Industry: Media

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.

Emory O. Cunningham

  • October 26th, 2021

It has been said that Emory O. Cunningham, Chairman Emeritus of Southern Progress Corporation, is as Southern as his magazines. That is, he built a publishing dynasty from a small farm journal by blending gentlemanly ways with business acumen and Alabama charm with long-range planning. Certainly, he has long been an exponent of what is good about his beloved region, and the Southern Progress Corporation publications have reflected his attitude.

The youngest of six children, Emory Cunningham was born March 17, 1921, in Kansas, Alabama (Walker County). His father, Emory, farmed and mined coal at a time when farming was difficult and incomes low. His mother, Belle (Kelley) Cunningham was a well­known teacher in Walker County. After graduating from Carbon Hill High School in 1938, the young man entered Gulf Coast Junior College in Perkinston, Mississippi, on a football scholarship and had a distinguished junior college career. Following military service as a navy pilot in the South Pacific during World War II, he entered Auburn University and earned a B.S. in Agriculture in 1948.

He then joined the Progressive Farmer Company in Birmingham. Following a brief orientation program in Birmingham, he was assigned to the company’s Chicago office where he established several company records in advertising sales. In March 1956, he returned to the home office in Birmingham and was by 1960 promoted to Marketing Director.

In 1964, he made the very first presentation to the Progressive Farmer Company Board of Directors on the merits of the company’s establishing a magazine for Southerners. A little more than a year later, the firm launched Southern Living, and it was to become a phenomenon in the magazine publishing industry – becoming the largest and most successful regional magazine in the world.

Emory Cunningham became company president in 1968 and chairman of the board in 1984. Under his leadership the Progressive Farmer Company changed to Southern Progress Corporation which began to publish Creative Ideas for Living, Cooking Light, Oxmoor House Books, and Southern Accents.

In 1985, Time Inc. bought Southern Progress Corp. for $480 million. Emory Cunningham (then Chairman and CEO of Southern Progress) said that the firm’s 200-odd shareholders, mostly descendants of four founding families, sold their interests for estate-tax purposes.

He also said, ‘We are very pleased to be a part of Time, Inc., a company known for excellence in publishing. Combining the know-how and resources of these two companies should work to the benefit of both.”

Southern Progress Corp. continued to operate as a stand-alone unit. The management team remained in place, and his successor came from Southern Progress, not Time. The company continues to grow.

Through the years, Emory Cunningham’s belief in the South has led him to support educational endeavors in Alabama; to support community activities; and to support growth in Alabama’s economy.

He has served his alma mater (Auburn) as a member of the Board of Trustees and has established an Eminent Scholar Chair of Environmental Science there. He is a member of the President’s Cabinet at The University of Alabama and of the Advisory Board of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He has contributed his time and expertise as a guest lecturer at various universities, including the Capstone, UAB, Rice University, and the University of Georgia. He has been a Director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi and a trustee of the Alabama Association of Independent Colleges.

He and Southern Progress Corporation have made generous gifts for the development of education at UAB, such as the Alabama Heart Hospital, the Writer-in-Residence Program, and an endowment for the Preventive Dentistry Programs of the School of Dentistry.

In the community and state, Emory Cunningham has served numerous groups in a variety of capacities. For example, he has served on the Advisory Boards of the Salvation Army and the Boy Scouts of America. He has been a director of the Birmingham Kiwanis Club, the Birmingham Area Chamber of Commerce, the UAB Health Services Foundation, the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, and the Alabama 4-H Club Foundation. He has served on the boards of the Birmingham Museum of Art, the Birmingham Symphony, and the Alabama Heart Association.

Having been raised on a farm, Emory Cunningham has always been involved in helping the development of agriculture in the South, through his publications and personal involvement.

For example, in his editorials, he encouraged farmers to diversify, and he urged Congress to continue funding agricultural research which had eradicated problems and thus made productivity better and saved money. He even appeared before a Congressional Committee to plead the case for continuing funding. He has also led agricultural leaders of the South on a study – visits to dozens of foreign countries – from Europe to Asia to Africa.

To Emory Cunningham, nature is more than something to get out and frolic in – it provides solace to the soul. Thus, trees, land, flowers, etc. should be cherished and treated with respect. Such beliefs in the efficacy of preserving the environment led him to demand that the Southern Progress Corp. headquarters, built in 1973, disturb the landscape as little as possible. The resulting structure later earned awards for the design and preservation of the natural landscape.

Through the years, Emory Cunningham has received numerous accolades for his varied contributions and accomplishments. Professionally, he has been named, for example, as Man of the Year in Southern Advertising by the Birmingham Advertising Club and also as Magazine Publisher of the Year by the Magazine Publishers Association, New York City. He has been the recipient of the Communicator of the Year Award from the Sales and Marketing Executives International and the Alabama Free Enterprise Award from the National Farm-City Week Committee. He has been named the Man of the Year in Service to Alabama Agriculture by the Birmingham Area Chamber of Commerce.

