Industry: Insurance

Drayton Nabers, Jr.

  • October 4th, 2021

Drayton Nabers, Jr. of Birmingham has been a successful business executive, a chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, an attorney, a civic leader, an author, and a man of faith.

Nabers was born in Birmingham, the son of Drayton Nabers and Jane Porter Nabers. He is a 1962 graduate of Princeton University and a 1965 graduate of Yale School of Law. He began his law career as a judicial clerk to United States Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black. HE returned to Birmingham to join the law firm of Cabaniss, Johnston, Gardner, Dumas, and O’Neal as an associate, 1967-1971, and as a partner, 1971-1978. It was at Cabaniss, Johnston that he began his association with Protective Life Corporation, an association that lasted for 40 years.

After 12 years at Cabaniss, Johnston, Nabers left his potations there to become general counsel at Protective Life Corporation, where he rose to the positions of president, chief operating officer, then the chief executive officer in 1992, and then chairman of the board.

Nabers led Proactive Life through a period of extraordinary growth. During the 10 years, he was CEO, Protective’s assets grew from $3.3 billion to $17 billion; during the same period, annual operation earnings per share grew from 69 cents to $2.39 and the market value of the common stock increased from $6 to $31.62 per share.

In 2002, when retired from Protective, he was appointed by Gov. Bob Riley to the post of finance director of Alabama. He served as the state’s finance director until 2004 when Gov. Riley appointed him to the state Supreme Court, to serve as Chief Justice.

In 2007, Nabers returned to the practice of law with the law firm of Maynard, Cooper & Gale, PC.

He is a director of Infinity Property and Casualty Corporation and ProAssurance Corporation.

Nabers has volunteered his time and leadership to a number of business, civic, educational, and philanthropic endeavors.

In addition to Protective Life, he has served on the boards of Parisian, Energen Corporation, National Bancorporation, and the National Bank of Commerce.

He is chairman of Cornerstone Schools of Alabama.

He also has served as chairman of Leadership Birmingham, United Way of Central Alabama, and the Rhodes Scholarship Selection Committee for District 7.

Over the years, he has served in various capacities with Altamont School, UAB’s President’s Council, The Salvation Army, Birmingham Area Chamber of Commerce, Leadership Alabama, the Alabama Region of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, and the Health Insurance Association of America.

He is on the board of directors for the Alabama Symphony, the Railroad Park Foundation, the Newcomen Society of Alabama, and the Alabama Christian Foundation.

Nabers has been a frequent speaker on the issues of ethics in business and has written two books relating to character and faithful obedience.

Each year he travels to Rwanda and Uganda to support ministries and teach.

Nabers and his wife, Fairfax, have three children, Drayton Nabers III, Mary James Nabers Doyle, and Fairfax Virginia Nabers Blount. They also have two granddaughters and five grandsons.

J. Smith Lanier II

  • September 28th, 2021

Smith Lanier II attended Auburn University in 1945 and 1946 before transferring to the United States Merchant Marine Academy where he obtained a degree in mechanical engineering and a commission in the United States Navy

After completing his education, Lanier Joined his aunt’s West Point, Georgia insurance firm in 1950, known then as Lanier Insurance Agency His initial career was cut short when he was called to serve in the Korean War on active duty as an engineering officer aboard the USS Ault DD698.

Upon returning from service, he purchased the insurance agency. In the early 80s, the agency was incorporated under the name of J. Smith Lanier & Co. Today, the company is recognized nationally as one of the oldest and largest insurance brokerage firms in the United States. Lanier served as chairman and CEO of the agency until 1998 and Chairman Emeritus until his death in December 2013. His nephew, D. Gaines Lanier, is now chairman and CEO.

Lanier was a founding director of many companies, five being publicly traded, including Interface, Inc, SouthernNet, and Powertel, Inc (formerly lntercel, Inc and now T-Mobile). He received numerous honors for his business prowess including being named Georgia’s Small Business Person of the Year in 1997 and the National Small Business Person of the Year in 1998.

