served on the boards of AmSouth Bank and Winsloew Furniture. Professionally, Gorrie was on the board and was president of the Associated General Contractors. He has also served on the boards of the Business Council of Alabama, the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, the Metropolitan Development Board, and the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama.

An active supporter of many charitable civic and educational institutions, Gorrie has served on boards of the United Way and Alabama Symphony, as well as the Medical Center East, Baptist Medical Centers, and McWane Center foundations. He served on the Auburn Building Science Advisory board, the UAB Civil Engineering Board of Visitors, the UAB President’s Council, and the Samford University Board of Overseers. He and France founded a school in Atlanta to serve children with learning disabilities, and Gorrie serves as chairman of the board.

Gorrie was inducted into the Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame in 1997 and was awarded the Cornerstone Award by the Association of Builders and Contractors for Lifetime Achievement in the Construction Industry in 1998. He has recently been honored by the naming of the M. Miller Gorrie Construction Center to be built on the Auburn University campus being made possible by a lead gift from Brasfield & Gorrie employees.

Leroy McAbee, Sr.

  • October 5th, 2021

Leroy McAbee, a native of Henagar, Alabama, is the oldest son of Homer Roy and Sarah Mae McAbee.

He attended school in Sylvania, where he graduated in 1949. After graduation, he served with the Army Combat Engineers in Korea from 1950 to 1952. After his discharge, he worked on various construction projects across the country,  and eventually enrolled at The University of Alabama.

A year later he founded McAbee and Company, which began as a small mechanical contractor and engineering company. The company was incorporated in 1972 as McAbee Construction, Inc. Under McAbee’s leadership and with a team of dedicated employees, it has become one of the largest heavy industrial contractors in the Southeast. The company works in all types of manufacturing facilities performing piping, mechanical work, equipment erection, steel erection, concrete work, and other related jobs. McAbee’s firm has done construction work in all Southeastern states, various Midwestern states, and in New York and Washington. Industrial customers include those in power generation, chemical processes, pulp and paper, automotive, and many other manufacturing industries. Many clients are from the Fortune 500.

McAbee’s Fabrication Division, also located in Tuscaloosa, was formed as a small shop to service the construction division. It has grown into one of the largest fabrication shops in the Southeast, with more than 120,000 square feet of space, and has shipped its fabrication work into 35 states and 17 foreign countries. McAbee is certified by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and The National Board of Boiler and Pressure Vessel Inspectors. Each organization closely scrutinizes companies authorized to fabricate and install pressure piping and pressure vessels and to repair boilers both in the field and in the shop.

Some of the company’s work involves both construction and fabrication and one project was most interesting. In 1966, when the United States and Russian governments had a joint project converting Intercontinental Ballistic Missile fuels into useful component chemicals, McAbee was called onto build three to his sister Doris, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1962. modular units, each of which could process 3,000 metric tons of ICBM fuel annually. An additional challenge was that the units had to be shipped to Siberia by rail through undersized tunnels. McAbee and his engineers and fabricators got busy in Tuscaloosa, built the units, disassembled them, shipped them to Utah for testing, brought them back to Tuscaloosa, and shipped them to Russia. McAbee personnel later supervised the erection in Siberia.

During the mid-70s and 80s, the company was heavily involved in the installation of turbine generators in power plants. McAbee himself designed, engineered, and built a one-of-a-kind oil flushing system for the new turbines, a creation that saved enormous man-hours.

McAbee has been instrumental in promoting good working relationships between labor and management. He has represented both sides during labor negotiations to obtain better training programs, better employee benefits, quality workmanship from the craftsmen and to initiate other programs that promote a good union/management relationship. In addition, he helped organize and served as president of the Tuscaloosa Joint Apprentice Committee of the Plumbers and Steamfitters, an organization for training young people to become journeymen in the welding, pipefitting, heating, and air conditioning industry. McAbee formed his company based on these principles:

Safety is first.

Quality of work is second.

A fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay is third. Those principles were recognized in 1983 when McAbee Construction’s high standard of employment practices was awarded a certificate from the National Society of Professional Engineers.

McAbee acknowledges that his success and the guiding force in his life is his wife, Ruth. He has been married to the former Babe Ruth Barger, secretary/treasurer of the organization, for nearly 40 years. The couple lives in Tuscaloosa and has a son, two daughters, and six grandchildren. He also credits his brother Harold, superintendents, craftsmen, managers, engineers, and administrative personnel for his company’s success.

