Industry: Manufacturing

Dixon Brooke, Jr.

  • September 29th, 2022

When F. Dixon Brooke, Jr. first visited Birmingham-based EBSCO Industries in 1970, a periodical subscription service provider to schools and libraries, he toured the Title Information Department and found the company’s database of titles was kept manually on Rolodex cards. When Brooke joined the company as a management trainee in 1973, EBSCO had begun to embrace technology. When Brooke became its third President and CEO of the company in 2005, EBSCO had become the largest supplier of information services in the world.

Today EBSCO’s reach spans an array of industries: it has a leading presence in outdoor products, real estate, manufacturing and distribution, and insurance and information services. EBSCO is consistently ranked in the top three largest privately-held firms in Alabama.

A Birmingham native, Brooke was born in 1948 and attended Marion Military Institute. He then completed his BBA degree at Auburn, graduating in 1970. After graduation, he worked for First National Bank of Birmingham and completed their management training program.

In 1973, Brooke joined EBSCO and later became a regional general manager for the Southeastern U.S. In 1981, he helped establish a new regional office in Sydney, Australia. Then, between the years of 1981 and 2003, he was instrumental in acquiring several competitor subscription agencies for EBSCO. Over the years, he assumed positions of increasing responsibility, culminating in his role as CEO from 2005 until retirement in 2014. As CEO, Brooke led EBSCO through the Great Recession, executing organizational re-engineering in a way that allowed EBSCO to emerge from the crisis stronger. During his time at EBSCO, Brooke was a member of EBSCO’s Founder’s Club, a member of EBSCO’s Lifetime 100% and 200% Sales Clubs, and awardee of the 1982 ESS GM of the Year award. He was named a Top Executive in Birmingham Business Journal’s Inaugural Power Book in 2008.

Brooke is personally committed to improving the quality of life in Birmingham and around the State. He has served as Chairman of the Birmingham ASO and led an Endowment Campaign to assure the Symphony’s continued success. In addition, Brooke led a transformational campaign to fund a new entrance and plaza at the Birmingham Zoo. Further, Brooke has received recognition for his leadership and support from numerous educational institutions, including Alumnus of the Year by Marion Military Institute, Distinguished Alumnus by the Altamont School, and Lifetime Achievement by McCallie School in Chattanooga.

Brooke serves on the Board of Directors of various organizations, both public and private. He is a long-term and Founding Director of Synovus Bank of Birmingham, as well as a Director of its holding company, Synovus Financial Corp. In addition, Brooke serves on the Boards of EBSCO Industries, Inc. and McWane, Inc.

Brooke married the former Dell Stephens in 1970, and they have three children: F. Dixon Brooke III, Nelson O’Hara Brooke, and Carter Brooke Vann, and seven grandchildren.

As avid outdoor enthusiasts and environmental stewards, the Brooke family worked with TNC & Forever Wild Land Trust to preserve and protect from development over 1,600 acres of EBSCO-owned land adjacent to Oak Mountain State Park in Birmingham. The addition of the land expands the size of the park to over 11,000 acres.

William McWane

  • October 26th, 2021

William McWane, who retired in 975 as Chairman of the Board of McWane Cast Iron Pipe Company (now McWane, Inc.) of Birmingham, Alabama, was born in 1898 in Wytheville, Virginia. In 1904, when he was six, the family moved to Birmingham where his father became president of the Birmingham Steel and Iron Company.

This only son of James Ransom and Ella Mae McCartney McWane graduated from Powell High School in Bir­mingham and then earned a degree in engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

William McWane then followed in the footsteps of his grandfather and father by enter­ing the foundry industry.

His grandfather, Charles Phillip McWane, had initiated the family’s involvement in the foundry business when he formed the C. P. McWane Foundry in Wytheville, Virginia, to produce plows and other farm equipment. (As a boy, C. P. McWane had spent many days around the blacksmith shop where his father James had worked with Cyrus McCormick in visualizing and manufacturing the world’s first successful reaper.)

After gaining experience in the foundry in Wytheville, William’s father with Henry and Authur McWane entered business for themselves in Lynchburg, Virginia, where they established the Lynchburg Foundry.

Then, in 1904, James R. McWane moved his family to the booming young city of Birmingham where he served as president of Birmingham Steel and Iron Company for four years.

A memento of that company still stands high above Birmingham on Red Mountain – the giant statue of Vulcan, which was originally cast for the St. Louis World’s Fair. Young William McWane watched as his father personally super­vised the casting of this world-renowned symbol of the Birmingham steel industry-Vulcan, the god of the forge. His father was also one of the largest contributors to the Vulcan Fund established by the Commercial Club. But, it is reported, the venture almost cost William’s father his career because he was not paid for his services in casting the statue.

William’s father James joined the American Cast Iron Pipe Company (ACIPCO) in 1908. He serv­ed as president of ACIPCO from 1915 to 1921, when he resigned to establish in 1922, the McWane Cast Iron and Pipe Company. Four years later, the company expanded with the crea­tion of Pacific States Cast Iron Pipe Company in Provo, Utah. The companies produced pipe, fittings, valves, and fire hydrants distributed nationwide.

In 1933, when James R. McWane died sudden­ly, thirty-five-year-old William McWane in­herited the responsibility of running a company that, like many others at the time, was deeply in debt because of the Great Depression.

As President, William Mc Wane set out to en­sure that the company would survive the Depres­sion and become debt-free. His goals were achieved by the late 1930′ s and the company had begun to achieve greater prosperity by the early 1940’s.

In 1945, William McWane became Chairman of the Board of McWane Cast Iron and Pipe Company, in which capacity he served until 1975.

During these years, the company began to ex­pand. DeBardeleben Coal Company was one of the companies acquired. As Empire Coke Com­pany, it is still an operating division of Mc Wane, Inc.

In 1975, ”Mr. Bill” (as many people who work­ed at the McWane and Pacific States cast iron companies called him) relinquished his title as Chairman of the Board to his son, James R. McWane, who had served as president since 1971. William McWane then served until his death in 1978 as Chairman of the Executive Committee of the family company which had been renamed McWane, Inc.

William McWane represents the third of the five generations of the McWane family to assume leadership as masters of the forge and foundry. Today, his son, James Ransom (the fourth generation) is chairman of the board of McWane, Inc., which has expanded into a thriv­ing multi-division corporation with operations in seven states and Canada. William McWane’s grandson, C. Phillip McWane, continues the family tradition as Director and Vice President of McWane, Inc.

William McWane’s contributions to Birmingham and the surrounding area were many. But, being a very private man, he often did not take credit for his industrial, business, and civic activities. He seemed to eschew publicity, preferring to remain in the background.

His picture did appear in the Birmingham News in 1945 when he was elected a director of the Birmingham Trust and Savings Company, and the caption under the picture cited him as a man “prominently identified with industrial, business, and civic activities.”