Not only was Lanier an exceptional business leader, but a philanthropist as well. He led the capital campaign to build the state-of-the-art Center for Therapeutic Recreation at the Roosevelt Warm Springs Institute for Rehabilitation. The Center named its lodge the J. Smith Lanier Lodge in his honor. Since 2005, J. Smith Lanier & Co. has been the signature sponsor for the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation’s Charity Golf Classic and has raised more than $2 million for the Foundation.

J. SmithLanier & Co. also donated $50,000 toward the Haitian relief fund and has built numerous houses throughout the years for Habitat for Humanity and The Fuller Center for Housing. Lanier was a strong advocate for education at all levels, being a founder of Springwood School in Lanett, Alabama, and serving as Trustee on several boards, including the United States Merchant Marine Academy, LaGrange College, and Oglethorpe University Atlanta Christian College (now Point University) and Auburn University were causes dear to his heart He was key in re-establishing Point University under its new charter and relocating it from East Point to West Point, Georgia. They honored Lanier by naming their Academic Center in his memory. At Auburn, Lanier served on the first Dean’s Advisory Board of the College of Human Sciences. The college presented him with its International Quality of Life Award – at the United Nations Headquarters – and later the Auburn University Alumni Association Lifetime Achievement Award.

Lanier also had a hand in politics He served as a county chairman on the state executive committee of the Alabama Republican Party and was elected as a presidential elector in 1964. He was also a delegate to two Republican National conventions.

One of Lanier’s highest achievements was becoming an Eagle Scout He credits the Boy Scout Oath and the twelve Boy Scout laws as one of the foundations of his personal and business life. Lanier was a seventh-generation member of Spring Road Christian Church in Lanetti where he served as Chairman of the Board, Elder, and Trustee. According to his wife, his favorite scripture was Proverbs 3:5-6. ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding. In ALL thy ways acknowledge HIM and HE will direct your paths.’

He is survived by his wife Betty, three daughters, eight grandchildren, and two sisters.

John Johns

  • September 28th, 2021

John D. Johns is Executive Chairman of Protective Life Corporation. He joined Protective in 1993 as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. He became the Company’s President and COO in 1996; President and CEO in 2002; in 2003, he became Chairman, President and CEO, and Executive Chairman in July of 2017.

Prior to joining Protective, Johns served as General Counsel of Sonat, Inc., a diversified energy company. Before joining Sonat, Johns was a founding partner of the law firm Maynard Cooper & Gale.

Johns was awarded a B.A. degree, with honors, from The University of Alabama in 1974.

While at UA, he developed his leadership skills through membership in Phi Beta Kappa and Omicron Delta Kappa and service as president of the Jasons Honor Society and Kappa Alpha Fraternity.

He also received a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School and an MBA from Harvard Business School, both in 1978.

Throughout his career, Johns has been actively engaged in community and philanthropic service. He currently serves as a member of The University of Alabama President’s Cabinet and works as co-chair of the Campaign for UAB, which is targeting an ambitious $1 billion fundraising goal. Johns is on the corporate boards of Regions Financial Corporation, Genuine Parts Company, and Southern Company.

He has served as the Chairman of the Business Council of Alabama, the McWane Science Center, the Greater Alabama Council, Boy Scouts of America, Innovation Depot, and the Birmingham Business Alliance, the umbrella chamber of commerce organization for the greater Birmingham region.

He has also served on the boards of the Board of Advisors for the Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility at The University of Alabama, the United Negro College Fund, the Birmingham Museum of Art, and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. He is Past Chairman of the national trade association for the life insurance industry, the American Council of Life Insurers (ACLI), and currently serves on its executive committee. He is a member of the Financial Services Roundtable in Washington, D.C. and of the National Council of the American Enterprise Institute, also in Washington, DC.