He has been awarded honorary doctorate degrees from his alma mater (Auburn University) and from The University of Alabama. He has also been named to the Agricultural Hall of Fame at Auburn and to the Alabama Academy of Honor.

Neither awards nor profits have ever been of special interest to Emory Cunningham. He has been driven by a lifelong ambition to help improve the quality of life in Alabama and the South.

Emory Cunningham is married to former Jeanne Loftis. They have four children: James Emory, David Lee, Sara Jeanne Bright, and Mary Lou Beck.

Charles C. Anderson

  • October 5th, 2021

In its first year of operation in 1917, Anderson News Company had sales of about $2,000. Today the four companies that grew from that small beginning have combined sales of over $3 billion and employ more than 11,000 associates, 1,728 in Alabama.

Directing much of that growth has been Charles Caine Anderson, the son of the founder. Charles C. Anderson now is chairman of the Executive Committee of Books-A-Million, Inc., Anderson News Corporation, American Promotional Events, Inc., and Treat Entertainment.

Charles C. Anderson was born November 20, 1934, in Florence, Alabama, to Ruth Keenum and Clyde W. Anderson. He attended Coffee High School and graduated from the University of North Alabama with a Bachelor of Science degree in marketing. After graduating in 1956 from UNA, he entered the family business, Anderson News Company, full time. He had worked part-time in the business since high school.

In 1956 the company operated three trucks and wholesaled magazines and paperback books in the North Alabama area.

From this company four separate companies have emerged: Anderson News Corporation, Treat Entertainment, Inc., American Promotional Events, Inc., and Books-A-Million, Inc. Anderson remains active in the companies and is chairman of the Executive Committee and on the Board of Directors of each company.

In the early years, the company’s two newsstands in Florence handled tobacco, soft drinks, etc., and sold fireworks during the Christmas season. The fireworks portion of the business was later expanded to include wholesale to other dealers in the area and continued until the state banned fireworks in 1946.

In 1957, Alabama again legalized the sale of fireworks and the family re-entered the business. Company growth since that time has been phenomenal.

Charles was joined in business in 1963 by his brother, Joel, ten years his junior. The brothers continue to work together today. In 1976, Charles’ oldest son, Charles Jr., entered the business and is currently president and CEO of Anderson News Corporation, with Joel serving as chairman.

Anderson News Company’s three trucks in 1956 have grown to a fleet of 3027 vehicles today. Anderson News is the largest magazine distributor in the U.S., the second-largest music distributor, and one of the largest book distributors. The company currently services over 40,000 retailers each week (including all major chains) with full in-store service.

Today American Promotional Events is headed by Charles’ son, Terrence, its president and CEO, and is the largest fireworks importer and distributor in the U.S., servicing 42 states. It operates under the trade name TNT Fireworks.

Anderson was the first business leader in the U.S. to receive a personal invitation to trade with China in 1972 immediately after President Nixon’s visit and was one of the first American businessmen to visit China since 1948. He traveled to Mainland China on April 15, 1972. China is considered to be the birthplace of gunpowder, a major ingredient in fireworks.

In 1962, the family began a new business, importing and publishing numismatic and philatelic items, which usually require a magnifier to view in detail. In that same year, Whitman Publishing placed with Anderson the largest order for magnifiers ever placed in the United States. As the coin and stamp business grew the company began to publish price guides to complete its line of folders, albums, and magnifiers. The company, Treat Entertainment, is lead by Charles’ son Harold, the chairman and CEO. Treat Entertainment’s subsidiary, H. E. Harris, is the largest numismatic and philatelic distributor in the U.S. Last year H. E. Harris entered a license agreement partnership with the U.S. Mint to produce an official U.S. Mint line of products to be sold at retail to the mass market. Treat Entertainment also publishes children’s books under the name Dalmatian Press, located in Nashville, Tennessee. The company recently acquired C. R. Gibson Company, which publishes inspirational albums and journals. The company recently completed a 186,000-square foot C.R. Gibson distribution center in Florence.

In 1963, the company purchased the House of Coins, which published the Black Book Coin and other guidebooks. The name was changed to House of Collectibles and Anderson continued to publish the Black Book Coin and other guidebooks until they sold House of Coins to Random House Publishing several years ago.

In 1962, Anderson together with Chan Fu Yu formed A. Yu Far East Co. in Hong Kong. The company exports consumer products from the Far East, particularly China. It has offices in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Canton, and Changsha with packaging facilities and warehouses in Shenzhen and Changsha. Today, Anco Far East is one of the largest exporters of fireworks from China.

In 1964, the family purchased a retail bookstore in Huntsville and later opened a second in the Huntsville Mall known as Bookland. Bookland continued its growth and entered the superstore business under its Books-A-Million banner. Books-A-Million became a public company on November 2, 1992. Books-A-Million stock is traded in the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol BAMM. Books-A-Million is one of the nation’s leading book retailers and sells on the Internet at www.booksamillion.com. The company presently operates 204 stores in 18 states and the District of Columbia. The company’s wholesale operations include American Wholesale Book Company and BookSmart, both based in Florence; and NetCentral, Inc., an Internet development and service company located in Nashville, Tennessee. The company today is under the leadership of Charles’ son, Clyde, its chairman and CEO.

