Industry: Natural Resources

Heman Edward Drummond

  • October 26th, 2021

In 1935, Heman Edward Drummond founded the H. E. Drummond Coal Company when he began to develop a small drift mine in an area between Empire and Sumiton, Alabama ­ called Drummond Hollow – on land homesteaded by his mother. On April 5, 1956-just twenty-one years later he died of heart failure, but he had built a strong foundation for what has become one of Alabama’s major businesses. He did not see the fulfillment of his dreams, but under the leadership of his five sons, Drummond Company, Inc. has become one of the largest privately held firms in Alabama and a prominent leader in America’s coal industry. Drummond Company, Inc. today employs 3,300 people and conducts business throughout the world.

Those who knew Heman Drummond described him as an unusual person. He was a miner, of course. But he was also an oil driller, an innovator, and a risk-taker. He was a man who dreamed hard and worked hard. He was an honest and compassionate man who inspired others to work with him.

Heman Edward Drummond was born in Walker County, Alabama (near Sipsey) on August 8, 1905, the son of Dr. Isaac Freeman Drummond (a country dentist and school teach­ er) and Ida (Phillips) Drummond. In the late twenties and early thirties, young Heman worked for the Debardelaben Coal Corporation, first as a machine cutter and then as a foreman.

In 1935, when he was thirty years old, he decided to go out on his own. He developed the small drift mine in Drummond Hollow, where daily production averaged about fifty tons. After he bought a coal-cutting machine in 1937, production increased to about 100 tons per day. The coal was loaded onto small rail cars, pulled to the mine mouth by mules, and then hand-loaded onto the two trucks he owned. Customers would come and pick up their domestic coal, which sold for $2.60 a ton, and coal was also sold to railroads.

Money was scarce in the 1930s and people de­ pended on each other to get by. (The saying was that people mined coal, but farmed for a living). Since there were practically no coal sales in the summer, Heman Drummond stockpiled coal in Drummond Hollow and depended on credit to keep the mine operating.

Testimony of these hard times is a loan note executed in 1943 by “Mr. Heman,” as he liked to be known. To secure a three-month bank loan of $300, he mortgaged three mules – described in the note by color, age, and weight, and one by name: “Tobe.” Because of his good name and reputation for honesty, Heman Drummond managed to get the help he needed. Out of respect for him banks – and even his competitors – provided needed resources.

In 1942, after acquiring land on the Sipsey River close to Burton Bend, Heman Drummond opened his first strip mine, in which he used a rented ¾ yard link-belt dragline. Making money as a small strip miner wasn’t any easier than it was as a small underground miner, but slowly E. Drummond Coal Company began to prosper. One reason was that Heman Drummond had the foresight to buy land whenever he could scrape the money together, thus enabling the company to expand operations.

Some people looked askance at the land buying Heman Drummond did because they wondered how he could support his family. He and his wife (nee Elza Eliza Stewart, whom he married in 1928) had seven children – five sons and two daughters. But those who knew him well always realized that he thought of his family first.

Mining companies have many mines in different locations today, but at that time the Drummond family surface-mined one location at a time. They mined near the Sipsey River, then in Sumiton, then went back to Drummond Hollow, then to Arkadelphia.

During World War II, Drummond and his family kept the mines operating in spite of the lack of manpower and various material shortages. The Drummonds became self-made mechanics, making parts and repairing machinery themselves. Only one tractor could be acquired during the war.

By 1948, the Drummond mining operation had graduated from the ¾ yard shovel to a 1 ¼ yard, 1928 model, Northwest and a 2½ yard, 2000 Manitowoc.

Heman Drummond was a risk-taker in many ways. In addition to his coal mining ventures, he was engaged in oil and gas exploration in North Alabama. He was successful in locating natural gas, but not in commercial quantities. During his short lifetime, Heman Drummond accomplished a great deal. He founded a company and directed its growth and progress during two decades that included part of the Great Depression, World War II, and the first post-war decade. He left his sons a rich heritage:

  • A successful business in which they had been well trained and were well equipped to operate.
  • Landholdings that would provide coal reserves for years to come.
  • Valuable lessons in perseverance, hard work, business know-how, and concern for employees and fellow citizens.

As one of “Mr. Heman’s” friends once said, “Heman was one of the finest men I have ever known and a true friend… I would give anything if he had lived to see his boys’ success… He would have been so proud.”

Heman Drummond was known throughout Walker County as a warmhearted, generous man who could always be depended on to come to the aid of individuals in need, quickly and without fanfare.