During his time at Protective, the Company and its Foundation have contributed more than $50 million to improve the quality of life in the community, including substantial gifts upon the merger of Protective Life Corporation and The Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company.

Those gifts support insurance education and research at the Culverhouse College of Commerce at The University of Alabama; infrastructure improvements at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens; and the Alabama Drug Discovery Alliance at the University of Alabama Birmingham School of Medicine, which is a joint venture with the Southern Research Institute to investigate new innovations in drug treatments.

His philanthropic work has earned him recognition by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Alabama Chapter, as Outstanding Civic Leader at the 2013 National Philanthropy Day.

In October 2013, Johns was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor owing to his ability to “roll up his sleeves immediately and work collaboratively to solve problems and accomplish public service miracles.”

He and his wife Dr. Nancy Dunlap Johns have a son James and daughter Anna Johns Hrom and son-in-law James Hrom.

Stan Starnes

  • September 24th, 2021

Stancil “Stan” Starnes is the executive chairman of ProAssurance Corporation, having served as its chief executive officer from 2007 to 2019 and he is President pro tempore of the University of Alabama System Board, representing the Sixth Congressional District.

Born in Tuscaloosa, he grew up in Birmingham and attended The University of Alabama, graduating from the business school at the age of 20. He then attended Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law, edited the Cumberland Law Review, and graduated summa cum laude and first in his class.

Practicing law was something of a family tradition – his father was a lawyer – and in 1975, they established Starnes and Starnes, now known as Starnes Davis Florie. They specialized in courtroom advocacy, representing a wide variety of clients in civil litigation, across the state and further afield. Among many accomplishments as a lawyer, was his authorship of the Alabama Medical Liability Act, which was enacted by the Alabama State Legislature in 1987, as well as subsequent amendments to the Act.

He was named as one of the “Best Lawyers in America” for over 20 consecutive years. He was elected to the prestigious American College of Trial Lawyers in 1989, an organization comprised of less than one percent of the lawyers in the United States. He is the youngest lawyer from Alabama ever so elected. He served for over twenty years on the Supreme Court of Alabama Advisory Committee on the Alabama Rules of Civil Procedure and was named Chairman of the committee in 1998.

In 2006, Starnes joined Brasfield & Gorrie as President of Corporate Planning and Administration and in 2007, he was named CEO of ProAssurance Corporation, a position he held until July 2019. Under Starnes’ leadership, ProAssurance expanded to write one or more of its insurance products in all 50 states from its offices throughout the United States, its Captive facility in the Cayman Islands, and through its Lloyd’s Syndicate in London.

During each year with Starnes as CEO, ProAssurance was named one of the top-50 casualty insurance carriers in the United States out of a universe of over 3,500 carriers.

The company also transformed itself from a physician-centric, regional, mono-line insurance company to a healthcare-centric, national, specialty insurance company, offering a range of products including physician and hospital professional liability, workers compensation, and life sciences.

During his 12-year tenure as ProAssurance CEO, Starnes helped return over $2.1 billion to shareholders while growing their equity by 37% from $1.15 billion to $1.58 billion.

Starnes has served on a number of community and non-profit boards, including the Boards of Directors of ProAssurance, National Bank of Commerce, and Ascension, the largest non-profit healthcare provider in the United States. In addition to his leadership role on The University of Alabama System board, he is also a member of the UAB Health System Board. Furthermore, he is a member of the board of the Crimson Tide Foundation.

He was named the outstanding alumnus of Cumberland School of Law in 2002 and was the inaugural Scholar in Residence at Cumberland in 2005. He is a member of the Alabama Bar Association, the Birmingham Bar Association, the American Bar Association, and is an advocate in the American Board of Trial Advocates.

Starnes also serves the community through affiliation and membership in a variety of organizations. He has served as a community advisor to the Junior League of Birmingham. He is a past Captain of the Monday Morning Quarterback Club and serves on the board of trustees of the Crippled Children’s Foundation and is its current chairman.