And, in order to promote the creation of the Birmingham Symphony orchestra, he let it be known that he was one of its early benefactors and supporters.

He was also a sponsor and benefactor of the Speies Clinic which was dedicated to the study of nutrition; and he was one of the directors of the Eye Foundation-both projects providing many benefits to the citizens of the state.

Like his father, William Mc Wane was a devotee of the game of golf. He was involved not only in playing for the fun of playing but also as a member of the United States Golf Associa­tion and of its rules committee for a number of years.

Quietly, William McWane exerted a beneficial influence on the economic, civic, and cultural life of the city where he lived for seventy-four years.

Sources of biographical information: “The Birmingham District: An Industrial History and Guide,” Birmingham Historical Socie­ty, 1981; Birmingham News, November 14, 1945; Leah Rawls Atkins, The Valley and the Hills: An IIustrated History of Bir­mingham and Jefferson County, sponsored by Birmingham­Jefferson County Historical Society.

Robert Herndon Radcliff, Jr.

  • October 26th, 2021

As an astute business executive and an active leader in civic affairs, Robert Hern­don Radcliff, Jr., has been instrumental in the devel­opment of Mobile, Ala­bama, into a modem port city. In 1987, he retired as Chairman of the Board of Midstream Fuel Company -only one of the several marine businesses in which the Radcliffs have been leaders since 1917.

Robert Herndon Rad­cliff, Jr., the son of Robert Herndon and Lucy Shields Leatherbury Radcliff, was born on November 14, 1917 – the same year that his father formed Radcliff Gravel Company and began producing the raw materials (sand and gravel) from the Alabama River and operating a retail construction material business.

Young Robert attended the Mobile public schools and graduated from Murphy High School in 1936. After attending Virginia Military Institute for a year, he returned home to help his father in rebuilding the family business, which like so many others, had suffered bankruptcy in 1932.

Robert Radcliff, Jr., has since said that he thought his father “a terrible taskmaster at times, but I was soon to know that what he taught me was terribly important.”

In June 1940, Robert Radcliff, Jr., married Dorothy Eugenia Greer. (they subsequently had four children: Eugenia Greer, Lucy Leatherbury, Robert Herndon, and Barton Greer Radcliff.)

In 1941, Robert Radcliff, Sr. died, still owing the bank a great deal of money. Twenty-three-year-old Robert Jr. was faced with the dilemma of paying off the debt and keeping the company solvent.

At the advice of his uncle, Ernest Ladd, Sr., he sought a partner with financial strength. He found support from his uncle, Frank L. Leather­bury, who became a 51 % partner until such time as the company was in sound position and the bank loan satisfied. For Frank Leatherbury’s support and generosity, Robert Radcliff has said, “I shall ever be grateful.”

In 1946, Radcliff Gravel Company became one of four companies that merged to form Southern Industries. This first holding company or con­glomerate in Mobile was the ”brainchild” of Edward A. Roberts, former chair­man of Waterman Steam­ship Company. The in­dividual companies­Radcliff Gravel, McPhillips Mfg. (a seafood business), Biloxi Grit (pro­ducers of shell for the poultry business), and Ewin Engineering Co.-were allowed much leeway in their operations. Southern Industries became one of the largest Corporations in Mobile; it was sold to Dravo Corporation in 1977.

In 1947, Robert Radcliff, Jr., was made a direc­tor of Southern Industries. He became president in 1954 and president and CEO in 1964 after the founder Ed Roberts died.

In 1972, after the directors of Southern In­dustries turned down an offer to buy Bauer Dredging (a world-wide dredging company), Robert Radcliff received permission from the directors to personally buy that company. When he bought the dredging company, he resigned from Southern Industries. He and his son Hern­don (who was in the marine business) entered into the new venture with enthusiasm. But, after Herndon’s untimely death in 1973 in a polo game, Robert Radcliff lost interest in pursuing the business. He sold Bauer Dredging to Bean Company of New Orleans in 1974.

Robert Radcliff’s desire to return to business emerged once more with the organization of Radcliff Marine Services Company. The new company obtained a five-year contract to tow oil for the Marion Corporation of Theodore, AL. From this venture stemmed Tenn Tom Towing Co., Midstream Fuel Service, and Pepco, a land side wholesale and retail fuel supplier. Radcliff Marine Service also had contracts to tow crude oil along the Gulf Coast and completed a $6 million sub contract on I-10 across Mobile Bay.

Robert Radcliff, Jr., served as president and CEO of these companies (which consolidated as Midstream Fuel Company) until his retirement in 1984. He remained as chairman of the board and director until 1987.

In July 1987, he joined his son Greer in form­ing Radcliff Marine and Fuel Company. Although Robert Radcliff owns one-half of the company, he has left the successful operation to his son and is enjoying his retirement which pro­vides time for fishing, hunting, and playing tennis-pleasures he hadn’t had time to pursue very much before.

In addition to his part in development of the marine business, Robert Radcliff, Jr., has played a leading role in all areas of community activity.

In the past, he has served as a director of Southern Co., Atlanta, Georgia; Alabama Power Company, Birmingham; Merchants Na­tional Bank of Mobile; Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta; Blount Inc. of Montgomery; L&N Railroad, Louisville, Kentucky; CSX Railroad, Richmond, Virginia; Seaboard Coastline Railroad, Jacksonville, Florida; Colonial Sugar Co., Title Insurance Co., and Ryan Walsh Stevedoring Co. in Mobile; Grand Hotel Cor­poration in Point Clear, Alabama.

He is currently a director of the Bank of Mobile and Bedsole Medical Supply, as well as a director of M. W. Smith Lumber Co. and E. A. Roberts Estate.

He has been a member and director of the Alabama State Chamber of Commerce; the Mobile Chamber of Commerce; the Warrior Tombigbee Development Association; the Coosa Alabama Improvement Association; and the American Manufacturers Association.

He has been a member of the Executive Com­mittee of the Boy Scouts of America; a member and vice president of the Rotary Club; a Fellow of Mobile College; and a director of UMS Preparatory School, the Mobile Arts and Sports Association, and the Senior Bowl. He was a Founding member of Mobile United and of America’s Junior Miss Pageant.

In 1967, after serving as Chairman of the United Fund, he became the 19th citizen to be honored by the Civitan Club as “Mobilian of the Year” -for his leadership in many facets of com­munity life. He was attending a national Associa­tion of Manufacturers Convention in New York when he received a telephone call about this honor. His responses reflect the tenor of this outstanding business executive and civic leader. “That’s just wonderful;” “I really appreciate this;” and “How did this come about?”

Robert Radcliff, Jr. states simply about his business career that “the Radcliffs have loved the marine business, the rivers, the barges, dredges, tows, and tugs for three generations.” The com­panies with which he ha? been associated over the years “have dredged sand and gravel from the Alabama and Tombigbee Rivers, shell from the Gulf Coast waters from Texas to Tallahassee, Florida.” They have “pushed coal, rock, and crude on the Tenn Tom River system from as far as Caving Rock, Illinois, to ports on the Gulf Coast.”