McAbee works closely with many organizations to promote West Alabama and bring industry and new business to the area. He was a member of the Select Committee to Study Public Education in Tuscaloosa charged with considering all aspects of public education in Tuscaloosa City and County School Systems and making recommendations for improvements.

He currently serves on the University of Alabama’s President’s Cabinet; the UA Capstone Engineering Society; the Board of Visitors of the Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration; the UA Alumni Association; is a National Council Representative, Black Warrior Council, Boy Scouts of America; Board of Directors, Park and Recreation Authority; Board of Directors, United Way of Tuscaloosa County; Board of Directors, DCH Foundation; National Society of Professional Engineers; Alabama Society of Professional Engineers; Advisory Board, Liberty Mutual Insurance Company; and Valley Head Chapter, Alabama Masonic Lodge.

He established the McAbee Foundation for the purpose of sponsoring scholarships for qualified students to attend the University of Alabama Engineering School.

He recently served as Chairman of the Public Library Oversight Committee which was created to develop a plan for facility improvement, repair, and expansion that would upgrade the current library to meet the same level as other libraries of its size and service responsibility. The committee findings were presented to the library funding agencies which resulted in the modernization program now in progress.

He was recognized as “Volunteer of the Year” in 1981 by the Park and Recreation Authority and was honored with the “Patron of the Arts” award in 1984 for his strong support of the Tuscaloosa Arts Council.

In 1986, he was named “Citizen of the Year” in Tuscaloosa.

He was selected as a “Distinguished Engineering Fellow” by UA College of Engineering in 1988, an honor bestowed upon individuals for the recognition they have brought to the University through their accomplishments and support. In February of 2003, he was inducted into the State of Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame for significant contributions to the advancement of engineering and technology and inspiring others to pursue challenging careers in all engineering fields.

In January of 1989, he was given the “Silver Beaver” award for his volunteer support to the Boy Scouts of America which is the highest volunteer honor awarded by this organization, and in 1992, the Black Warrior Council of the Boy Scouts of America named its new headquarters the Leroy McAbee Scout Service Center in his honor.

In May of 1991, he was presented the “Liberty Bell Award” by the Tuscaloosa County Bar Association for his promotion of a better understanding of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and a better appreciation of the Rules of Law.

In July of 1998, the Park and Recreation Authority recognized his service to the local community by naming the recreation center located at the Veteran’s Hospital the Leroy McAbee Sr. Activity Center.

He was honored by the Alexis de Tocqueville Society for his contributions to the United, Way in January 2001.

In April of 2002, he was one of seven honorees inducted into the Tuscaloosa County Civic Hall of Fame.

John Michael Jenkins, IV

  • October 4th, 2021

To some, the word “green” indicates a lack of knowledge or experience. Although Mike Jenkins is certainly green, with more than 40 years in the brick industry he is anything but inexperienced. As the fourth generation at the helm of Jenkins Brick Co., he helped revolutionize the brick-making process in 1998, becoming one of the industry’s first manufacturers to use landfill gas rather than natural gas for firing the kilns. Jenkins Brick is the largest user of earth-friendly methane gas in the brick industry, and the company also harvests stormwater from the roofs of its manufacturing plants for use during production.

As worker-friendly as he is environmentally conscious, Jenkins treats his employees in an exemplary manner. From corporate executives to workers stacking brick, everyone is an “associate,” and each associate receives the same benefits. Everyone at Jenkins Brick is on a first-name basis, and Jenkins ensures equal treatment of all associates.

Jenkins has not always been an experienced and resourceful leader in the brick industry, however. In 1960, the 18-year-old graduated from Sidney Lanier High School in Montgomery, Alabama. Jenkins attended Washington and Lee University in Virginia and graduated in 1964 with a bachelor’s degree in political science and four years of ROTC training. He was then commissioned by the U.S. Army and served two years of active duty in Korea as an infantry officer. Jenkins received his parachutist badge as well as the Expert Infantryman Badge, and he was the only officer below the rank of major to receive the Army Commendation Medal during the 13-month tour.

After an honorable discharge in November 1966, Jenkins began his career with Jenkins Brick Co., a business founded in the late 1800s by his great-grandfather. Jenkins learned every aspect of the family trade, beginning in sales and working his way up to plant manager. He also continued his education, earning a master’s degree in ceramic engineering from Clemson University in 1969. In 1974, Jenkins advanced to the position of chief executive officer of the company, which at that time had three distribution locations in Alabama and Florida. Today, Jenkins Brick operates in nearly 30 locations throughout the Southeast, manufacturing and distributing its own brick as well as brick and building materials manufactured by others.