He is a member of the board of directors of the Newcomen Society of Alabama and is a member of the Birmingham Area Advisory Board of the Salvation Army. He is a life member of the Alabama Law Foundation and a charter member of the Atticus Finch Society. He is a life fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

In 2018, he was elected to the Alabama Academy of Honor, an organization whose membership is limited to 100 living Alabamians.

He and his wife, Joan, have been married for over 40 years. They have three children, all of whom are now married. All live in Birmingham along with seven grandchildren.

Frank Park Samford, Jr.

  • September 22nd, 2021

Frank Park Samford, Hr., the man credited with transforming Birmingham-based Liberty National Life Insurance Company into one of the na­tion’s leading financial services conglomerates, “was a man of many talents – and he invested them passionately into his life and the lives of others.”

Born on January 29, 1921, he was the son of Frank Park and Hattie Mae (Noland) Samford. His father was one of the founders of Liberty National. His grandfather was an Alabama Court of Appeals judge. His great grandfather was an Alabama governor.

Frank Park Samford, Jr., could have chosen to rest on the laurels of his forefathers. Instead, he chose to blaze a trail of his own with the torch of excellence passed to him.

He received his early education in Montgomery and then in Birmingham, where he was an out­standing student at Ramsey High School. At Alabama Polytechnic Institute (now Auburn Uni­versity) he achieved the highest grades of any freshman student in the school’s business admin­istration program. He later transferred to Yale University where he received recognition as a leader before graduating in 1942. After serving for three years as a United States Naval Officer on a destroyer in both theaters of World War II, he entered The University of Alabama School of Law. He graduated at the top of his class (only one B” kept him from a straight “A” average).

In 1947, the young law school graduate began his meteoric career with Liberty National Insurance Company as a securities analyst. Eventually, he would work in practically every division in the home office. By 1950, he had been elected to the company’s board of directors. He became president in 1960.

He succeeded his father as chief executive officer in 1967 and as chairman of the board in 1973. In these positions, he was able to see his vision of trans­forming Liberty National Life Insurance Company into a diversified insurance and financial services company become a reality.

In 1979, Frank Samford, Jr. led in the formation of the parent company, Torchmark, which acquired life and health insurance companies and which di­versified into such businesses as investment management. He subsequently served as presi­dent, chief executive officer, and chairman of the board of Torchmark. And through his wisdom, vision, and efforts, he saw Torchmark grow to become one of the nation’s largest stock insurance and financial institutions, with over $3.4 billion in assets.

The innovative leadership of Frank P. Samford, Jr. brought many accolades. In 1984, he received the Gold Award from the Wall Street Transcript as the outstanding chief executive officer in the life insurance industry. Twice before he had received the Silver Award as the runner-up. Other recognitions of his leadership were his induction into the Alabama Academy of Honor and his selection to be honored at the Alabama Meeting of the Newcomen Society of the United States – a non-profit membership corporation whose members are the corporate and industrial elite across the nation and abroad and whose purpose is to study the history of business and its effects on the contributions to the further­ing of mankind.

Frank Park Samford, Jr.’s pursuit of excellence for himself and others led him to the forefront in the insurance industry. But he also gave his time and talents to serve in the community and in the state.

For example, he served on the boards of BellSouth Corporation, South Central Bell, Golden Enterprises, The Southern Company, Birmingham Trust National Bank, Saunders Leasing Systems, Alabama Great Southern Railway, and the Birming­ham Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

He was a chairman and president of the Jefferson County United Appeal, of the Jefferson County Heart Fund Drive, and a member of the City of Birmingham Parks and Recreation Board.

He served on the boards of educational insti­tutions, such as Auburn University, the Univer­sity of Montevallo, and the Indian Springs School. He worked with the Alabama Association of Independent Colleges. He was a charter member of the board of directors of the Kidney Foundation of Alabama and a member of the Board of South­ern Research Institute. He was a member of the Rotary Club and the Independent Presbyterian Church in Birmingham.