And he is pleased that his grandson, Robert Herndon Radcliff, IV, employed by Radcliff Marine and Fuel, Inc., is carrying to the fourth generation the Radcliff love of the exciting marine business.

Robert Radcliff, Jr. seems to take no credit for his contributions to his native city – but Mobile, and Alabama – will remember him.

Samuel Paul Noble

  • October 26th, 2021

Samuel Noble was the founder of Anniston, Alabama, which he envisioned as “the model city of the South.” He was an iron­ master and entrepreneur who helped Alabama’s recovery after the War Between the States by building this industrial base in Northeast Alabama.

The son of James and Jennifer (Ward) Noble, he was born in Cornwall, England, on November 22, 1834, but grew up in Reading, Pennsylvania, where his family had settled after emigrating in 1837. His father, an ironmaster, worked for a railroad until he could build a foundry.

Samuel Noble and his brother grew up in an atmosphere of furnace and forge. Young Samuel began learning his father’s craft at an early age by working in the foundry during school vacations. According to reports, he was always energetic. As a teenager, he was “full of both fun and work.” He belonged to the Reading Hose Fire Company, to a literary and debating group called the “Washington Club,” and a social dancing club. He also read law books and was interested in politics. During his years in Reading, Samuel Noble made many friends and contacts which proved useful to the family’s business in later years.

In 1855, when Samuel Noble was 21, the Nobles moved to Rome, Georgia, where they established James Noble and Sons. The Noble Ironworks soon became the largest of its kind south of the Tredegar Works in Richmond, Virginia. The enterprise included a foundry, rolling mill, nail factory, and stove and hollow wire factory, capable of making a variety of products

– from steam engines to boilers to iron bridges to mine equipment. One of the most famous products was the first railroad locomotive manufactured South of Richmond.

When the War Between the States began, the company obtained government contracts to produce iron products – such as cannons, cannon carriers, and caissons for the Confederate Army. The company experienced a setback when the uninsured carriage house and rifle factory in Rome were destroyed by fire, but about the same time obtained another government con­tract to build a new furnace. The result was Cornwall Furnace in Cherokee County, Alabama.

Samuel Noble took an active part in the Cornwall project, first as an overseer of the construction of the furnace and then as superintendent of its operation. He frequently made the 48-mile journey from the furnace site and back in one day – a strenuous trip in the 1860s.

Both the ironworks in Rome and the Cornwall Furnace were destroyed by Federal forces in 1864.

Samuel Noble had early emerged as the leader and spokesman of the family, perhaps because he was gifted with a hard, keen sense and practical energy. After the war, he secured capital from the North not only to rebuild the ironworks in Rome but also to buy extensive brownore properties and a large acreage of yellow pine for charcoal in Calhoun County, Alabama.

Samuel Noble traveled a great deal – raising capital or marketing the products of the Noble Iron Works. On a trip to Charleston, South Carolina, he met General Daniel Tyler, a capitalist from New York. Samuel Noble’s enthusiasm about the potential of the Alabama ore fields impressed General Tyler so much that he went with Noble to explore them. The result of this exploration was the formation of the Woodstock Iron Company in 1872, with General Tyler’s son Alfred as president and Samuel Noble as general manager.

By April 1873, the company had built and lit a forty-ton blast furnace (called No. 1 Furnace), and thus a new Alabama industry was born. The town of Anniston – named for General Tyler’s wife Annie – was established that same year.

No. 1 Furnace produced a high quality of carwheel iron which found a ready market in the North. The steady demand for this iron enabled the Woodstock Iron Company to survive the panic and depression of the 1870s. By 1879 the company was able to construct Furnace No. 2 and by 1880 to enlarge No. 1.

Anniston started in 1873 as a “company town” in a clearing in the woods – but not an ordinary one. Samuel Noble set out to make a model city. He laid out streets and parks. He provided lots for churches. He erected schools. The careful planning attracted wide attention.

In the 1880s Anniston grew by leaps and bounds, especially after 1883 when the Woodstock Company (which had retained possession of all property) formally opened the town to the public and encouraged new industries. Within fifteen years, Anniston had attracted over $11 million in capital investments.

Samuel Noble played a large part in the economic development of Anniston. He and his associates organized the Clifton Iron Company at Ironaton and built two 40-ton charcoal furnaces and also enlarged an older one called Jenifer. He acquired coal companies and constructed two 200-ton coke furnaces to make pig iron for the manufacture of cast iron pipe – a pioneer enterprise embodied in the Anniston Pipe Works Company organized in 1887. He was also instrumental in the construction of a cotton mill with 12,000 spindles.

Besides providing employment through industrial expansion, Samuel Noble enhanced community life by opening the Anniston Inn, which became a gathering place for both residents and visitors. He also launched the town’s first newspaper, The Hot Blast. He and General Tyler built the Grace Episcopal Church in Anniston.

Samuel Noble was known in the city he founded as a man who gave generously to every cause, race, and sect, and as one who earned the loyalty of his friends and employees. He was once described as a man who “put as much labor on his mental and physical forces in one hour as most men do in a year.”

Samuel Noble died suddenly on August 14, 1888, at age 53. This industrial pioneer had served Alabama well. He had established the foundations of a modern city and an industrial base in Northeast Alabama during the most difficult economic periods in the state’s history.

Source of biographical information: Grace Hooten Gates, The Model City of the New South: Anniston, Alabama, 1872 – 1900, Huntsville, AL: The Strode Publishers, Inc., 1978.

J. Reese Phifer

  • October 26th, 2021

Reese Phifer, Chairman, and CEO of Phifer Wire Products, Inc., has been called the prototype of an entrepreneur. Reese Phifer, Chairman, and CEO of Phifer Wire Products, Inc., has been called the prototype of an entrepreneur. In 1952, he rented an old, vacant warehouse in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and set up a small, five­loom weaving operation which he called Phifer Aluminum Screen Company. From this humble beginning arose Phifer Wire Products, Inc.

This corporation today sells its products in all fifty states and exports products to over 125 countries. The corporation, still locally owned and operated, has also become one of West Alabama’s largest and most respected corporate citizens.

One of three sons of William and Olga Gough Phifer, Reese Phifer was born on February 19, 1916, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where for many years his father owned and operated a grocery store in Tuscaloosa’s West End. During his years in the public schools, the young man was a good student as well as a good athlete. In high school, he was one of the area’s outstanding athletes and later (in 1968) was named to the Tuscaloosa High School Football “Hall of Fame.”

After graduating from Tuscaloosa High School, Reese Phifer entered The University of Alabama and earned a B.S. degree in commerce in 1938 and a law degree in 1940. With the advent of World War II, he served as a pilot in the Army Air Force and logged many hours flying the famous P-51 Mustang.

