Industry: Law

Hugh Franklin Culverhouse, Sr.

  • October 26th, 2021

Hugh Franklin Culverhouse, Sr. could serve as a role model for future businessmen and women. The record of his accomplishments reveals that he is a person who does his best in whatever job he undertakes. He has been dedicated to excellence and has worked diligently to achieve it. At the same time, he has relished the joy of working with and helping others.

Hugh F. Culverhouse, Sr. grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, where he was born on February 20, 1919. After graduating from high school, he enrolled at The University of Alabama and was awarded a B.S. degree in 1941-that memorable year when the United States entered World War II.

From 1941 to 1946, the young graduate served in the United States Army Air Force. After discharge, he returned to the University where he completed his law degree in 1947.

While in law school, Hugh Culverhouse taught accounting classes in the College of Commerce and Business Administration. He continued to teach accounting while he served as Assistant Attorney General for the State of Alabama from 1947 to 1949. Hugh Culverhouse evidently enjoyed teaching, for he has since said that he would like to teach again someday because teaching is something special – that is, one cannot measure success in teaching with dollars and cents.

From October 1949 to May 1956 (except for the two years he was recalled to active duty during the Korean War) Hugh Culverhouse served as Special Attorney and Assistant Regional Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service.

In May 1956, “Colonel” Culverhouse (the rank he held at the time of release from active duty) established a private law practice in Jacksonville, Florida. His firm became known for its expertise in the field of taxation, perhaps because (as Hugh Culverhouse has said) he enjoys planning for taxes and economic growth. But, perhaps most significantly, he enjoys working with people and helping them solve their problems.

Hugh Culverhouse is today the senior member of the law firm of Culverhouse & Botts in Tampa, Florida. He holds membership in the Jacksonville, Hillsborough County, and American Bar Association, as well as the Florida Bar and the Alabama State Bar.

As Hugh Culverhouse acquired status in the legal profession, he also began to acquire status as a real estate developer. For example, one of his projects was the successful development of the Palmer Ranch in Sarasota, which included building the golf course for the Chrysler Cup, a stop on the seniors’ golf tour. His holdings also include citrus groves in Okeechobee and Arcadia, Florida, and Ivanhoe Land Development of Miami.

In December 1974, Hugh Culverhouse was awarded the franchise for the National Football League expansion team in Tampa which began play in the fall of 1976 as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Very active in league affairs, as well as in the management of his team, he is the past chairman of both the Executive Committee of the NFL Management Council and the NFL Finance Committee. He is considered one of the most influential owners in the NFL.

Hugh Culverhouse serves on numerous corporate boards of directors including Time Warner, Inc., New York City; the Penn Central Corporation, Cincinnati, Ohio; the Chiquita Brands International, Cincinnati, Ohio. His service also includes membership on the PGA Policy Board and the National Legal Center for Public Interest.

This busy tax lawyer, real estate developer, and professional football team owner has still found time through the years to be a part of civic, educational, and cultural projects in the Southeast and elsewhere.

For example, he was one of the original organizers and first president of the Family Consultation Service in Jacksonville, Florida. He extended his involvement and contributions to family and children’s welfare by supporting, among others, the Center for Swallowing Disorders and the Eye Institute at the University of South Florida; the Child Abuse Council; the Children’s Home; the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York; and the Foundation for Children with Learning Disorders.

In addition to his concerns for health care, he has endeavored to enrich the lives of individuals through the support of the Sarasota Opera and the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center.

He has also dedicated his time to economic progress in his adopted state by serving as a member of a variety of state and local organizations-from a member of the Florida Council of 100 and its chairman of the Committee on Sports and Tourism; to the Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness & Sports and the Sunshine Games Foundation; to the Florida Council on Economic Education; to the Greater Tampa Area Chamber of Commerce.

His support of excellence in higher education in both Florida and his native state of Alabama is legendary.

He is a member of the Board of Trustees of Jacksonville University in Jacksonville, Florida, and of the Board of Overseers of Stetson University’s College of Law. He has endowed chairs at Stetson University College of Law, Jacksonville University, the University of Florida College of Law, the University of South Florida in Tampa.