Long hours and hard work at the helm of a small but growing business occupied Heman Drummond’s days fully. His business skills were the product of inborn abilities and broad experience. With great foresight and honest effort, he forged his dreams into the beginnings of today’s Drummond Company.

Sources of biographical information: Contour, Drummond Company employee publication, Vol.2, No.4, Winter1978-79; Wayne Flynt. Mine, Mill, and Microchip: A Chronicle of Alabama Enterprise. Northridge, California: Windsor Publications, Inc., 1987.

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.

John R. Miller, Jr.

  • October 25th, 2021

Like his father and grandfather before him, John R. Miller, Jr. will be a part of the T.R. Miller Mill Company until he dies.

And like his father and grandfather before him, John R. Miller, Jr., now serving as director and chairman of the board of the company where he has been employed for fifty years, believes with all his heart that the continued success is due to the vision his family shares for its future.

Born May 8, 1920, to John R. and Lucille McGowin Miller, John is a native of Brewton, Alabama, where he received his early education before attending Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana, from 1934-1938. Upon graduation from that institution, he then attended the University of Virginia and The University of Alabama, leaving his academic career to answer the call to service for his country. John served as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force, 8th Air Force, in the European Theatre of Operations in World War II, receiving the decorations of Air Medal, E.T.O. Medal, and a Presidential Citation, and was honorably discharged with the rank of major.

It was during his time in the service that he married Virginia Kersh of Monroe, Louisiana, with whom he would later have four children: Nancy M. Melton, J. Richard Miller III, David Earl Miller, and Jean M. Stimpson. Remembering his childhood, Richard Miller said his memories of his father will always be inextricably linked with fishing and fun, and with the image of a man who encouraged his children to follow their own paths. “He always did and continues to encourage us to pursue our dreams without constraints,” said Richard.

Upon returning to Brewton after his discharge from the service, John was formally employed by T.R. Miller Mill Company, where he worked at various positions in the manufacturing division before being elected a director in 1946. He served as vice president and director from 1947-1967, then assumed the presidency, which he held through 1986 when he was then named chairman.

Over the years, the Miller family’s vision for its business has played out into a solid reality. When John’s grandfather, Thomas R. Miller, purchased a small, water-driven mill along Cedar Creek in 1872, he in all likelihood did not envision its growth into a firm that is one of the largest timberland owners and diversified wood products operations in the South. In his day, the waters of Cedar Creek transported logs to the mill from the vast virgin forest nearby and turned the mill as well. Later those same waters transported the timber to Pensacola, Florida, for export. John Miller explained that with the expansion of lumber markets, T.R. Miller later decided to relocate the mill to the town of Brewton, where it was converted to a steam-powered operation in 1892. The new mill, built along the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, enabled T.R. Miller’s new· company to ship its products by rail as well as water.

“Timber has been good to us for many years,” said John. “Actually, I’m not the first Miller to say that. My father used to remind each of us that if the company was to survive and grow, we must constantly be aware of the land – and of what it can provide sensing that diversification was the way to go, John’s father was instrumental in the company establishing veneer mills, a wire-bound box plant, and a treating operation. Through the years, John has been involved in helping to establish any number of companies, from vineyards in California, television and cellular phone companies across the United States, and commercial and residential real estate, to name but a few. These operations are a bit more sophisticated and far-flung than they were in the days when Thomas R. Miller laid down his hoe and swore he’d never chop another row of cotton again, thus beginning a new era in his family’s history.

“My first thought when you mention my father’s approach to business is that Daddy always approached everything – business or anything else – from a totally honest standpoint,” Richard said. ”Whatever he was involved in, it had to be good for both parties. Integrity is the word that comes to mind. He is probably the nicest guy I’ve ever known – that’s not to say he’s soft in approach – he’s just basically a good people person.

“He can reach compromises when there are none to be had.”

And it was that combination of people skills, business acumen, and integrity that made John Miller and his company major players in the discovery and subsequent drilling of Jay Oil Field along with the Escambia County, Alabama-Florida line – a find that meant the discovery of the largest finding of oil in the lower forty-eight states in the last fifty years. That ability to facilitate a compromise also led in 1968 to a deal that John Miller will always consider one of the highlights of his more than half-century-long business career, said Richard. For it was that year that Container Corporation of America had acquired a more than 51 percent share of T.R. Miller Mill Company – an acquisition that would have meant the end of three generations of family ownership of the forest products industrial site. However, prior to the sale being finalized, John convinced Container’s chairman to allow the family to buy enough of the offered stock so that the Millers could retain controlling interest.

“That deal in 1968 allowed the families to remain in control of what has been an asset for our family now into the fourth generation,” Richard said with pride. The original owners were able to purchase the remaining stock held outside the company in 1989.