After his discharge from the service, Reese Phifer returned to his hometown to resume his career as a lawyer. He served briefly as an Assistant City Solicitor for the City of Tuscaloosa before entering private practice.

While practicing law, he conceived the idea of a wire-screening weaving operation. After two years of studying the feasibility of setting up such an operation, he established in 1952 a manufacturing plant that would eventually become the world’s largest producer of woven screen wire. The original company, Phifer Aluminum Screen Company, was soon renamed Phifer Wire Products and by 1956 had moved to larger facilities. Installation of fine wire drawing equipment enabled the company to produce the .013-inch diameter wire necessary to weave insect screening. Later a large breakdown mill allowed the company to have more control over the final product. From the very beginning, Reese Phifer put major emphasis on “Quality, Service, and Delivery.”

In 1963, Phifer Wire Products, under Reese Phifer’s leadership, developed a totally new product – a woven, all-aluminum screening which acts as a solar screen to help keep out solar rays and solar heat gain. This Phifer invention, marketed under the brand name SunScreen, gave the company an exclusive product to add to its product line.

In 1974, Phifer adapted the aluminum SunScreen concept to the new fiberglass yarns, because in 1970 Reese Phifer had the foresight to initiate the construction of a fiberglass weaving plant with the finest weaving machines available.

In the 1970s the company continued to expand and modernize its facilities, as well as to search for new products and markets. A new warehouse and shipping facility as well as a yarn-coating division, a chemical division, and a new international headquarters office building were all constructed in the Kauloosa Ave. Industrial Park area. Phifer Wire Products, Inc. emerged as the most modern and efficient plant in the world for the production of aluminum and fiberglass insect screening.

In 1982, the company added another woven product, Phifertex, a vinyl-coated product widely used in the outdoor and leisure furniture market.

Today, Phifer products – all manufactured in Tuscaloosa – may be seen by customers in Phifer warehouses and sales offices in Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, New York, Salt Lake City, St. Petersburg, or Honolulu. The company’s corporate aircraft is used extensively by the home office sales team in Tuscaloosa to work with salespeople and customers in the field, and to regularly bring in customers and potential customers to Tuscaloosa. The company’s fleet of modern tractor-trailer trucks travel over a million miles a tear to make deliveries to customers from coast to coast and to all major ports for export abroad.

Under the leadership of Reese Phifer, the company has achieved national and international recognition. In 1984, he was a special guest of President Ronald Reagan at the White House to receive the prestigious “E” Award in recognition of the company’s success in export sales. He had realized early on that the seasonal demand for screen wire reached its peak every summer, so he turned to exports to countries with seasons opposite the U.S.A.

Also under his leadership, Phifer Wire Products has always been an equal opportunity employer. In 1981, Phifer was presented the very first Human Rights Award ever given by the local NAACP organization. In 1988, Phifer Wire Products was the recipient of the Presidential “C” Award. The familiar “We Can…We Care” Award was initiated to recognize companies such as Phifer for corporate involvement in such areas as education, drug abuse, job training and assistance to the handicapped. Also, under Reese Phifer’s leadership, job opportunities have been made available to physically challenged and mentally handicapped persons, disabled veterans, and persons with hearing problems; and the company has always felt fortunate and grateful to the employees who do such an outstanding job.

Through the years, Reese Phifer has made many contributions to The University of Alabama through Phifer Wire Products as well as the Reese Phifer, Jr. Memorial Trust, the charitable arm of the company which was established in 1964 in memory of Reese Phifer, Jr., who died in an airplane accident.

In recognition of Reese Phifer’s continuing support of The University of Alabama, the Board of Trustees this year named the Old Union Building (which now houses the College of Communications) Reese Phifer Hall.

Reese Phifer has always had a vision of the American Dream – based on hard work, ingenuity, and innovation – as well as a sense of social responsibility. Phifer Wire Products, Inc. represents his fulfillment of that dream and reflects the vision of its founder, now Chairman and CEO.

Other officers of this family-owned, Tuscaloosa-based, international industry are members of Reese Phifer’s family. His wife, Sue Clarkson Phifer, is Senior Vice President; his oldest daughter Beverly Phifer serves as President; daughters Karen Phifer Brooks and Susan Phifer Cork serve as Vice Presidents; sons-in-law Brad Cork and Jim Brooks serve as Senior Executive Vice Presidents.

Today, the Phifers and Phifer Wire Products, Inc. continue to chart a course which opens windows to the future and around the world.

Eugene Cleveland Gwaltney

  • October 26th, 2021

Eugene Cleveland Gwaltney, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Russell Corporation based in Alexander City, Alabama, has been with the company for 39 years and is still enthusiastic about his work and the textile industry. Just last year (in June 1990 Textile World) he was quoted as saying, “So many new procedures are coming onstream… The next ten years are going to be exciting times.”

In an industry that has been battered by a flood of imports, Russell Corporation under Eugene Gwaltney’s leadership has emerged as a world-class manufacturer of activewear and sports uniforms, ready to compete in the world market. He has been an innovator since he became- President and CEO in 1972. He is still an innovator, as indicated by his being chosen by Fortune (Spring/Summer 1991) as one of twenty-five business people who exemplify those in the United States who are helping America become a stronger competitor. These people generate ideas and put them into action.

Eugene Cleveland Gwaltney was born in Rock Hill, South Carolina, on January 25, 1918. After graduating from high school in Macon, Georgia, he entered Georgia Tech from which he earned a B.S.M.E. in 1940. His graduate study at M.I.T. came to a halt when the United States entered World War II. He served in the Army Corps of Engineers from 1941 to 1945, and he held the rank of major when he was discharged.

Before joining Russell in 1952 as Director of Research and Quality Control, he held positions with Burlington Mills, Arlind Corporation, and Robert & Company. By 1957, he had been named General Superintendent at Russell; by 1960, Vice President and Director; by 1968, President and Chief Operations Officer.

When he became President and CEO in 1972, Russell Corporation was earning about 3% on sales of $75 million. The prevailing industry wisdom at that time was to keep capital spending down, but Eugene Gwaltney disagreed with this philosophy. This “maverick of the textile industry,” as he has since been called, initiated capital spending on the modernization of all facets of the Russell operation.

He believed then, as he does now, that companies should not worry about 90-day progress reports. Companies should plan for the long term and be willing to invest in new technology today in order to ensure profits in the future.

Eugene Gwaltney’s philosophy has proved a valid one. Within three years after he became President and CEO, Russell’s profit from sales had doubled from 3% to 6%. In 1980, Russell was cited by Textile World as the Model Mill for the Eighties. By 198•4, Russell was earning 8% on sales of $353 million, almost double the industry average. By 1990, sales had reached $688 million, and Fortune 500 ranked Russell Corp. fourteenth in total return to shareholders during the previous decade. As the last decade of the 20th century began, Eugene Gwaltney said he hoped that Russell would also be the model mill for the 1990s, and it well might be.