At his alma mater, The University of Alabama, Hugh Culverhouse has been a long-time member of the University’s National Alumni Association. For many years, he has been a member of both the Commerce Executives Society and the College of Commerce and Business Administration’s Board of Visitors-those groups dedicated to providing necessary guidance and financial support in addition to state support to ensure that the university can provide quality programs and service. In March 1984, Hugh Culverhouse’s gift to the University’s Capital Campaign enabled the creation of an endowed chair-the Hugh F. Culverhouse Chair of Accountancy. Then, in April 1988, he made a $2 million contribution to C&BA’s School of Accountancy. This largest individual financial contribution in the history of the University, at that time, was perhaps Hugh Culverhouse’s way of showing appreciation for the education he received at the University. He once said that the education he received at The University of Alabama was his platform to life and it has immeasurably contributed to his happiness.

In appreciation of Hugh Culverhouse’s generosity in providing needed funds to ensure continuing excellence in the accounting program, the University’s School of Accountancy was named the Culverhouse School of Accountancy. For his many-faceted contributions to society,

Hugh Culverhouse has received well-deserved recognition.

In 1976, he was President Gerald Ford’s representative, with the title of U. S. Ambassador, at the Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria.

In 1979, he was the recipient of The Champions of Higher Education in Florida (CHIEF) Award. In 1984, he was the first to receive the Florida Enterprise Medal sponsored by the Merchants Association of Greater Tampa. He has received honorary doctorates from Jacksonville University and Stetson University College of Law. In 1990, he received the Outstanding Business Leader Award from the Northwood Institute of West Palm Beach, Florida, and was inducted into the Jacksonville, Florida, Sports Hall of Fame, and the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame.

At his alma mater, he has been named as Honorary Professor of Accountancy and an Honorary Member of the University Law School’s Order of the Coif. He has been awarded a Doctor of Humane Letters degree by The University of Alabama and a C&BA Distinguished Alumni Award.

Through the years, this versatile, energetic man has had the support of his wife (the former Joy McCann of Montgomery, Alabama, whom he met as a student at the University, and whom he married in 1942) and their two children (Dr. Gay Culverhouse and Attorney Hugh F. Culverhouse, Jr. of Miami, Florida).

Joseph M. Farley

  • October 26th, 2021

Joseph M. Farley of Birmingham is a well-known attorney and retired Alabama Power Company executive.

He attended Birmingham Southern College, then transferred to Princeton University where he earned a degree in mechanical engineering. He attended graduate school at The University of Alabama’s College of Commerce and Business Administration and completed his formal education with an LL.B. degree from Harvard Law School. He was a member of the law firm of Martin, Balch, Bingham, and Bouldin before joining Alabama Power, where he advanced to president and director. He has held a number of positions with Southern Company, including president, CEO, and director of Southern Nuclear Operating Company. He has served as president of the Alabama Chamber of Commerce and as president of the Rotary Club of Birmingham. He has been active in a number of educational and health care causes. He is a member of The University of Alabama President’s Cabinet and a member of the Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration Board of Visitors.

M. Louis Salmon

  • October 25th, 2021

Maurice Louis Salmon was a prominent attorney born in Mobile, Alabama. He attended The University of Alabama School of Commerce and Business before entering the U.S. Army in 1943 and serving in the European Theater of Operations. After completing his military service, he enrolled in The University of Alabama School of Law where he earned his LL.B. Following his admission to the bar, he moved to Mobile where he joined the firm of Smith, Dukes, and Buckalew as an accountant. Two years later, he moved to Huntsville and began practicing law with Watts and Salmon. His legal career in Huntsville spanned 43 years. He served on the boards of several organizations and made several notable contributions to civic and fraternal groups, including the Huntsville Rotary Club. He was active in the Republican Party and ran as the Republican candidate for State Attorney General in 1958. He served his alma mater as a member and president of the Law School Foundation, as president of the Law School Alumni Association, and was a member of the President’s Cabinet. He was instrumental in establishing the University of Alabama in Huntsville Foundation. UAH in 1988 conferred upon him the honorary Doctor of Laws degree.

George A. Lemaistre

  • October 25th, 2021

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

William H. Mitchell

  • October 25th, 2021

Bill Mitchell’s roots run deep in Florence, Alabama, but his influence has branched out over the entire state.

William H. Mitchell was born on February 1, 1921, to William H. Mitchell and Celestine Martin Mitchell. His great-grandfather was a Scotch-Irish immigrant who pastored the Presbyterian church in Florence from 1843 to 1850; his grandfather served as probate judge, a 19th-century legislator, and still later as the state tax commissioner; and his father practiced law in the city. But while his heritage is proud, Bill Mitchell’s own efforts are what have written a place for him in Alabama history.