And as John Miller has served as the third-generation patriarch for his family and business, he has also not neglected his commitment to his church, his community, or his state. He and his wife, Virginia, showed their firm commitment to the future of Alabama’s forestland and its wood products industry in the early 1990s when they made a gift of prime timberland to Mobile College. The proceeds from the sale of the property were directed to the college’s Forest Resources Learning Center, a joint initiative of the Alabama Forest Resources Center and Mobile College.

“The center is a worthwhile project,” said John Miller, whose company received the coveted Forest Conservationist of the Year Award from the Board of Directors of the Alabama Wildlife Federation in 1995. “I believe that the continued success of the industry depends on a better understanding of environmental stewardship and good land practices.” He emphasized that this will only happen if the next generation understands the importance of forestry issues.

Thanks to John R. Miller, Jr., the next generation has a better chance.

William R. Ireland

  • October 11th, 2021

William R. Ireland has been described as “one of the best friends the environment of Alabama has ever had.” That friendship can easily be expanded to include education, volunteerism, philanthropy, athletics, and business, for he has been a true and valued friend to all.

Born December 3, 1923, to parents Katharine Lenora Reynolds and Charles Byron Ireland in Gadsden, Alabama, Ireland would embark on a 39-year career in his family’s business, Vulcan Materials, which has become the nation’s leading supplier of construction aggregate and a leading manufacturer of chemicals. And he also would leave an indelible mark on the history of environmental protection in the state of Alabama.

Ireland is a true Son of the South. He received his education in the public schools of Birmingham and was graduated from the Baylor School in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He then began his college career at Auburn University and later transferred to Marion Military Institute. After his second year at Marion, he entered the U.S. Navy and served from 1943 until 1946.

When he returned home from the navy, Ireland joined the family business. The predecessor of Vulcan Materials, Birmingham Slag Company, had been purchased by the Ireland family in 1916. Birmingham Slag produced aggregate for making concrete, for highway and railroad beds, and much of the aggregate came from waste produced by the Birmingham mills of U.S. Steel’s Tennessee Coal and Iron and Republic Steel.

During his career with Vulcan, Ireland was president of two Vulcan subsidiaries, executive vice president of the Midwest division, manager of community relations, and for 29 years a member of the company’s board of directors.

The success of the Ireland family and Vulcan Materials was featured in the Feb. 14, 1959, issue of Business Week under the headline, “Invasion From the Deep South.” The article detailed the expansion of Vulcan Materials from the piney hills of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and Florida into the North and the Midwest.

Through the Ireland family’s leadership, Vulcan Materials has always been an outstanding corporate citizen deeply committed to the needs of the Birmingham community and those of Alabama as a whole.

Active in the business, civic, and cultural affairs of Birmingham, Ireland has been known for its generosity to worthy causes. He has served as chairman of the C.B. Ireland Foundation, as a board member of the Birmingham Area Council of Boy Scouts of America; chairman and board member of Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Greater Birmingham; board member and President of the Lurleen B. Wallace Memorial Foundation; board member of the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center Supporters; board member of the American Cancer Society – Alabama Division; board member, president and chairman of the board of the American Cancer Society-Jefferson County; board member of the Baylor School; president and board member of the Alabama Wildlife Federation; board member of the Alabama Sheriff’s Boys and Girls Ranches; chairman of the Community Chest, Builders Division, and Alexis de Tocqueville Society of United Way – Jefferson County; chairman of special gifts, Alabama Heart Association; member of the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center Statewide Steering Committee; and co-chairman of the UAB Capital Campaign Metro Region Steering Committee.

Ireland has received the Distinguished American Award from the National Football League and Hall of Fame – Alabama Division, and the 1981 Citizen of the Year Award from the Alabama Broadcasters Association.

Marion Military Institute, where he served as Chairman of the Board of Trustees, has always been close to Ireland’s heart and he has labored mightily to help the school. His efforts were recognized in 1991 when the Institute named its athletic center in his honor. In 1942, Ireland was the center on MMI’s football team when it played The University of Alabama freshmen. MMI lost 33-6, but Ireland scored MMl’s only touchdown on a 65-yard pass interception.

In 1948, Ireland married Fay Belt of Birmingham, who has shared his love of the outdoors and his dedication to education. The Irelands have five children and thirteen grandchildren.

The Irelands have given graciously of their time and resources to many educational institutions. Auburn University has established the William R. and Fay Ireland Distinguished Scholarship in the College of Sciences and Mathematics, and the Ireland Fisheries Laboratory at Auburn bears his name. The family also has given generously to Baylor and Birmingham-Southern, including the establishment of the Baylor-Ireland Scholarship for a graduating senior at Baylor who wishes to continue at Birmingham-Southern.