In 1980, the family purchased Hibbett Sporting Goods, an Alabama sporting goods chain of fourteen stores. Hibbett began a rapid growth that culminated in the company going public on October 16, 1996, and the family sold most of its interest.

Anderson is a former director of First National Bank of Florence and First United Bancorp, the University of Alabama International Business Advisory Board, and the U.S. Space and Rocket Center Board. He is a member of The University of Alabama President’s Cabinet and the University of North Alabama President’s Cabinet. He is a former member of the Board of Visitors, International Advisory Board, The University of Alabama; former member of the State Democratic Executive Committee; a charter member of the Board for the Shoals Economic Development Authority; former president, National Pyrotechnics Distributors Association; former president, Alabama Numismatic Association; and a former member of the Board of Directors, Heritage Trust Fund.

Anderson has given freely of his time and financial resources to many charitable causes and civic projects. For more than twenty years he has taken an active interest in the Salvation Army and is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Salvation Army of the Shoals and Selma, Alabama. Mr. Anderson and his family have had a long-standing interest in literacy and recently made a substantial contribution to the Florence-Lauderdale Public Library. He has made many contributions to universities, schools, and many other charitable causes through the Charles and Hilda Anderson Foundation and the Anderson Foundation. He also recently founded The Hobo Foundation for the benefit of animal shelters in North Alabama.

Mr. Anderson has been married for 50 years to the former Hilda Claire Barbour, his high school sweetheart.  Their home in Florence is a testament to their love of nature and wildlife, which includes walking trails, fishponds, and native plants. They attend Westminster Presbyterian Church. They have four sons: Charles C., Jr., Terrence C., Clyde B., and Harold M., and 11 grandchildren.

Pettus Randall, III

  • October 5th, 2021

The cornerstone of Randall Publishing is a recognition program for scholars, Who’s  Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges. But the publishing company founded in 1934 by H. Pettus Randall, Jr., is now one of the nation’s largest privately held trade magazine publishing enterprises, with more than 35 magazines, directories, periodicals, and Web sites and more than 500 employees. In 2000, Folio, the leading magazine for the publishing industry, ranked Randall Publishing as the sixth fastest-growing and the 22nd largest publishing company in the nation. Much of that growth came during the 27 years that Pettus H. Randall, III, who died of pancreatic cancer on September 7, 2002, was at the helm.

As the country struggled to pull itself out of the Great Depression, Henry Pettus Randall, Jr. was excelling in his undergraduate studies at The University of Alabama, attracting the attention of numerous honor societies. However, initiation fees and membership dues prevented him from joining the organizations that courted him. He vowed to never again let financial restrictions stand in the way of students being honored for academic achievement.

Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges is the product of his resolve. Along with Who’s Who Among Students in American Junior Colleges, which was added in 1969, the Who’s Who books have become one of the most prestigious award programs in academia and are now in place at more than 2,000 universities, colleges, and junior colleges in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Following the visionary tradition of Henry Pettus Randall, Jr., Pettus Randall III took the Who’s Who program to the next level by founding the Award Company of America. The Award Company of America distributes the centerpieces of any awards program: plaques, trophies, ribbons, specialized cards, and other promotional and ad specialty items. The division prospered, with gross revenue exceeding more than $4 million by1984. After the death of his father in 197 6, Pettus assumed control of the company and merged Randall Publishing Company and the Award Company of America.

The company entered the magazine publishing world. Randall strategically chose magazines covering industries at the heart of our economy: trucking, construction, and industrial.

In 1986, Randall acquired Overdrive magazine, the oldest and most respected magazine for independent truckers. Based on its success with Overdrive, Randall expanded its presence within the trucking industry, adding Truckers News, the industry-leading news and lifestyle publication; CCJ, which offers business solutions for fleet owners and managers, and eTrucker.com, the most comprehensive source for trucking information and services on the Internet. Today, Randall’s Trucking Media Group also produces nationally broadcast radio programs, numerous seminars, and other special events, as well as a major trade show, the Great American Trucking Show.

In 1987, Randall decided to take on the construction industry. The company created and introduced TOP BID, now known as the “bible” of off-highway and equipment auctions.

That was followed by the launch of Equipment World magazine, the leading construction-equipment publication in both circulation and influence. Published monthly, Equipment World serves the business and fleet management needs of more than 87,000 contractors throughout North America. The Construction Media Group also conducts targeted research on equipment trends, forecasts, and reader opinions and produces equipment world.com, a Web site featuring news, service, equipment information, and business tools for contractors, dealers, and manufacturers worldwide.