Jenkins Brick Co. has plants in Coosada, Montgomery, and St. Clair County in Alabama, which together produce more than 326 million bricks annually. In 1998, the plant in Montgomery was converted to run on landfill gas, and it now produces 110 million bricks each year while saving energy and benefitting the environment. The Coosada plant, originally built in 1959, began to produce high-end specialty brick in 2004 and makes 80 million bricks annually.

In 2006, Jenkins Brick built the St. Clair County facility, placing it just six miles from the local landfill so the kilns could be fueled with the methane gas produced by the waste.

The company’s current use of landfill methane reduces greenhouse gases each year in an amount equal to planting 14,700 acres of forest, removing the emission of 13,700 vehicles, or preventing the use of 166,000 barrels of oil.

Throughout the years, Jenkins Brick CO. has been recognized numerous times for outstanding business and environmental practices. The United States Environmental Protective Agency awarded Jenkins Brick with the 2006 Project of the Year, honoring the company’s earth-friendly plant in St. Clair County. Jenkins Brick was selected as one of 11 businesses worldwide to participate in a Harvard University study called “The Project on Global Working Families.” The green-minded Jenkins Brick is also a two-time recipient of the Alabama Wildlife Federation Governor’s Conservation Achievement Award for Air Conservationist of the Year, receiving the honor in 1999 and again in 2007. Jenkins Brick also received the Alabama Technology Council and Business Council of Alabama award for Medium Manufacturer of the Year in 2007. The same year, the Montgomery Area Business Committee for the Arts, a national nonprofit organization uniting business and the arts, recognized the company’s involvement in the arts in Montgomery with the 2007 Business in the Arts Award. Then in 2008, Jenkins Brick received MAX Credit Union’s EcoMax Green Leadership Award and was also named among Inc. Magazine’s Top 5,000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America.

Jenkins, like his company, has amassed several awards for business leadership and community service. In 1999, Jenkins’ alma mater, Washington and Lee University, selected him as one of 250 leading alumni in honor of the school’s 250th anniversary. Jenkins’ high school, Sidney Lanier, honored him with the title of Outstanding Alumnus. Jenkins received the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Award from the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, and the Community Leadership Association awarded him its Distinguished Leadership Award. In 2008, the Montgomery Chapter of the American Institute of Architects recognized Jenkins’ outstanding contributions to the architectural profession, awarding him the Mike Barrett Memorial Award. Most recently, Jenkins receive the highest honor in his industry, the Brick Institute of America’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Jenkins has not only served as the leader of his company for decades but he has also been involved in numerous civic and service organizations, generously giving his time and leadership to the community. In the past, Jenkins acted as director and vice chairman of both the Montgomery Area United Way and the Montgomery Red Cross, and he directed the United Way’s 1999 capital campaign. He also served as a trustee for both the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind Foundation and the Nature Conservancy of Alabama. As a co-founder and an original steering committee member, Jenkins contributed to the formation of Leadership Montgomery and is co-founder, past chairman, and current director of Leadership Alabama, organizations that foster relationships that bridge social and ethnic boundaries. He is a past director of Jackson Hospital, the National Episcopal Church Foundation, and the Montgomery Area YMCA.

Over the years, Jenkins has been involved in several educational causes throughout the state and the country. He was a director of the alumni board at Washington and Lee and served on the board of governors for the Alabama Association of Private Colleges and Universities. He served as president and board chairman of Montgomery Academy, and he served as a director of the Montgomery City-Council Public Library.

In business, Jenkins has served as chairman of the Rebel Chapter of the Young Presidents’ Organization and director of the Society of International Business Fellows. He is a former chairman of the Montgomery Chamber of Commerce, a former director and vice chairman of the Alabama Association of Business and Industry, and a director of the Business Council of Alabama.

Currently, Jenkins continues to lead in numerous organizations. He serves as a director of the Alabama Archives and History Foundation and is a trustee of the Alabama Archives Museums. Jenkins also serves as director and vice-chairman of the Brick Industry Association and director of the Business Council of Alabama. In education, he is a director of the Alabama State University Foundation and a trustee of Huntingdon College. Jenkins also holds memberships in the Chief Executive Organization, the Society of International Business Fellows, and the World President’s Organization.