Frank Park Samford, Jr., was, in the words of former Governor of Alabama George C. Wallace, “one of the most productive citizens in our state.”

This highly successful executive and productive citizen was what one might call a Renaissance man – that is, a complex personality who contributed and participated successfully in many facets of human life.

He has been described as a man “ahead of his time.” In the 1970’s he was one of the few CEOs who wore a beard. Often, he rode a bicycle to and from work when a car was considered the normal mode of transportation.

An avid jogger, he placed emphasis on physical fitness and was instrumental in establishing a track and exercise center in the headquarters building of Liberty National. He loved the adventure of sailing and flying, but he also enjoyed an intense game of chess. He quoted poetry from memory – and even named his sailboat the “Rubaiyat.”

Although his professional and civic endeavors took a great deal of his time, his family was always the central force of his life. In 1942, he married Virginia Suydam whom he had known since the ninth grade. They had four children: Frank III, Laura, John, and Mae.

Frank Samford, Jr. was a private man, known closely by few. But there was something about him – actually, everything about him – that quietly commanded respect, admiration, and loyalty from all those with whom he came in contact.

He died on December 6, 1986, in Hilton Head, South Carolina. Just as he ha through Birmingham, he had carried the torch of excellence on every other day of his life. He was a rare combination of dreamer and realist. He reached for the stars with his feet planted firmly on the ground.

Frank Edward Spain

  • September 20th, 2021

“Of some men much is asked; to others much is given.” Of Frank Spain, much has been asked and much has been given, and to many, he has given much.

Frank Edward Spain was born October 11, 1891, in Memphis, Tennessee, to John Bett Kennedy Spain, a well-known Methodist minister, and Ida Lockard Spain, a former director of music at Troy Seminary.

By the time that Frank Spain was a teenager, he had decided he wanted to become a doctor. Thus, when he graduated from Barton Academy in Mobile, he enrolled in the Southern University at Greensboro, from which he earned an A.B. degree in pre-medical studies in 1910.

Shortly after young Frank graduated, his father died. In subsequent months he tried various types of employment.

Perhaps, he was thinking about his father’s earlier suggestion about a career in law-”No no higher tribute can be paid to any man than to seek his counsel. No higher service could a man render than to give it.” In 1912, he entered The University of Alabama School of Law. Even though the curriculum in those days was designed to cover a period of three years, Spain earned his law degree in only 18 months.

The year 1917 was momentous in the life of the young lawyer. He was appointed Birmingham’s Assistant City Attorney; he met and married Margaret Ketcham Cameron, a gracious and talented daughter of one of Birmingham’s oldest families; and he answered his country’s call to war and became an artillery officer.

After World War I, Spain found himself in Washington, D. C., with some questions as to where his career would lead.

But, at that point, he received a letter from the father of a young lawyer friend of his, Phares Coleman. The letter asked Spain to take the place in the partnership planned for his recently deceased son. Thus began the long connection with the law firm that became Spain, Gillon, Riley, Tate, and Etheredge.

As Spain immersed himself in the years of the Roaring Twenties, he made contact with two of his boyhood friends: Frank Samford and Bob Davison. With these gentlemen, he became active in the Liberty Life Assurance Society, a small fraternal society with assets of only about $600,000 and total insurance in force of barely three million. To permit the society to become an old-line legal reserve stock life insurance company, Frank Spain and others helped draft, and seek passage of necessary legislation. As a result, in 1929, the name of the society was changed to Liberty National Life Insurance Company. Spain became the general counsel and a member of the board of directors.

Courage, faith, and hard work for the company by Spain and others pa1d off. In 1943, Spain became the Vice President of the Company, a position he held until he became Director Emeritus in the 1970s.