In 1999, Randall turned its publishing skills to another highly active part of the nation’s economy: the industrial world. The Industrial Media Group was born through the acquisition of Modem Woodworking, a leading magazine for woodworking technicians. The same year, Randall bought Pumps & Systems magazine; its trade show, PumpUsers Expo; and its website, pump-zone.com, all concentrating on users and manufacturers of industrial pumps.

Remaining true to its commitment to provide its customers world-class service and world-class products, Randall developed Northbrook Publishing in 1996. Located in New Berlin, Wis., Northbrook specializes in the creation and production of corporate magazines. It serves several Fortune 500 companies, many of which advertise in Randall’s publications.

Caterpillar, Sherwin-Williams, Peterbilt, and Ken worth are just a few of the companies that take advantage of Northbrook’s publishing expertise. Equipment Data Associates, acquired in 1998, is the premier national supplier of UCC-based marketing services. EDA provides semimonthly leads, mailing lists, market-share statistics, and equipment-population estimates to the construction equipment, machine tool, farm equipment, lift truck, on-highway truck/trailer, printing, and woodworking industries. EDA works closely with Randall’s research group, providing circulation feed and supplying customers with the latest buying trends in their target audience and/or for their specific product.

Pettus Randall III earned his bachelor’s degree in history and English in 1997 and his J.D. degree from the UA School of Law in 1971. He also attended the New York University Graduate School of Business. Randall and his widow, Dr. Cathy Randall, have long been involved in support of education. Cathy Randall has served as director of the Computer-Based Honors Program at UA and also directed the University Honors Program. She now serves as chairman of the company. Daughter Jaynie is a graduate of Princeton University and the Harvard Graduate School of Business who attends Yale Law School; Kate is a Vanderbilt graduate who earned a master’s degree as a Rotary International Scholar at the University of Cambridge, England; and Pettus IV is the student body president at Princeton.

Randall was a member of dozens of civic. fraternal and religious organizations, including the Tuscaloosa Jaycees, Kiwanis Club of Greater Tuscaloosa, the American Legion, Alumni Association, board of directors of the Tuscaloosa Association of Retarded Children.

Greater Tuscaloosa Chamber of Commerce. Tuscaloosa Arts and Humanities Council, Christian Businessmen’s Club, Tuscaloosa Mental Health Association, the Elks, Masons and Shrine, and the Boys Club of Tuscaloosa.

He was an active member of Christ Episcopal Church.

He served as a delegate to the Democratic Convention in 1968 and was a member of the Alabama Democratic Executive Committee.

Staying true to its mission, goals, and beliefs, Randall Publishing Co. continues to grow in both profits and product offerings. The same entrepreneurial spirit that led one man to found Randall Publishing Co. continues to drive the company today.

James B. Boone, Jr.

  • October 5th, 2021

James B. Boone, Jr., grew up in Tuscaloosa during interesting and tumultuous times, both in the newspaper business and in the civic life of the South. His father, Buford Boone, the courageous publisher of The Tuscaloosa News and winner of a Pulitzer Prize for distinguished editorial writing, made impassioned pleas for justice and reason during the first attempt to integrate The University of Alabama.

As chairman of the board, and majority stockholder of Boone Newspapers, Inc., James B. Boone, Jr.’s company owns and manages newspapers and shopping guides in 35 communities in Alabama, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia. He has adhered to values set down by his father. His newspapers are recognized as among the best edited and managed in the industry.

Born in Macon, Georgia, to Buford and Frances Herin Boone, Boone got his early education in Tuscaloosa and attended The University of Alabama’s school of commerce and business administration, graduating in 1958. His newspaper training began early, as he worked at the Tuscaloosa News while a high school and college student.

On graduation from UA, Boone was employed and guided by the legendary Carmage Walls, a leading newspaper group publisher of his era and a long-time friend and associate of Boone’s father. With Walls, he served at newspapers in Georgia, Texas, and Virginia, including seven years as editor and publisher of The Suffolk (Virginia) News-Herald.

Boone returned to Tuscaloosa in 1968, succeeding his father and purchasing controlling interest from his parents in Tuscaloosa Newspapers Inc., publisher of The Tuscaloosa News under lease from Public Welfare Foundation. He began acquiring newspapers in 1970. He cancelled the Tuscaloosa News lease in 1981 and the foundation sold The News several years later to its present owner, the New York Times Company.

“We seek to produce the highest-quality product that the economics of the community served can support,” Boone has said. “And then, by ingenuity and imagination, we strive for a higher quality in an effort to serve and build that community.”

Included are numerous newspaper organizations. He is past president of Tuscaloosa organizations like the Chamber of Commerce, the DCH Regional Medical Center Foundation, the Tuscaloosa Academy Board of Trustees, the United Way, the YMCA, the Park and Recreation Authority Board and the Journalism Foundation of the Alabama Press Association. Boone served two communities as United Way drive chairman and served on the Vestry of Christ Episcopal Church.

He retired this year from the board of Regions Financial Corporation, where he was chairman of the corporate governance committee, and he is a member of the board of directors of Regions Bank – Tuscaloosa, and also serves on the board of directors of Randall Publishing Company.