Today Russell Corp. (once primarily a producer of ladies undergarments) is a vertically integrated, international manufacturer and marketer of leisure apparel, activewear, athletic uniforms, better-knit shirts, and a comprehensive line of lightweight yarn-dyed woven fabrics.

The company has become known worldwide for its continued modernization, acquisition, and innovative equipment investments. In every aspect of its vertical operation-from raw fiber to finished fabric to garment-Russell is continually seeking quality. For example, there is now a test and evaluation facility which helps management assess new machinery for plants in operation or on the drawing board. The company has also invested in a ginning operation to experiment in producing quality fibers.

While the corporation continues to modernize and expand its operations in the U.S. and abroad (in 1990, a sweatshirt and T-shirt manufacturing plant in Scotland became UK-Russell), Eugene Gwaltney has never lost sight of the value of Russell employees in the success of the company. He has created a climate in which employees want to learn new ways of doing things because they realize that profits occur only if everyone makes 100% effort. He believes in “hands-on management” and trains each group of new managers to be ready to “roll up their sleeves” to make new projects work.

There are exemplary childcare, education, and employee assistance programs, as well as a system of rewarding workers for a job well done.

Faith in the corporation is reflected by the fact that there are second, third, and fourth generation workers in the Alexander City operations. Also, almost everyone in senior management has been a Russell employee for a minimum of twenty years. Everyone at Russell knows the company is secure and that each person has a part in its success.

Russell Corporation has, of course, played a major role in the development of Alexander City, Alabama, since Benjamin Russell founded Russell Manufacturing Company in 1902. The family name is on the local high school, the stadium, and the hospital.

Eugene Gwaltney has extended the corporation’s involvement in the welfare of the community and its citizens through, for example, emphasis on the importance of education. Today young people seeking employment at Russell must not only have a high school diploma or

G.E.D. but also must exhibit the needed capabilities in math and reading skills required for their intended jobs. Parents working at Russell are encouraged to take part in their children’s education. Employees can take time off with pay for any requested parent-teacher conferences.

Eugene Gwaltney serves Alexander City as chairman of the Russell Hospital Board of Trustees and as vice chairman of the First National Bank of Alexander City.

Through the years, Eugene Gwaltney has also found time to serve as President of the National Knitwear Manufacturing Association and the Alabama Textile Manufacturing Association. He has been a director of the American Textile Manufacturing Institute, of the Alabama Chamber of Commerce, and of the Federal Reserve Bank in Birmingham.

He has lent his expertise and his support to higher education in Alabama through service as a member of the Board of Visitors of the College of Commerce and the Manderson Graduate School of Business at The University of Alabama; as a trustee at Birmingham-Southern College and Tuskegee Institute; and as a member of the Georgia Tech National Advisory Board.

He is currently a trustee emeritus of the Georgia Tech Foundation, as well as a member of the Alabama Management Improvement Institute and the Alabama Study Commission.

For his leadership and contributions, Eugene Gwaltney has received numerous awards. In 1976 he was the recipient of the MIT Corporate Leadership Award. In 1978, he was named Alexander City “Man of the Year,” and, in 1982, the New York Board of Trade ”Textile Man of the Year.” In 1987, he was an honoree of the American Apparel Education Foundation. In 1988, he received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from The University of Alabama in Birmingham.

Eugene C. Gwaltney, who is married to the former Nancy Russell, is probably the last of the family who will manage Russell Corporation. But this corporation, still 40% family-owned, will surely continue to be competitive in the world market because of Eugene Gwaltney’s philosophy of calculated investment in the best machinery, the best people, and the best marketing tools.

“We decided to be the best,” Eugene Gwaltney once said. And the best is what the corporation is and probably will be.

William Houston Blount

  • October 26th, 2021

William Houston Blount has had a long and remarkable record of achievement and leadership in the corporate world and in many facets of community life. He was born in Union Springs in Bullock County, Alabama, on January 3, 1922, one of the sons of Winton M. Blount, Sr., and Clara Belle Chalker Blount. He attended Union Springs High School and Staunton Military Academy before entering the business school at The University of Alabama in 1940 where he completed his sophomore year before enlisting in the United States Navy Air Corps after the onset of World War II. Within one year, he had received his wings. (In that same year – 1943 – he married Frances Dean of Birmingham, Alabama. They are the parents of three daughters and two sons: Barbara (Viar); Beverly (McNeil); Frances (Kansteiner); William Houston, Jr.; and David.) Houston Blount later (in 1959) continued his education at Harvard in the Advanced Management Program.

After discharge from the service, he began his corporate career as a partner in Blount Brothers Corporation based in Montgomery, Alabama (now Blount, Inc., of which he is still a director). Between 1946 and 1957, he was President and Director of Southeastern Sand & Gravel Company of Tallassee, Alabama, and Vice President of Southern Cen-Vi-Ro Pipe Corporation of Birmingham.

In 1957, he began his thirty-five-year association with Vulcan Materials Company, as the President of the Concrete Pipe Division. His astute business and leadership skills led to a rapid rise up the corporate ladder. Within two years he had been named Corporate Vice President, Marketing, and a Director and then to Executive Vice President, Construction Materials Group, a member of the Executive Committee, and a Director.

By 1977, he had become President and Chief Executive Officer of Vulcan Materials Company, as well as a member of the Executive and Finance Committees and a Director. By 1983, he had become Chairman of the Board, retaining his positions as CEO, member of the Executive and Finance Committee, and Director. In 1992, he became Chairman of the Board Emeritus.

Throughout his rise up the corporate ladder, Houston Blount fostered growth in Vulcan Materials Company. The company today is the largest producer of construction aggregates in the United States (crushed stone and a diversified line of aggregates and construction materials necessary for highways, public works projects, housing offices, and stores). The company is also recognized as one of the nation’s leading producers of basic industrial chemicals.

Vulcan’s customers are now served by 129 stone quarries, three chemical plants, and approximately 127 other production and distribution facilities. The construction materials and chemical “Segments also operate advanced research and development laboratories in Birmingham, Alabama, and in Wichita, Kansas. After Houston Blount became Chairman of the Board Emeritus in 1992, the current Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Vulcan Materials stated in the company’s annual report that Houston Blount’s “contributions to the Board during the years he served as a member and his leadership as Chairman have had, and will continue to have, a significant impact on the company. He was instrumental in attracting to the Board highly competent and respected leaders from industry, academia, and the public sector.”

Houston Blount has also fostered the development of the community and state by his contributions of time, support, and expertise to many of the facets vital to the welfare of citizens.