Frank Spain was also involved in other enterprises. Until it was sold in the 1960s to a New York conglomerate, he served as an officer, director, and legal counsel for the Dinkier Hotel Company. In the early years of his career, he and Hudson Barker formed the Bankers’ Mortgage and Bond Company. They, in conjunction with Richard Massey, bought the corner of Third Avenue and Twenty-first Street in Birmingham and constructed what has come to be known as the Massey Building.

Spain was also an officer, director, and general counsel for Odum, Bowers, and White Department Stores, and, in the 1940s, became an officer and director of the Magic City Food Products, Inc., a small local manufacturer of snack items, which grew to be Golden Enterprises, a conglomerate and parent company of Golden Flake Snack Foods, Inc.

As a nationally known insurance attorney, Spain has served as the representative of numerous well-known insurance companies, and as a matter of fact, helped to reorganize at least one of these national insurance corporations.

While actively involved in these business ventures, Spain was contributing his services to his state, his nation, and his city. Because of his many years as a member of the board of directors and as appeals chairman for the Jefferson County Community Chest, he was appointed an honorary life member of that board. Spain further served by being Chairman of the Alabama War Chest in 1945; the Alabama Society of Crippled Children and Adults; the Birmingham Housing Authority; the Alabama Association of Housing Authorities; and the President of the Alabama Motorists Association.

He has also served as Chairman of the Insurance Section of the American Bar Association; Chairman of the Legal Section of the American Life Convention; member of the Advisory Committee of Criminal Law School; member of the Alabama Medical Center Foundation Board; Director of Ellen Douglas Home; member of the Advisory Council of Southern Research Institute.

Perhaps one of the proudest chapters in the life of Frank Spain is his association with Rotary International. He became a member in 1937, and by 1942 had been elected President of the Birmingham Club. So marked was his leadership that the District soon elected him Governor. Following that, he held numerous national offices, until, in the early 1950s, he crowned his Rotary career by becoming President of Rotary International. He was also part of the committee which built the International Headquarters Building, and he spent many years traveling in both Europe and the Orient representing the organization.

Frank Spain has also been an active member of the Episcopal Church of the Advent in Birmingham. Inside that church is a chapel which he donated. Runic lettering carved over the door states that it is a children’s chapel. Each of the letters and some of the candlesticks within that chapel was fashioned by Mr. Spain with loving care.

Over the years in business, Spain was a wise investor, and he and Margaret Spain generously shared their good fortune with philanthropic causes. At first, it was done quietly, unheralded- until former University of Alabama President Frank Rose urged the Spains to make public their generosity to encourage others to make similar contributions. They had the satisfaction of seeing President Rose’s prediction come true.

Frank Spain has not been alone in his adventurous journey through life. He was first accompanied by a lovely and talented lady, his wife Margaret, who gave him two children, Peggy and Frances. During the latter part of his life, he has been accompanied by Nettie Edwards Spain, his second wife, who shares with him many interests, including photography.

Needless to say, a man of Frank Spain’s standing accumulates legions of honors and awards. To name a few-he is a member of ODK, Phi Beta Kappa; he holds honorary degrees from The University of Alabama and Birmingham Southern; he is a member of the Alabama Academy of Art; he holds the Gorgas Award; he is a Chevalier in the French Legion of Honor, and he has had numerous buildings named for him.

To paraphrase Shakespeare, Frank Spain’s life … is gentle and the elements so mixed in him that Nature might stand up and say to all the world, “This is a man.”

William James Rushton

  • September 20th, 2021

The Rushton name is synonymous with Birmingham and the name William James Rushton is synonymous with Protective Life Company, which he guided and developed into a major financial institution.

William Rushton, one of the two living inductees into the Alabama Business Hall of Fame this year (1980), is the second Rushton to be inducted – his father, the late James Franklin Rushton, was inducted in 1975.