He has won a number of awards, including the Julia and Henry Tutwiler award from UA, where he also has been inducted into the Communications Hall of Fame. The West Alabama Chamber of Commerce has inducted him into the Civic Hall of Fame and he was awarded the Casey Award from the University of Minnesota for newspaper industry leadership.

The assistance he has provided UA is without parallel. He serves on the President’s Cabinet and the National Advisory Board and was a member of the steering committee for the Campaign for Alabama. He is a member of the Board of Visitors for both the College of Communication and Information Sciences and the Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration. Funding full-tuition scholarships for deserving college students has been a prime interest for him, and he has provided a number each year for the last 25 years. In recognition of his wise counsel and unstinting service, The University of Alabama presented him with the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters.

Boone’s business philosophy is as principled as it is simple. He writes: “Our aim, when our product is compared to another’s in a comparable market, is to be judged superior. The communities we serve deserve no less, and doing so is vital to the future of that community and our company.”

He recently was honored by the Alabama Press Association with a Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes outstanding service and accomplishments spanning a career in journalism in Alabama. Boone is married to Carolyn Farrior Boone. He has two sons, Kenneth S. Boone and J. Buford Boone III, and three daughters, Martha B. Cobbold, Caroline F. Boone and Catherine G. Boone.

Joel Anderson

  • September 28th, 2021

Joel R. Anderson is director and retired chairman of the Anderson Companies, which include Anderson Media Corporation and its Anderson Merchandisers subsidiary, the country’s largest distributor and merchandiser of pre-recorded music and a major distributor of books; TNT Fireworks, the country’s largest importer and distributor of consumer fireworks; Anderson Press, a major publisher of children’s books and associated children’s products; Whitman Publishing Company, the leading publisher of books and related products for coin collections, and Books-A-Million, the country’s second-largest book retailer.

He also currently serves as a director of Billy Reid, Inc., Elite Medical, Inc., Purchase Activated Apparel Technology, Inc., Performance Healthcare Products, LLC, Publicvine, LLC, Partscycle, LLC, and A-Mark Precious Metals.

Together the Anderson Companies employ more than 17,000 people throughout the United States, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and China.

Anderson was born and raised in Florence, Alabama where he attended the University of North Alabama. He has spent most of his life in the family-owned business established by his late father, Clyde W. Anderson, which evolved from a street corner newsstand.

Anderson has been an active civic and community leader, particularly in efforts to improve lives through education.

He has served his community as director and chairman of the board of Riverhill School and as a board member of the Riverhill School Foundation, as a director of the Shoals Chamber of Commerce and the First National Bank, as chairman and founder of the Florence Lauderdale Library Foundation, as chairman of the Shoals Literacy Council, as a director of the YMCA and the Florence-Lauderdale Industrial Expansion Committee.

He also has served as founder, chairman, and director of the American Fireworks Standards Laboratory and as a trustee of the Cardiovascular Institute of Philadelphia. He is on the board of directors of Trump Tower and serves as trustee and president pro tern elect of the University of North Alabama Board of Trustees. Anderson is a board member of the Alabama Bicentennial Commission. He also is a major supporter of the Salvation Army, the United Way of Northwest Alabama, the Florence City Schools Foundation, the Florence Library Foundation, the Children’s Museum of the Shoals, the American Heart Association, the New York City Police Athletic League, and is a charter member of the Norman Swarzkopf Society.

He was chairman of the 2005 Donald Trump Library Benefit Dinner, which raised more than $400,000 for the Florence-Lauderdale Library Foundation.

His philanthropic, civic, and humanitarian activities have been recognized by the Anti-Defamation League which honored him with its Distinguished Service Award on behalf of human rights, and by Brandeis University with its National Distinguished Community Service Award. In 2003 he was the first recipient of the 25 Year Club Frank Herrera Award, a prestigious national magazine industry award and in 2006 was named Shoals Citizen of the Year. Earlier this year, Mr. Anderson received the Lifetime Achievement in Innovation award from the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama.

He and his wife Carmen have a daughter, Kristen, and a son, Joel II. Mr. Anderson’s daughter Ashley has a son and two daughters.

Don Logan

  • September 24th, 2021

Don Logan has had a long and prominent career in media and sports leadership.

He and his two sons currently own the Birmingham Barons minor league baseball team, Seek Publishing, and the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society (B.A.S.S.)

As the largest membership organization of bass anglers in the U.S., B.A.S.S., LLC has a footprint that consists of magazines, television programs aired on ESPN2, websites, a radio show and fishing tournaments across the entire country.

Logan retired in 2002 as chairman of Time Warner’s Media and Communications Group, where he oversaw the operations of America Online, Time Inc., Time Warner Cable and the Time Warner Book Group.

As chairman and chief executive officer of Time Inc. from 1994 to 2002, Logan led the company’s magazine, book publishing, video, and music enterprise. Before that role, he served as president and chief operating officer of Time Inc. He was a member of the Time Warner Cable Board of Directors until their acquisition in June 2016.