As a youth Mr. Mitchell attended Florence City Schools, going on to matriculate at Davidson College. After completing his undergraduate liberal arts education, he joined the United States Army, serving his country in the North African and European theaters of operation during World War II and earning a non-combat Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster and a Legion of Merit award. Returning to his home state, he completed his degree in the law at The University of Alabama, receiving it along with membership in the Farrah Order of Jurisprudence. His formal education complete, he returned to Florence to practice law from 1946 to 1958, with bride Ellie Richardson by his side.

It was then he began his active career in banking, as president and chief executive officer of the First National Bank of Florence. (He had served as an inactive vice president of the concern, now SunTrust Bank, Alabama, N.A., from 1954-1958.) Over the years the bank’s assets grew from $23 million to more than $276 million at the time of Mr. Mitchell’s retirement in 1985, making it at that time the largest independent bank in North Alabama. He is modest about the role he played in the bank’s good fortunes.

“Any success we’ve had can be attributed to the general growth of the area, the good management that began well before I joined the bank, and to the confidence the public has in the bank,” he commented in a May 1978 interview with Alabama News Magazine upon his election as president of the Alabama Bankers Association. “We advertise that we’ve got deep roots in the community, and we try to be involved in all parts of community life.”

For Bill Mitchell, that involvement meant serving on the Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital Board of Governors, as chairman of the Muscle Shoals Regional Library Board, president of both the Florence Junior Chamber of Commerce and the Florence Chamber of Commerce, president of the Florence Rotary Club, chairman of the Lauderdale County chapter of the American Red Cross, vice president of the Lauderdale County United Fund, and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Alabama State Chamber of Commerce and the Alabama Department of Archives and History Board of Trustees. At First Presbyterian Church in Florence, he has served as a ruling elder, trustee, Sunday School teacher, and superintendent.

He also backed up his belief in education with his volunteer efforts as a member of The University of Alabama System Board of Trustees, a charter member of The University of Alabama College of Commerce and Business Administration Board of Visitors, vice president of The University of Alabama National Alumni Association and as a member of the University of North Alabama President’s Cabinet. Combining his strong religious beliefs with his support for education, he also served as a member of the Board of Directors for Southwestern at Memphis (now Rhodes College), and as a member of the Board of Trustees for the Presbyterian Home for Children.

Bill Mitchell’s community recognized his business, volunteer, and philanthropic efforts, showing its pride by awarding him the first-ever Chamber of Commerce of the Shoals Lifetime Achievement Award. In comments at the awards ceremony in 1988, then WOWL-TV Board Chairman Dick Biddle said, “From his former position as president of the First National Bank of Florence, Bill has been constantly in the forefront of matters pertaining to the economic well-being of the Shoals. He is privately credited with being the one that brought together the board of directors of TV A and Reynolds Metals Company, resulting in a compromise that allowed Reynolds to continue to operate in the Shoals.

“Bill has been a very private man. Many of his deeds have gone unnoticed. He is dedicated to his family, his profession, and his community. And Bill carries on the tradition of an illustrious family of Shoals Mitchells.”

Others also recognized Bill Mitchell over the years. He was named the Florence Rotary Club Paul Harris Fellow, enrolled in the Florence Exchange Club Book of Golden Deeds, named Citizen of the Year by the Florence Civitan Club, and received a Brotherhood Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews in 1983. That award was presented by Dr. John C. Wright of the University of Alabama in Huntsville, who noted about Mr. Mitchell, “his acts to facilitate the building of the economy through his banking career and related service, concern for the welfare of mankind through community and broader service, concern for religious convictions … concern for the intellect.”

When Mr. Mitchell looks back over that banking career, he is able to say the biggest change he experienced during his tenure as First National’s president and as an active member and leader of the Alabama Bankers Association was when the nation’s banking industry was deregulated in the late 1970s. “Banking was a protected industry when I started out,” he remembers. “Everybody in our market paid the same for deposits and charged the same for loans … if one word characterizes the whole industry, that word would be ‘change.’ ”

And Bill Mitchell has seen change in his beloved Florence, as well. During his life, the counties of Lauderdale and Colbert merged their chambers of commerce to foster economic expansion, meaning closer ties between the cities of Sheffield, Muscle Shoals, Tuscumbia, and Florence. But that did not change Mr. Mitchell’s approach to doing business, which centered over the years around the ability to develop lifelong relationships. “I have never met a person who I did not learn something from and who did not mean something special to me,” he says. And it is those relationships that drove his desire to help his city and his state. “I basically just like people and feel that if an individual is going to spend time in a community he should help that community,” he says.