For example, he still serves on the Board of Directors of the: Alabama School of Arts Foundation; Birmingham Area Council, the Boy Scouts of America; Birmingham Football Foundation; Eye Foundation Hospital; University of Alabama Health Services Foundation; and the Friends of Psychiatry, the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He serves on the Board of Trustees of Birmingham Museum of Art, and he is a member and past Chairman of the Board of Birmingham-Southern College. He is co-chairman of the Birmingham Plan, a corporate and civic project to increase participation by women and minorities in the city’s economic development.

He is also chairman of the Management Improvement Program initiated by Alabama’s governor. In 1987, he was appointed Chairman of the Alabama State Docks Advisory Committee and, in 1989, a member of the Advisory Committee for Mental Health and Mental Retardation. In 1991, he was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the Alabama Heritage Trust Fund.

In addition to serving on boards of organizations vital to the well-being of a well­ rounded community, Houston Blount has been active in fund-raising efforts for these essential components.

For example, he has been a catalyst in fund­ raising for the American Cancer Society; the Baptist Medical Center; the Arthritis Foundation; the Children’s Hospital; the Heart Hospital; the March of Dimes; and the United Way.

He has also helped raise funds for the Alabama Association of Independent Colleges and Universities; Birmingham-Southern College; and the University of the South. He has been active in fund drives for the Birmingham Area Alliance of Business (TOPS Program); for Junior Achievement; Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs; Boy Scouts of America; Cahaba Scout Council; YMCA; and the National Council of Christians and Jews. He received the Silver Beaver and the Silver Antelope awards from the Boy Scouts of America.

He is a member of Canterbury United Methodist Church in Mountain Brook and serves on its Administrative Board. He formerly served on Canterbury’s Board of Stewards and Finance Committee. He is a member of the Rotary Club and former chairman of its Membership Committee. He is a member and past chairman of the board of the Ethics Resource Center, Washington, D. C.

He serves on the Distribution Committee of the Greater Birmingham Foundation and on the Allocation Committee of the Hugh Kaul Foundation. He is also a member of the Finance Committee for the Robert E. Lee Memorial Association; and he and Mrs. Blount co-chair the Planning Committee for Stratford Hall, the ancestral home of the Lees of Virginia. He also serves on the board of the VF Corporation.

For his multi-faceted contributions, Houston Blount has been recognized by State and local groups. In 1981, he was elected to the Alabama Academy of Honor. He has been awarded two honorary Doctor of Laws degrees – by Birmingham-Southern College in 1983 and by the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1987.

In 1984, he was the recipient of the Greater Birmingham Community Service award.

In 1986, he was the recipient of two honors. The Alabama Chapter of the National Society of Fund-raising Executives named him co­ recipient of the 1986 Outstanding Philanthropist Award. And the Oxmoor Chapter of the American Business Women’s Association chose him as Employer of the Year.

In April 1993, he received the Entrepreneurial Award at the third College of Commerce and Business Administration Alumni Reunion and Awards Banquet at the Capstone, his alma mater. He was cited for the use of his expertise in the development of a thriving business.

Houston Blount has retired from his corporate life but not from his active participation in the many facets of community life. He continues to serve.

Frank L. Mason

  • October 25th, 2021

In 1947, Mr. Sam Mason was having a hard time making a go of things with his business, Southeastern Tool & Die Company. Aluminum window screens were still new then, and the firm that originally only manufactured tools and dies had added three-screen parts to its production line, right as Mr. Mason’s health was beginning to fail.

“At that time,” recalls Frank L. Mason, “I really had not thought too much about starting with the company … It was more an effort to help my father. He’d helped me all his life.” So, the loyal son laid aside his mechanical engineering studies at The University of Alabama to go into business with his father. It was the first of a lot of smart business decisions the 1982 Alabama Small Business Person of the Year would make in his career.

Frank L. Mason was born May 7, 1924, to Sam Mason and Ruth Jacobs Mason in Birmingham, Alabama. He completed three semesters at The University of Alabama before enlisting in the U.S. Navy, where he completed flight training immediately prior to the end of World War II. Shortly after he went to work with his father, the company was incorporated on April 1, 1948, just five days after Frank Mason had wed Bess Powell Cooper. He received 25 percent of the stock at that time, and the business was incorporated, going on to change its name to the Mason Corporation in 1969.

Today Frank Mason is chairman of the board of his firm, which now manufactures aluminum building products for the home improvement industry, as well as some commercial building products. The Mason Corporation home office is still located in Birmingham, but the concern has grown to include locations in Dallas, Texas; Kansas City, Missouri; Raleigh and Charlotte, North Carolina; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Edison, New Jersey. The latest stats on the company show that it has more than 400,000 square feet in total building area, more than 180 employees at eight locations, and offers some 3,000 market items.

Over the years Mr. Mason’s entrepreneurial expertise prompted the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to put him on its board of directors and its Small Business Council. A strong advocate of sharing profits with employees, he served a stint as chairman of the Profit Sharing Council of America, an organization of companies that have profit-sharing plans. He just recently stepped down from that body’s board of directors and served as a director for the Alabama Profit Sharing Council. Profit-sharing, Frank Mason says, is one way of showing the employee he or she is important, and it makes good business sense. “With profit-sharing, you’re really following with deeds what you’re saying with words … it’s a matter of mutual interest and welfare of the company,” he says. And Mr. Mason did indeed back up his words with deeds: his company began profit-sharing as soon as it got on its feet in the early 1950s.

He has been on the National Advisory Council for the Small Business Administration, chairman of the Employee Benefits Committee for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and served as the second-ever chairman of the Business Council of Alabama, as well as on its board of directors. He was a member of The University of Alabama College of Commerce and Business Administration Board of Visitors. And the list goes on.

As president of the board of directors of the Alabama Chamber of Commerce, he has been a leader in the state’s push to become a player on the global business scene, stressing teamwork as the necessary element for success in such ventures. “If Alabama is to reach its full international development potential, it will be because we have all worked together to make it happen,” he was known for saying at one point.

In 1980 he was singled out by the Women’s Committee of 100 in Birmingham as the Citizen of the Year and earned his Small Business Person of the Year honors soon after that. At one point he was the member representing small businesses on the Labor and Agriculture Advisory Council for the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Two times he chaired the Alabama delegation to the White House Conference on Small Business, once in 1980 and then again in 1986. He is currently vice president of the Treasure Forest Landowners Association of Alabama, president of the Alabama Farm Owners Association and serves on the board of Canterbury United Methodist Church in Birmingham.

Over the years as he combined his business interests and natural bent for leadership, Frank Mason found himself drawn to the political arena. He became one of the first two Republicans elected to office in Jefferson County, Alabama when he won the race for justice of the peace in 1956. In 1958 he was the first Republican candidate for the U.S. Congress from Jefferson County. Then, in 1976 he served as an alternate delegate pledged to (now) former U.S. President Ronald Reagan at the Kansas City National Republican Convention; and was a delegate, again pledged to Reagan, at the Detroit Convention in 1980. He served his state in the very visible position of member, and then chairman of the State Ethics Commission during the first half of the 1990s.