His path to Time Inc. started in 1970 when he joined regional book and magazine publisher Southern Progress Corporation. In 1978, he was named president of its book publishing division, Oxmoor House. In 1986 Time Inc. acquired the company and Logan was promoted to chairman and chief executive officer of Southern Progress Corporation.

In 1966, Logan graduated magna cum laude from Auburn University with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics. Logan earned his master of science from Clemson University, and he has received honorary doctorates from Auburn University, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Clemson University.

He currently serves on the boards of the Birmingham Business Alliance as well as many private companies.

Logan received the Henry Johnson Fisher Award in 2001, which is the highest honor in the magazine industry.

In 2003, he was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor. Then in 2004, he was inducted into The University of Alabama, College of Communication and Information Sciences Hall of Fame.

His Auburn family recognized him in March 2005, when he was presented the Auburn Alumni Association Lifetime Achievement Award.

Most recently, in March 2009, Logan was inducted into the American Advertising Federation Hall of Fame.

A native of Hartselle, Alabama, Don and his wife, Sandy, reside in Birmingham and have two sons, Stan and Jeff, two grandsons and three granddaughters.

Barrett Clinton Shelton, Sr.

  • September 22nd, 2021

Barrett Clinton Shelton, Sr., was a man who changed with the times and, in the process, helped to change the times.

During his sixty years as editor and publisher of The Decatur Daily, he dedicated himself and the newspaper to promoting and working for the best interests of the people in Decatur, in the Tennessee Valley, and in the State.

Barrett Shelton did not build Decatur, Alabama. But none can question his significant leadership in changing it from a struggling river town into a major industrial center in the New South.

Son of William Randolph and Margaret Clinton Sheppard Shelton, Barrett Clinton Shelton was born in Columbia, Tennessee, on September 3, 1902. In 1911, his family moved to New Decatur where his father published the first issue of The Decatur Daily on February 26, 1912. Young Barrett began his journalistic career as a paperboy for this paper which served the “twin cities” of “New” Decatur and “Old Town” Albany. (In 1927, as editor and publisher, he would be instrumental in effecting the consolidation of the two towns.)

It has been reported that Barrett’s journalistic career was almost “nipped in the bud” by his father. The youngster, a good and enthusiastic athlete, did not cover his paper route one day because he stopped to play ball. His father would have fired Barrett had his mother not intervened on his behalf.

After graduating from Albany High School in 1920, Barrett Shelton attended Washington and Lee University. When his father became ill in 1923, he returned home to help with the paper. After his father died in 1924, twenty-one-year-old Barrett became editor and publisher of The Decatur Daily.

Quite early, Barrett Shelton’s philosophy for building a good community became apparent in his operation of the newspaper and in his participation in community affairs. In his newspaper and in his life, he exhibited his belief in positive thinking to achieve good health, good education, and good jobs for the people of the community. And he believed the people could achieve these goals without interference from the government.

Barrett Shelton and his paper began to assume leadership roles in the community, for as he once said, “If you can’t give leadership, the community is just going to sit down and do nothing … (but) “People will follow you if you lead in the right direction.”

In 1928, he organized and was the first president of the Junior Chamber of Commerce, which was successful in establishing a baseball league and the area’s first airfield, though unsuccessful in luring stable businesses or industries to Decatur.

When the Great Depression came, Decatur was hard hit, because its one industry (L & N Railroad Shops) closed, and its one crop (cotton) was selling for 5¢ a pound. The land was selling for taxes; the people were ill-housed, ill-clothed, and out of work. Barrett Shelton organized a new Chamber of Commerce and became its first president (and served as president four other terms).

He and other members of the Chamber set about in earnest to try to alleviate the plight of Decatur’s economy. A committee sent to Moultrie, Georgia, where no farms had been foreclosed for taxes, came back with a concept that the Chamber and The Decatur Daily championed for years-“Balance agriculture and industry.” They wanted Decatur to have cash markets every day of the year for every farm product that could be grown in the area. They determined that Decatur must develop its own farm processing plants. They would welcome industry, but not wait for it to come from outside.

The “river pirates” (as Barrett Shelton and the other business leaders who spearheaded Decatur’s development came to be called) persuaded a local icehouse to create a packaging facility for pork and beef. Through creative local financing, they helped develop a milk processing and cheese plant. These ventures were a beginning for assuring year-round income in Decatur.

Then the Tennessee Valley Authority entered the picture – an intrusion, thought Barrett Shelton and other business leaders, at first. At their first meeting with David Lilienthal, a member of the first TVA Board of Directors, the businessmen were almost hostile in their attitude of: “You’re in command. What are you going to do?” Lilienthal’s reply was essentially, as Barrett Shelton later reported the conversation, ”I’m not going to do anything. You’re going to do it.”