“A lot of people have helped this area out, and I am just one of them.”

General. Edward M. Friend

  • October 6th, 2021

No man has been more aptly named than Edward M. Friend, Jr. General Friend, as he was proud to be called, was a friend to, and a friend of, everyone. His civic and philanthropic endeavors on the part of Birmingham and Alabama are legendary. And his military service was an inspiration to a grateful nation.

General Friend was born in Birmingham on May 1, 1912, the son of Edward M. and May Gusfield Friend. He attended South Highland Grammar School in Birmingham and graduated from Phillips High School. He attended The University of Alabama where he graduated in 1933, receiving a commission as a second lieutenant in the infantry reserve. He earned his law degree at Alabama in 1935 and returned to Birmingham to practice law. Three years later, he married Hermione Curjel, a union that would last for 58 years, and produce two children, Edward M. Friend III, and Ellen Friend Elsas.

In 1941, he went on active military duty, launching what would become an exemplary military career. He expected to complete a one-year tour of duty and return to his law practice. Those expectations ended with Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. His military outfit moved to California where he attended desert training and general staff school. In 1943 he was ordered to North Africa to participate in the invasion of Sicily with the Second Army commanded by General Omar Bradley. General Friend returned to the United States later that year but left shortly thereafter on the Queen Mary for England to prepare for the Normandy invasion.

General Friend landed at Utah Beach on June 7, and his unit, the Seventh Corps, participated in the capture of Cherbourg, the breakthrough at St. Lo, the Battle of the Bulge, and finally, the invasion of Germany where his unit met the Russians near Leipzig.

General Friend earned several military decorations during the war. He received the Legion of Merit with Cluster, the Croix de Guerre with Palm, the European Campaign Ribbon with seven battle stars and the bronze arrowhead for the landing in Normandy, and the Outstanding Civilian Service Medal.

He eventually was reassigned to the Pentagon and released from active duty as a full colonel. He was on active duty for five years, and served another 26 years in the Army Reserve, attaining the rank of Brigadier General. In his final days, he was named a Major General in the Alabama National Guard and was honored with a proclamation of General Edward Friend Day throughout the state.

Following his World War II service, General Friend resumed his law practice. In 1945 he joined Morris Sirote, Jimmy Permutt, and Karl Friedman to found the law firm now known as Sirote and Permutt, one of the largest law firms in the state with more than 100 attorneys.

He took the role of the firm’s “rainmaker,” a lawyer who through his ability and personality attracts substantial and diverse clients to his firm. The four founders of the firm remained close friends throughout their lives.

While General Friend had many interests, he had a true passion for the law. He was one of the country’s great lawyers and specialized in the field of tax law and corporate and estate planning.

General Friend’s effective advocacy and keen intellect earned him a well-deserved reputation as a leader in the Bar. His strong interest in legal education and in the improvement of his profession earned him several honors. He was named Outstanding Alumnus at the School of Law at The University of Alabama, which, along with Birmingham-Southern College, awarded him an honorary Doctor of Laws degree. He was named Lawyer of the Year, served as president of the Birmingham Bar Association, and as president of the University of Alabama Law School Foundation. He founded the Legal Aid Society in Birmingham, which provides legal help to those unable to afford a lawyer. He also was heavily involved in helping young lawyers develop their legal skills and impressed upon them the need to provide their clients with their best efforts.

General Friend derived immense satisfaction from community service. He served as president of the Birmingham Jewish Foundation, the Family Counseling Association, the Birmingham Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America (which presented him the Silver Beaver Award, its most prestigious honor), the Downtown Rotary Club, and the Metropolitan Arts Council. He was chairman of the 1982 United Way campaign at a time of high unemployment and the closing of U.S. Steel, formerly the campaign’s largest contributing unit. He led the campaign to what many said was an unbelievable success that resulted in Birmingham being highlighted nationally as one of ten cities in the “Winner’s Circle.”

He chaired the Alabama Bar Association’s Committee for the Study of Correctional Institutes and Procedures and was co-chairman of the Human Rights Committee appointed by the federal courts to deal with Alabama’s prison system.