Remembering his early years in the business of politics, he says he did not run for justice of the peace because he coveted the position, but because, as a Republican, he believed voters in the heavily Democratic Alabama should have a choice. They agreed; he won. That victory spurred him on to his other efforts.

“I think that small business has some real assets to bring to the political process,” says Mr. Mason. “It’s easy for people passing laws and regulations to overlook the impact of them … A person who has had to mortgage his house to meet a Friday payroll looks at spending differently than if he has never had that experience. So, I think there is validity to the small business perspective in managing government.”

Although retired from day-to-day participation in the management of the business that became his life, Mr. Mason has not retired in the traditional sense. He spends his time now on a farm of some 3,000 acres in North Alabama, where he is involved in efforts to enhance the wildlife populations of the area, and where he works about 80 head of cattle, planning to expand even more in that area. He says he enjoys meeting new people who share these interests he is able to devote more time to now, as he enjoys using talents and skills entirely different than those called for in the metal and building products industry.

Asked how he would like to be remembered, Frank L. Mason does not have to ponder long on his answer.

“I guess being remembered as a person of integrity would be about the best thing you could think of,” he says.

Elton B. Stephens

  • October 11th, 2021

Elton Stephens believes anyone can successfully sell anything.

Founder and chairman of the board of EBSCO Industries, Inc., Elton Bryson Stephens was born August 4, 1911, to parents Clara Stuckey and James Nelson Stephens in Clio, Alabama. A small-town boy, 11 Elton quickly learned the value of money. “When I was four, I had pneumonia, and I remember my father often standing over my crib and entertaining me,” Elton once recalled fondly. “He once tried to swap me a nickel for a dime saying it was bigger and had more value. He kept asking me why didn’t I want it, but I didn’t fall for that one.”

What Elton did fall for was a love of busi­ness. As a youngster, he would rise early to milk the family’s cows, then bottle and sell the milk before school. He also sold an odd mix of newspapers, suits, sandwiches, and Cloverine Salve, thereby setting a pattern he would follow with EBSCO in the years to come; it would not seem odd to him that a company known for its printing and distribution capacities could also excel in the manufacture of fishing line.

In 1928, after graduating from Barbour County High School, Elton set off for Birmingham-Southern College with just $125. To cover the rest of his costs, the enterprising young man worked full-time as a salesman in a local dry goods store. Summers were spent working for Butterick, selling subscriptions to that once-famous dress pattern maker’s magazine, and in 1930 Elton and five friends hitchhiked north to Michigan to sell subscriptions door-to-door all day. “That first year, I saved $500 and that’s like several thousand today,” he remembers. “That meant I didn’t have to work as much during the school year, so I could study more.” Study and concentrate on his college romance with Alys Varian Robinson, whom he dated for seven years before the two married. That marriage, which lasted until Alys Stephens’ death in 1996, took place in 1935, after Elton had graduated from Birmingham-Southern and before he completed his last year of law school at The University of Alabama. The couple had four children: James T. Stephens, Jane Stephens Comer, Elton B. Stephens, Jr., and Dell Stephens Brooke.

Elton had continued selling subscriptions as he worked to complete his education, even hiring other students to work for him, including fellow Barbour County boy George Wallace, who would later become governor of Alabama. After graduating from law school, Elton found that he could earn only $75 a month as a lawyer while selling magazines would bring in some $100 a week. He chose the magazine route and kept selling and hiring others to sell. In 1937 he obtained a franchise with Keystone Readers Service, a middleman between subscribers and publishers of such magazines as the Saturday Evening Post and Ladies Home Journal. Basing his operation in Birmingham, Alabama, Elton soon had salesmen hawking titles all over the Southeast, including – as World War II began – at nearby Fort McClellan. That went so well he branched out to other military bases and was able to save to start his own business.

EBSCO quickly expanded; Elton saw the need for magazine racks at Fort McClellan and other places and formed Vulcan Industries to make them. Soon after, along came an EBSCO publishing and bindery company to help keep the racks full of reading matter, and later a printing plant. Then there was the need for military recreational equipment and furnishings for the officers’ clubs, so EBSCO eventually found itself handling carpeting and drapery, with a plant in Georgia, and managing military entertainment, with the purchase of National Billiard, America’s old­est pool table company.

And so it went through the years, one thing leading to another. EBSCO Industries is now so diverse it deals with everything from investments to library periodicals, plastic fishing lures to steel joists, indoor advertising to realty, with Elton’s love of selling seemingly forever moving the company forward into new markets. With headquarters still in Birmingham, EBSCO sells its products throughout the United States and has operations in more than 30 states and almost 20 foreign countries, including Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Korea, South Africa, Taiwan, France, Greece, Canada, and Turkey.

As EBSCO grew into a worldwide empire, Elton was very clear about his goals. As listed in Who’s Who, they encompass both the capitalistic and altruistic aspects of his personality:

“Invest/reinvest earnings to create employment/profits for growth/expansion. Support worthwhile projects including but not limited to education, health, religion, needy, cultural arts, boys/girls clubs, law enforcement, conservation, nature, water resources. Share profits and protect the welfare and health of employees with a major catastrophic medical program. These philosophies built a company I started in 1943 with capital of $5,000 and sales under $1,000,000, and fewer than 20 employees to annual sales of more than $1 billion on June 30, 1997; over 4,000 employees and 100 profit centers operating worldwide with adequate capital to continue growth. Built with retained earnings and borrowed money.”

It was Elton’s frustration with borrowing money early in his business career that led him in 1981, at the age of 70, to begin a sec­ond career – as a financier. Tired of lenders who would refuse to lend against accounts receivable or not discuss long-term debt, he went looking for cheap banks in small towns, and purchased Citizens Bank in Leeds, Alabama, with $21 million in assets, for $2 million in borrowed funds and $600,000 of his own money. His aggressive selling techniques translated well in the banking arena, and a decade later the bank’s assets had more than dou­bled, to $46 million, leading Elton to form the company known as Alabama Bancorp. In 1986 he bought Fort Deposit Bank in Fort Deposit, Alabama, for $3.6 million; then, with $4.2 million – about two-thirds of which was from him and his family- he started Highland Bank in Birmingham in 1988. Another decade – and another career success later – Elton announced that he would sell Alabama Bancorp and all its associated holdings, worth some $280 million, to Bancorp South.

In addition to a lifetime of business and financial endeavors, Elton has committed his life to enrich the world around him. He has been involved with the Southern Research Institute, Waste Water Facilities Development Committee, Y.M.C.A., American Council of the Arts, United Arts Fund, Birmingham Area Chamber of Commerce, United Way, Methodist Hospitals, American Cancer Society, Alabama Development Office, and most especially the Alabama Symphony Orchestra. The building where the orchestra performs – the Alys Robinson Stephens Performing Arts Center – is named in honor of Elton’s beloved bride.