‘The Old Man,” (as Barrett Shelton was af­fectionately and respectfully called for many years) and other hard-working businessmen took advantage of the tools of opportunity provided by TVA; and they “did it.”

Barrett Shelton, once an enemy of TVA, became one of its staunchest supporters. In 1949, upon request, he related the story of TVA to a United Nations conference in New York. He told of how Decatur and the Tennessee Valley had benefited.

Flood control helped to save the land and the diversified crops which the group encouraged farmers to grow for sale to the increasing number of processing plants in Decatur. The TVA project also helped combat and control malaria – healthier workers became more productive. A now navigable river provided more economical transportation. The combination of all these factors helped Decatur utilize its own resources as well as attract and keep new businesses and industries.

Barrett Shelton always considered the newspaper as family and the community as a larger family – and he could not do enough for it. For example, he organized the Decatur Community Chest, which evolved into today’s United Way. He used his newspaper to help raise local money for Morgan County Meals on Wheels when federal funding was cut. He was a deacon and elder of the First Presbyterian Church.

He served for eight years on the Decatur Municipal Utilities Board. He was president of the Tri-County Appalachian Health Planning Commission. He was the first chairman of the Tennessee River Valley Development Associa­tion, formed to support TVA and industrial development in the Valley. He was a charter member of the first Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway Development Commission.

Barrett Shelton’s many and varied contributions are reflected in the honors he received through the years: 1969, the Medical Society of Alabama’s William Crawford Gorgas Award for his help in improving health; 1972, the Alabama Rural Electric Association’s Eminent Service Award; 1975, Troy State’s Grover C. Hall Memorial Award for most outstanding performance by an Alabama journalist; the Audie Murphy Patriotism Award; Morgan County Young Democrats’ Democrat of the Year Award; 1976, induction into the Alabama Academy of Honor; 1981, TVA’s Tennessee Valley Distinguished Citizen of the Year Award; 1983, the Distinguished Service Medal of Alabama. He was also awarded honorary degrees by The University of Alabama, Athens College, and the now-defunct Bernard College.

Barrett Clinton Shelton, Sr., died in a Birmingham hospital on April 22, 1984. His wife, Suzanne Jones Shelton, died less than three months later. The Shelton’s are survived by a son, Barrett Shelton, Jr., now publisher of The Decatur Daily; a daughter, Suzanne Shirley, co-owner of Steve Shirley Gallery of Homes in Decatur; and five grandchildren.

On April 22, 1984, only the words, “Barrett Clinton Shelton, 1902-1984, editor-publisher,” were printed in the otherwise blank editorial column of The Daily – only one of the many ways that papers from Mobile to New York City expressed how much Decatur, the Valley, and the State would miss “the Old Man.”

Ben Screws Gilmer

  • September 22nd, 2021

This realistic philosophy, combined with the humanistic belief that people and their needs should be uppermost in decision making, led him through four companies and 17 positions in the Bell System to the chair he occupied from 1967-1970 as the first Southern president of AT&T.

Ben Screws Gilmer was born March 5, 1905, in Savannah, Georgia, son of Meriwether Nicholas and Josephine (Screws) Gilmer. His parents, each descended from a long line of native Alabamians, returned to their hometown Montgomery when he was six months old.

Ben Gilmer grew up near the State Capitol. As a boy, he often played on the western slope of the Capitol grounds and sat in the gallery after school watching the deliberations of the legislatures in which his grandfather Ben Screws (former captain in the Confederate Army) had served as State Senator.

The young man was educated at what a Montgomery reporter called “the famed schools” of Sayre and Lawrence streets and Sidney Lanier High School, from which he graduated in 1922. Having exhibited a natural facility for precision, order, and mathematics during high school, he chose engineering as his calling. He enrolled in the electrical engineering course at Auburn University and graduated with a B.S. degree in 1926.

Ben Gilmer’s long career with the Bell System began in June 1926. He worked in Birmingham as an in­ staller for the Southern Bell   Company or a month before the time when he and 41 other recently recruited college graduates were to report in Atlanta for the Company’s six-month training course.

His first day was not exactly auspicious­ he remembers that he ran out of gas on the way to work. Some have said that this may have been his last faux pas. From then on, his commitment to be “the best telephone man in the world” was evident in the steadily increasing responsibilities delegated to him.

Although a graduate electrical engineer, he never got involved in watts, volts, and decibels in the telephone business. He wound up in marketing and development activities which led to cost and rates with a natural transition into regulatory matters. After completion of the introductory training course, the young man progressed through a series of positions in the Commercial Department of Southern Bell in Atlanta.

During the early and middle 1930s (when depression had created a de­ mand for rate reduction) and up until the U.S.’s entry in World War II, he appeared frequently as a witness before regulatory commissions in the nine states comprising the Southern Bell Territory and acquired the mantle of Expert Technical Witness. Although he found it “fun” to match wits with witnesses and lawyers “on the other side,” the young executive always kept in mind that his main purpose was to represent the company policies and position favorably-to stress that the basic aim was to serve the customer most economically.