He served as chairman of the President’s Cabinet of The University of Alabama and served on the boards of the Children’s Hospital, the Greater Birmingham Foundation, the Red Cross, the Birmingham Metropolitan Area Chamber of Commerce, the Lakeshore Foundation, Jewish Family Services, and many other organizations.

He was honored as Birmingham’s Man of the Year in 1983, named Outstanding Civic Leader by the Fund-Raising Executives, inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor, and received the Brotherhood Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews. Throughout his life, General Friend worked to improve race relations in his city, his state, and his country.

Upon his death in 1995, several resolutions were adopted recognizing his many contributions to his community. A resolution adopted by the City Council of Birmingham recognized his outstanding generosity. A resolution by The Executive Committee and Advisory Board of the Birmingham Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America recognized his heroism, saying that General Friend” constantly reflected the values that make heroes – courage, optimism, intelligence, tolerance, and stamina.”

General Friend was a collector of quotes, and one of his favorites was this one from Leo Rosten, the writer: “The purpose of life is to matter, to be productive, to have it make some difference that you lived at all. Happiness, in the ancient, noble verse, means self-fulfillment and is given to those who use to their fullest whatever talents God, or luck, or fate bestowed upon them.”

Edward M. Friend, Jr., by all accounts, more than fulfilled his purpose in life, for he indeed mattered greatly.

D. Paul Jones, Jr.

  • October 4th, 2021

Paul Jones Jr. has been a major force instrumental in the growth of Compass Bancshares, Inc., now BBVA Compass, in addition to his work in law and with other organizations.

Upon his retirement, Compass said, “Paul has provided the leadership necessary to allow Compass to enjoy financial success through a variety of economic environments. His track record of increased profitability while creating shareholder value is unmatched throughout the financial services industry.”

Jones graduated from The University of Alabama in 1964 with a bachelor’s degree in commerce and business administration and completed a J.D. degree from the Alabama School of Law in 1967.  He also received an LL.M. in Taxation from New York University.

In 1967, Jones joined the predecessor to the Birmingham law firm of Balch & Bingham and practiced there for some 10 years.  While with Balch & Bingham, he served for a number of years as the principal legal counsel to Compass Bancshares, Inc.

While engaged in the practice of law, Jones was a member of the Board of Bar Examiners of the Alabama State Bar and a frequent lecturer on banking and corporate law.  He served as the chair and as a member of numerous law revision committees and participated in work on the Alabama Banking Code, the Alabama Business Corporation Act, the Alabama General, and Limited Partnerships Acts, and revisions to the Alabama Uniform Commercial Code.

Jones joined Compass in 1978 as its senior vice president, general counsel, and a member of its board of directors.

In 1991, Jones became chairman and chief executive officer of Compass.  At that time, only 10 percent of its $5 billion in assets was outside Alabama.  Under Jones’ leadership, Compass acquired 60 banks, insurance agencies, and asset management firms; however, much of the company’s growth was organic, with acquisitions serving primarily as entry points into desirable, high-growth markets.

When Jones retired in March of 2008, the bank had grown to $47 billion in assets, had 622 offices in seven states, employed more than 12,000 employees, and ranked as the 26th largest bank in the United States based on deposits.  When Compass was purchased by the Spanish bank BBVA in September 2007 for $9.6 billion, approximately two-thirds of its assets were located outside Alabama.

During his time as a banker, Jones was involved in the formulation of legislative policy for the banking industry through the Government Relations Council of the American Bankers Association. He also was president of the Alabama Bankers Association, and a director of the Association of Bank Holding Companies, the Financial Services Roundtable, and its predecessor, the Reserve City Bankers Association.

Jones also served as a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta from 1993 to 2000, after being appointed by the board to fill an unexpired term.  He was subsequently elected by banks in the Sixth District to two additional three-year terms.  During his tenure, he served variously as chair of the personnel committee and as a member of the audit committee.

In addition to his professional contributions, Jones has been an active supporter of education, particularly at The University of Alabama, where he has served as a member of the President’s Council at both the Birmingham and Tuscaloosa campuses.  He is a member of the Board of Visitors of the Culverhouse College of Business Administration.  Two endowed chairs, established jointly by Jones and his late wife, Charlene Jones, together with resources from Compass, have been funded at the Culverhouse College of Commerce and the Law School.