Elton has also never forgotten the importance of education, and in the mid-1990s funded the nation’s largest endowment for a chair of library sciences, at The University of Alabama. He has served as chairman of the Board of Trustees for Birmingham-Southern College and had numerous scholarships established in his name at both his alma maters; his honors and accolades abound.

After more than 80 years of business and financial endeavors, Elton says working is still his favorite hobby. “You can take any business, any product, anything and sell it,” he says. “You have to stay with it, learn from mistakes, know what you’re doing and you’ll succeed.”

Elton Stephens succeeded.

Adolph I. Weil, Jr.

  • October 11th, 2021

In a world where cotton was king, no one was ever more worthy of the title of crown prince than Adolph “Bucks” Weil.

Born February 8, 1915, to parents Rossie Schoenhof and Adolph I. Weil, Sr., in Montgomery, Alabama, Adolph I. Weil, Jr. would rise through the ranks of his family’s business to become a legend in the rough-and-tumble cotton industry, and along the way become firmly ensconced in the ranks of the most noted philanthropists of his hometown and state.

Christened with the nickname of Bucks by a camp counselor impressed with the child’s “million-dollar smile,” young Adolph began compiling a prestigious education dossier at the tender age of five upon his enrollment in Miss Gussie Woodruff’s classes. From there he went on to Barnes, another Montgomery private school, and to Culver Military Academy. At 16 Bucks graduated from the academy and was admitted to Dartmouth, one of the youngest in his class. He spent summers in Weil Brothers-Cotton, Inc. offices in New York and Montgomery, and traveling abroad, refining an appreciation for art that would later be reflected in an impressive collection in the firm’s Montgomery offices. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in English in 1935, with Harvard Law School next on the agenda.

But his heart was not in the law; family and friends said he played bridge more than he attended classes, and clearly had little interest in becoming an attorney. However, upon his graduation from Harvard in 1938 Bucks did make an application and was admitted to the Alabama Bar Association that same year. Later his tax law training would help him in business.

Bar association membership obtained, the young man went to work for his father and uncle at Weil Brothers-Cotton, a company founded by Bucks’ grandfather in 1878 in Opelika, Alabama. Bucks started at the bottom of the company as a “squidge,” sweeping floors and learning the art of grading cotton. Adolph, Sr. told Bucks that the younger man could not instruct others to do things unless he himself had done them and that others would not follow him unless he had done them. Earning $65 a month, the standard squidge wage at the time, Bucks began to diligently work his way to the top of the company.

In 1939, Bucks transferred from the Mont­gomery office to Dallas to broaden his knowledge about the cotton industry. Like everyone else, he had to trade cotton to get paid. In An American Harvest: The Story of Weil Brothers-Cotton, Bucks recalled a hands-on learning experience with his Uncle Leonel, with whom he traded cotton. “He tested me with a lot of questions, and I thought they required very involved answers when they were really very simple,” Bucks said. “He always reduces a problem to simplicity before he does anything.” The younger man would always remember that advice, even as he later became president and chairman of the board.

In 1941, Bucks was drafted into the U.S. Army Medical Service Corps. At the end of World War Il, in 1945 he returned from Europe to Weil Brothers and Butler, a branch of Weil Brothers-Cotton, Inc., in New York. It was a dedication to and preoccupation with the cotton industry that caused Bucks to almost miss the opportunity of a lifetime. While conducting business in New York with Daniel F. Rice and Co., Bucks fell in love with a picture of a lovely young lady on Ralph Kaufman’s desk. The young lady turned out to be Kaufman’s daughter, Jean. On their second date, Bucks’ unspoken worries about a tremendous crash in the cotton market dismayed the young lady, who found her beau boring and later told him she never wanted to see him again. These contretemps soon passed, however, and the couple married on February 4, 1946. They had three children: Adolph I. Weil, III, Laurie Jean Weil, and Jan Katharine Weil.

Before his marriage to Jean, Bucks faced one of the biggest challenges in his career. The company’s records had fallen into disarray, and Bucks’ job was to put them back in order. In addition to endless days of analyzing records, Bucks still found time to take on tasks no one else seemed to have time for. His father’s words of leading by example were truly exemplified during this time as the younger man reorganized the books and successfully continued to conduct business. After many taxing months, Bucks had become a true cotton man and a leader by example.

Continuing the family tradition, in 1950 Bucks and his brother Bobby became directors and officers of the company. They served as their father’s and uncle’s assistants and deputies and became increasingly involved in top-level decisions. While working with Weil Brothers, Bucks became heavily involved with industry organizations, serving as president of the American Cotton Shippers Association and Atlantic Cotton Association, and as a director of the New York Cotton Exchange and National Cotton Council. Fol­lowing their father’s death in 1968, Bucks became chairman and his brother president of Weil Brothers-Cotton, Inc. With the cotton industry valued at $4.5 billion, Bucks and Bobby formed a holding company in 1980, Weil Enterprises and Investments, Ltd. The brothers assumed corresponding roles as Bucks became president and Bobby served as chairman of the holding company. In addition to expanding their grandfather’s business around the world, Bucks and Bobby were partners in Weil Hermanos, Inc., the Weil Selling Agency, and controlled the Swiss-based Unicosa. Working together, Bucks and Bobby built an empire in the cotton industry.

In 1995, tragedy struck the Weil family. Bucks, age 80, died December 12, 1995, because of a car accident in Montgomery. He left behind not only his wife, children, and five grandchildren, but also a legacy of philanthropy Throughout his career, Bucks donated generously – and often discreetly – to local endeavors. Bucks’ father had instilled in the younger man the belief of giving back to the community and set an example for his sons to follow with his anonymous donations.

Bucks more than fulfilled his responsibility to the community by serving as a board mem­ber of the Southern Research Institute, chairman of the Alabama Ethics Commission, and direc­tor of several organizations, including Goodwill Industries of Central Alabama, Tukabatchee Area Council Boy Scouts of America, Boy’s Club of Montgomery, American Cancer Society, United Way, and the Montgomery Food Bank, in addition to several other civic organizations. A project Bucks is most revered for was his personal crusade to save the Meals-on-Wheels program in the Montgomery area.

This Southern native’s commitment to and leadership in his hometown of Montgomery was recognized through several awards includ­ing the Alexis de Tocqueville Society Award; being named United Way’s Man of the Year, the Montgomery Area Council on Aging’s Senior of Achievement, and the Rotary Club’s Paul Harris Fellow; and the Montgomery Advertiser Citizen of the Year Award, which he shared with his brother.

Bucks was once honored by his daughter Laurie in a ceremony of the Jewish Federa­tion of Montgomery. She said her father’s life always reflected Jewish values – the order provided by God’s laws, emphasis on educa­tion and family, and dedication to service to others.

Bucks Weil lived his values to the fullest and will be remembered always because of that.

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