William “Bill” Rushton was born in Birmingham, Alabama, on July 10, 1900. The son of James Franklin Rushton and Willis Roberts Rushton, he was one of eight children. His father, a pioneer in the ice industry, was President of the Birmingham Ice and Cold Storage Company and the owner of other ice plants in Alabama and neighboring states.

Bill Rushton grew up in Birmingham and attended McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he graduated in 1917. Upon graduation, he enlisted as a private in the U.S. Army and served in the infantry during World War I. Shortly after the Armistice in November 1918, Rushton was honorably discharged with the rank of sergeant. He soon continued his education, enrolling at Washington and Lee in Lexington, Virginia, where he made his reputation as a scholar and an outstanding debater. He graduated in 1921 with a Bachelor of Science degree.

Upon graduation, Rushton returned to Birmingham where he joined the Birmingham Ice and Cold Storage Company as assistant manager, a position he held for five years. In 1927 he was promoted to Vice President, and in 1932 he was named President. By 1937 Rushton had also served as president of the three national trade associations of his company’s business the ice, cold storage, and warehouse business.

In 1927 Rushton began a long association with the Protective Life Insurance Company as a member of its Board of Directors. Protective Life had been organized in 1907 by former Governor William D. Jelks, who guided the company through its first two decades. During these first decades, Jelks gave Protective Life a sense of quality. During Rushton’s tenure, growth would be the hallmark of administration.

One of the first important changes made during his presidency was the addition of the “group creditor” line of insurance in 1939. Group creditor insurance is issued to cover small loans made by banks and other financial institutions to their customers. Later, the Company entered the pension trust and group annuity field. Under Rushton’s leadership, Protective Life became a major factor in Group Life and Group Health fields.

When Rushton became President of Protective Life and Chief Executive Officer in 1937, the United States faced financial difficulties with the Stock Market decline and its slow recovery. Soon the country faced mobilization and World War II. Protective Life weathered these financial difficulties successfully, but World War II interrupted Bill Rushton’s career with his company.

In 1926 Rushton was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army reserves. In September 1940, Rushton, who now held the rank of major, was called to serve on the staff of Major General Lewis B. Hershey to administer the draft. In March 1942, Rushton was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and as­signed to the Birmingham Ordnance Office where he held several different positions. In the following year, he was promoted to the deputy district chief in charge of ordnance procurement in five southern states. In January 1944, Rushton was promoted to Colonel, a title by which he is still affectionately and respectfully known. In September 1944, at his own request, he returned to inactive status but later held the post of Civilian District Chief of Ordnance. Because of his service to the Army, he received numer­ous citations, including the Legion of Merit.

On his return to civilian life in 1944 Rushton once more took the helm of Protective Life and during the next two decades continued the pattern of success he had shown earlier. In 1947, when Protective Life celebrated its fiftieth anniversary, it had reached a significant stage in its history. Of the nearly twelve hundred insurance companies in the nation with insurance in force, Protective Life ranked sixty-fifth. Of the total of more than four hundred companies with group life in force, it ranked twenty-sixth. Much of this growth is attributable to the leadership of Rushton.

By the early sixties, Rushton was recognized as a national leader in the field of insurance. As a result of the respect of his fellow insurance executives, the Colonel was named director to a number of insurance associations including the Life Insurance Association of America, the Health Insurance Association of America, and the Institute of Life Insurance.

In 1967, after three decades as President of Protective Life, Rushton stepped down as President but was named Chairman of the Board, retaining the title of Chief Executive Officer. In 1969 he retired from Protective Life. In that year Protective Life had more than $2 billion of life insurance in force and more than $170 million in assets, a testimony to Colonel Rushton’s leadership.

Rushton’s business acumen resulted in other corporations seeking him as a director. In 1927 he was named a director of the First National Bank of Birmingham, the youngest director in the history of the bank. In addition, he has served on the board of directors of the Alabama Bancorporation; Alabama Power Company; Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad; Illinois Central Gulf Railroad; and the Moore-Handley Hardware Company.