In 2007, the position of president of Jenkins Brick was filled by someone Jenkins wholeheartedly trusts: his son, Mike Jenkins V. The senior Jenkins said he did not want his son to feel forced into the family business. “I was very conscious to neither discourage nor encourage him to choose this path,” he said. But the younger Jenkins chose the brickmaking profession and worked his way through the ranks of the company. Jenkins said, “Seeing my soon now as an integral part of the company is one of the great pleasures of life.”

Jenkins and his wife, Kent, have four children and 11 grandchildren. He lives in Montgomery where he continues to serve as CEO and chairman of Jenkins Brick Co.

David Richardson “D.R.” Dunlap

  • October 4th, 2021

In a memorial to its co-founder, president, CEO, and chairman for more than 50 years, the newsletter of Alabama Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company said:

“The high esteem in which David Dunlap was held by every worker at this company, by members of the marine industry throughout the nation, as well as by the entire local community, is evidenced in the numbers of people from all walks of life who paid this last tribute to this remarkable man. For those closest to him, the loss will be immeasurable. But the legacy of high ideals which he leaves will sustain us in our grief and challenge us to greater endeavor throughout the years to come.”

David R. Dunlap was born in Mobile on June 19, 1879, to David R. Dunlap and Virginia Wheeler Dunlap.  He was educated at University Military School where he was a commanding officer of the first graduating class. He received a bachelor’s degree with honors from The University of Alabama at age17 and completed his education in law.

In 1916, Mr. Dunlap, then president of Alabama Iron Works, joined his cousin, George Dunlap, who led Mobile Marine Ways, to consolidate holdings and buy Ollinger and Bruce Dry Dock.  Gulf City Boiler Works became a part of the shipyard operations which became Alabama Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company (ADDSCO) in 1917.

Mr. Dunlap married his wife of 50 years, Tallulah Gordon Sage in 1918.  This was followed in the next three years by two children, Tallulah Sage Dunlap and David Richardson Dunlap Jr.  Five grandchildren followed.

World War I brought challenges for ADDSCO, which trained some 4000 workers and eventually built three minesweepers, two steamers, and two large sea-going barges for the U.S. government.

Following facilities and property expansion, in 1941, ADDSCO contracted to build and outfit 20 Liberty-type ships.  Eighteen months after the first keel was laid all 20 ships were ready for duty.  To do its part for World War II, ADDSCO maintained 36,000 employees at its peak, built 102 tankers and repaired or converted an additional 2800 vessels.

In years that followed, ADDSCO helped build Mobile’s Bankhead Tunnel, jumbo-sized tankers and pioneered other structural and equipment conversions.  Ultimately 700 new ships were constructed and 24,000 vessels were repaired or converted during Mr. Dunlap’s career at ADDSCO.

Mr. Dunlap was as much a part of ADDSCO as its foundations and crossbeams. His vision brought together the capital and workforce to form a successful all-around ship repair and construction facility in the Port of Mobile. An original capitalization of $600,000 created a billion dollars of income during his leadership.

Mr. Dunlap loved to fish and hunt and he faced tough assignments or near impossible undertakings with courage and determination.  His contributions to his city, state, and nation spanned two world wars, a depression, and changing times.

He was the original cashier and an original stockholder of Merchants National Bank (now Regions Financial Corporation) where he served as a director for many years.  Other directorships included Waterman Steamship Corporation, Mobile Towing and Wrecking Company, Alabama Power Company, Shipbuilders Council of America, and the Mobile and Alabama Chambers of Commerce.

Mr. Dunlap served on the Board of Governors of Spring Hill College from which he received an honorary degree.

Upon the loss of his son in the Pacific Theatre during World War II, Mr. Dunlap established an education trust to benefit Mobile and Baldwin County students.  The David R. Dunlap Jr. Memorial Trust has provided deferred payment, low-interest education loans to more than 1000 students.

The Mobile Press-Register editorialized about Mr. Dunlap at his death in November 1968:

“His name came to be known almost synonymously with ADDSCO because of his prime role in its success.  His sphere as a builder extended beyond ADDSCO and his other business interests….He made himself an outstandingly valuable citizen in helping to build Mobile into the famed industrial seaport it has become during his eminent career.  His long and useful citizenship is one of the good fortunes from which Mobile benefits and for which all can be thankful.”

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