Active in civic affairs, Jones has served as chairman of the Business Council of Alabama, and as a director of the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama, the Alabama Symphony, the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama, and the Greater Birmingham Chamber of Commerce.

On the charitable front, Jones has supported the United Way through the Alexis de Tocqueville Society, the Salvation Army, the Multiple Sclerosis Society, the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, and the Alabama Liver Foundation.

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.

Joe Ritch

  • September 24th, 2021

Currently a shareholder and member of the law firm Dentons Sirote in its Huntsville office, Joe H. Ritch is focused on issues related to government contractors in the defense and aerospace industry.

As a young lawyer, Ritch represented LG Electronics, then known as Gold Star, when it brought the first Korean manufacturing facility in the U.S. to Huntsville. He successfully represented such diverse entities as a cable television company against a municipality which blocked a competing company from acquiring it, and assisted Chrysler Technologies in numerous matters involving government affairs before Congress.

Business creation and acquisition captured Ritch’s attention beginning in 1982 when he helped form and located funding of  Cybex Corp., a small technology company that developed and sold KVM switches. He served on the board until 1996. Cybex, later renamed Avocent, was ultimately acquired by Emerson Electric in a $1.2 billion purchase.

In 1997, he assisted a  management group along with outside investors through the purchase of the Pentastar Electronics Division (PEI Electronics) of Chrysler Corporation. The company was acquired 18 months later by Integrated Defense Technologies (IDT), owned by Veritas Capital in New York.  He served on the board of PEI and later the advisory board of IDT.

In 2000, he led a group that acquired Brown International Corp., a defense contractor that engaged in significant international work. The company was sold to AAR in 2007. Ritch served on the board of Brown from its inception in 1985 until it was sold.

He has in recent years served on the boards of CAS, Inc. Axometrics, Inc. and Perkins Technical Services, Inc., and on the advisory board of Boneal Aerospace.

Since 1994, he has led the efforts of the Tennessee Valley Base Realignment and Closure Committee, a coalition of 13 communities, local and state governments, chambers of commerce, and others in north Alabama and south-central Tennessee to relocate the Army’s aviation component from St. Louis, Mo.; in 2005 the TVBRAC effort was successful in moving  4,700 high paying jobs to the region related to missile defense,  development and acquisition; and In the last two years, he has led the efforts of the now renamed Redstone Regional Alliance to locate the U.S. Space Command to Redstone.

As a result of the Committee’s work, thousands of military and government contractor jobs were relocated to Redstone Arsenal and the surrounding areas. Furthermore, he worked with state and local officials to obtain funds for the recruitment of workers to fill open positions and a $175 million state-funded investment in K-12 facilities to make the area an attractive place for relocation.

In public service, Ritch has not only been a willing servant but a recognized leader. He served on the board of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation’s largest public power provider from 2013 to 2019, sitting as its chair from 2014 until he left the board in 2017. He was the first Alabamian in TVA’s 80-year history to chair the board of TVA, which provides flood control, economic development, recreation facilities navigation, and electricity for over nine million people across the southeastern United States.

He has served as a member of The University of Alabama System Board of Trustees and is a trustee emeritus. He is also chairman of the UAH Eminent Scholars Foundation and a member of the State of Alabama Military Stabilization Committee.

Recognition for his numerous contributions to the Huntsville area includes awards such as the Huntsville-Madison  County Chamber of Commerce Distinguished Service Award in 2003; induction into the North Alabama Business Hall of Fame; U.S. Space Club’s Community Service Award; UAH’s Outstanding Alumni Award in 1982; The Department of the Army’s Commander’s Public Service Award; and he was the recipient of Redstone Arsenal’s Good Neighbor Award, one of the first of three that have been awarded in the history of Redstone Arsenal.

He is considered the founder of UAH hockey (1979) and has been inducted into the UAH Athletic Hall of Honor and the Huntsville-Madison County Athletic Hall of Fame. He was the first hockey coach of the club hockey team that would later grow into an NCAA Division 2 National Champion.

Ritch earned his bachelor’s degree from The University of Alabama at Huntsville in 1972, his J.D. from the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University where he was the Editor-in-Chief of the law review, and graduated from New York University in 1976 with an LL.M  in taxation. He received an honorary doctorate from UAH in 2014.

Born in Selma, he has lived in Huntsville since 1953. Ritch is a member and former trustee of Trinity United Methodist Church in Huntsville and is married to Lana C. Ritch.

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