As he later said, “Business teaches us a stern lesson: The consequence of attempting too much, as the consequence of doing too little, is a failure. Finding what is right is a process of matching needs with resources, of rigorously assigning priorities that distinguish between what must be done, what can be done, and what had best be scheduled for tomorrow.”

In 1942, Ben Gilmer went on military leave. After serving for three years in the U. S. Army Air Force and attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel, he returned to Southern Bell as an executive in the Atlanta office. Once more he was called upon to testify before regulatory commissions, this time in an economy faced with the decline in purchasing power of the dollar.

By 1948, he had been named Assistant Vice President. When the Louisiana manager of the company became ill that year, Ben Gilmer was sent, on 24 hours notice, to take over the position. He was responsible for all public aspects of the job, including customer accounts, customer relations, public relations, regulatory and legislative affairs, market studies, and growth forecasts for the construction of expanded facilities and capacities. In less than a year, he was back in Atlanta as General Commercial Manager, assuming responsibility for the management of these activities in the nine states serviced by Southern Bell.

In two years, he went to Northwestern Bell Company as Vice President and General Manager with responsibility for all company operations. In only one year, he was named Vice President of the California operations of the Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company, where he served three and one-half years before re­ turning to Atlanta as Southern Bells’ Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. He served in this position for about a year before being named President of Southern Bell, where he served for 8½ years. In 1965 he went to New York as Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of AT&T. During his tenure as vice president, he made his last appearance before a regulatory commission about the need for objectivity in controlling competition in communications so that the public would receive optimal service for the least cost.

In 1967, Ben Gilmer was appointed President of AT&T. During his career, Ben Gilmer was known as a man who had an uncanny knack for pulling together the technical and non-technical aspects of a problem.

Even after his retirement, he remained a director of AT&T, a member of its executive committee, and the director of several of its corporate subsidiaries. Among the other corpora­tions on whose board he has served are the U.S. Pipe and Foundry Corporation, Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company, Merck & Co., and the West Point Pepperell Manufacturing Corporation.

In addition to his demonstrated ability in the corporate world, Ben Gilmer has contributed leadership in the economic, civic, cultural, and educational activities of his community and region. He has served as either director, chairman of the board, or trustee of more than thirty civic and charitable organizations, such as the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, the Atlanta United Ap­ peal, and the National Executive Council of the Boy Scouts of America. He has been chairman of the Auburn University Foundation, a trustee of Agnes Scott College, an elder in the Presbyterian Church, and a member of various professional engineering and business honoraries.

Despite the long absences demanded by his career, Ben Gilmer has maintained close ties with the State of Alabama, as the Governor and the legislature recognized when they invited him to address a joint session in 1967. Nine years before, Auburn University demonstrated its respect for his achievements by awarding him an honorary Doctor of Science degree. In 1969, the Alabama Conference of Christians and Jews recognized his “outstanding contribution to improving human relations” by giving him its National Brotherhood Award for promoting equal opportunities in the industry. In 1975, he was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor by the State Legislature. Similar recognition of his achievements and contributions has also come in Georgia and the nation.

Since 1939, Ben Gilmer has been married to the former Dorothy Cunningham of Decatur, Georgia. They now reside in Atlanta where their daughter, Mrs. Penn W. Rooker, and their two grandsons-Penn W. Rooker, Jr., and Ben Gilmer Rooker – also live.

Realism, humanism … “The Gilmer Blend” continues to be apparent in the life of Ben Screws Gilmer, the man whom both Alabama and Georgia claim as a “native son.”

Harry Mell Ayers

  • September 9th, 2021

As an editor and publisher, Harry Mell Ayers earned the respect of his employees, colleagues, and community.

Ayers began his career at Alabama State Teachers College (Jacksonville State University), editing the school’s newspaper. Ayers worked for several papers in Anniston before he bought the Hot Blast and the Evening Star and merged the papers, creating the Anniston Star. Ayers left the paper and served in the Army as a Captain in World War I. After the war, he was commissioned a Lieutenant Colonel in the Alabama National Guard. After the war, he resumed his post of editor and publisher of the Anniston Star and married Edel Yetterboe. Being a journalist, Ayers was drawn to politics, and his first introduction to politics came as the manager of Thomas E. Kilby’s successful gubernatorial campaign. A decade later, Ayers served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention. During World War II, Ayers served as chairman of the Military Affairs Committee of the Anniston Chamber of Commerce where he met many high-ranking army officers. Ayers was instrumental in the re-opening of Fort McClellan after it was de-activated, a service for which he received the Army’s Outstanding Civilian Service Medal, the second-highest decoration awarded to civilians. As a civic leader, Ayers was involved in the Alabama State Chamber of Commerce and  Rotary Club; a supporter of Jacksonville State University; Bible class teacher at Parker Memorial Baptist Church; and president of the Alabama Press Association. In 1969, for his service to journalism, he was posthumously inducted into the Alabama Newspaper Hall of Honor.

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