Throughout his long career, Rushton was supported by his loving and devoted wife Elizabeth Jane Perry, whom he married on November 24, 1926. The Rushton’s became the parents of two children, James Rushton and William James Rushton, III.

Colonel Rushton has had a lifelong commitment to worthwhile civic, cultural, charitable, and religious causes. A strong believer in youth, Rushton has been a supporter of the Boy Scouts. Not only did he serve as Scoutmaster but also as a director and president of the Birmingham Boy Scout Council. In religious endeavors, he has worked with the First Presbyterian Church, of which he has been a lifelong member. He has served as a deacon, and as Chairman of the Board of Trustees, as well as a member of the Board of Annuities and Relief for the Presbyterian Church of the United States. In the health field, he has served as a trustee of the Children’s Hospital and the Southern Research Institute.

Much of Rushton’s civic work has been with the Birmingham Community Chest. In 1937 he became a director of the Community Chest, in 1945 was named to the Executive Committee, and in 1954 was elected President. A few years later he was designated as one of only nine “Honorary Life Members” in the history of Birmingham’s Community Chest. He has also served as a member of the National Citizens Committee of the United Community Chest Campaigns of America.

Because of his strong commitment to com­munity and service, the Colonel has received many awards and honors. Among those is induction into the Alabama Academy of Honor. Educational institutions have also honored him. In 1959 Rushton received an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from Southwestern University at Memphis and in 1980 an honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Alabama in Birmingham. For his support of scouting, he received the Silver Beaver Award from the Boy Scouts of America. In 1976 Dixie Magazine named him “Man of the South” and on November 24, 1976, David Vann, the Mayor of Birmingham, proclaimed that day as “Colonel William J. Rushton Day.”

William James Rushton has had two separate careers – businessman and soldier – in both he has demonstrated leadership and excellence. No less than the late Thomas W. Martin said of Rushton, “There is nothing he touched he did not adorn.” Fortunately, Bill Rushton continues to touch and enrich the lives of many people.

Frank Park Samford Sr.

  • September 9th, 2021

Builder of Liberty National Life Insurance Company (now Torchmark Corporation), Alabama’s largest life insurance company, promoter of higher education, and outstanding business leader, Frank Park Samford, Sr. was an exemplary citizen.

He was born in Troy, Alabama November 1, 1893, to Kate Park Samford and William Hodges Samford. His father was a judge on the Alabama Court of Appeals and his grandfather was governor of Alabama. Frank Samford received his AB degree from Alabama Polytechnic Institute (Auburn University) and was later to receive honorary doctoral degrees from Auburn University, The University of Alabama, and Samford University.

In 1919 he was married to Hattie Mae Noland, who shared in his higher education interests. They had two children, Frank Park Samford, Jr. and Ann (Mrs. Samuel E. Upchurch).

Frank Samford served 27 years on the Board of Trustees of Auburn University and 34 years as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Howard College later to be named Samford University. He is credited with his participation in efforts to move the campus from the East Lake neighborhood in Birmingham to its current campus in Homewood, Alabama. The University was named for him in 1965. He also served as a Trustee of Southern Research Institute. Practically every educational and charitable organization in Alabama has benefitted from his generosity. Mr. Samford was selected in 1958 as Man of the South by Dixie Business Magazine and appointed Citizen of the Year in 1965 by the Alabama Broadcasting Association. He was also named Citizen of the Century for Birmingham by the Chamber of Commerce. He served on the Boards of Southern Research Institute, Community Chest, Alabama Heart Association, and Associated Industries. In addition to numerous business, civic, educational, cultural, financial, and charitable organizations, he also served as a deacon and benefactor of Southside Baptist Church in Birmingham.

Frank Park Samford, Sr. was inducted into the Alabama Men’s Hall of Fame in 1989.

Biographical information provided by Samford University.

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