Ireland has been an active outdoorsman his entire life – hunter, fisherman, and guardian of the environment. His retirement from Vulcan Materials in 1982 gave him more time to devote to the state’s wildlife resources.

In 1992-93 he served with distinction as President of the Alabama Wildlife Federation and served on the organization’s board of directors and its executive committee for many years. The organization’s headquarters building in Montgomery is named in his honor.

He is a life member of The Gulf Coast Conservation Association, The Nature Conservancy, the National Audubon Society, and the National Wild Turkey Federation.

He is a Benefactor Member of Ducks Unlimited (Canada, United States, and Mexico) and serves on the organization’s board of directors as an honorary member. He also serves on the boards of directors for the Alabama Wildlife Endowment, the Cahaba River Society advisory committee, and the Alabama Wildlife Rescue Service. All of these organizations frequently turned to Bill Ireland for advice and support, particularly in their fledgling years. Never were they refused. His activities currently include serving as Alabama chairman of the Southern Environmental Law Center’s capital campaign.

Continuing his love of the outdoors and its denizens, he has developed fish and wildlife showplace on “Wild Acres,” his farm in Shelby County, and he is active in the renovation of “Five Star,” the plantation in Coosa County that was formerly the site of The University of Alabama conference facility.

But perhaps his defining moment in the service of the environment was his leadership role in the development and successful approval of the state’s Forever Wild Constitutional Amendment.

For the first time in the history of Alabama, a state-funded program was established to acquire land throughout the state to be used for conservation and recreation purposes.

Over the next twenty years, the Forever Wild program will provide up to $350 million for land acquisition and stewardship, a huge step toward ensuring that future Alabamians will be able to enjoy the outdoor life.

Ireland’s gracious manner, his honest approach, his enthusiasm, and his obvious love for the Alabama outdoors allowed him to weld into an effective coalition a diverse committee of hunters, environmentalists, fishermen, state agency representatives and representatives from the forest industry and the corporate world, who together forged an acceptable piece of legislation.

And after the Legislation was approved, he took on the job of raising money to finance the voter education effort necessary to ensure voter approval of the bill. The result? An overwhelming 84 percent of the voters approved the legislation, the highest approval rate for a land acquisition bill in the nation.

Author Washington Irving, in The Angler, wrote that ” There is certainly something in angling … that tends to produce a gentleness of spirit, and a pure serenity of mind.”

Friends of Bill Ireland describe him as a “gentleman,” and a “gentle sportsman.” And certainly, the wildlife with which Alabama is so abundantly blessed would agree.

So, the next time you see a young doe grazing at twilight, or if you are lucky enough to experience the heart-stopping “whrrrrrrrrr!” of a covey of quail bursting from a fence corner or to hear the far off honking of a flight of Canada geese on an October night, say a thank you to Bill Ireland.

Henry C. Goodrich

  • October 11th, 2021

Henry C. Goodrich has had four careers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Benjamin C. “Ben” Stimpson

  • October 5th, 2021

Logging and sawmilling have always been hard and dangerous work, and the lumber business has its share of legends. In the Southern lumber business, few legends are bigger than Ben C. Stimpson, who has spent his life cutting timber, processing lumber, and promoting wildlife conservation.

Ben Stimpson was born in Mobile, the son of Frederick Taylor Stimpson and Mary Edna White-Spunner. He graduated from Murphy High School and attended The University of Alabama where he was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity.

He began his lumbering career in 1940 when as a teenager he worked for his father’s lumber company in South Alabama in a summer heat so fierce that at the end of the day even his high-top shoes were soaked with sweat, a sight that Stimpson says made his father howl with laughter. But the hard work and sweat paid off.

In 1941, his father was operating Stimrad Lumber as well as a thriving piling business that furnished pilings for the foundations for the bulkheads and docks along the Gulf coast. That same year, his father, a savvy businessman, decided to form yet another new company called Southern Logging Company, with Ben and his two brothers as the owners.

But World War II put the logging business on hold and in 1945 Stimpson completed cadet training and received his wings as an Air Corps pilot at the University of Tennessee. But before he could be deployed, President Truman ordered the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima and that brought the war to a close. Stimpson returned to South Alabama and the three brothers returned to the lumber and logging business.

During that same period, Ben May, a close friend and business associate of Stimpson’s father, had purchased a lumber concentration yard in Mobile to process timbers and lumber for use in World War II. Timber was cut from the forests around Mobile and sawn into green lumber by “peckerwood” sawmills and then trucked to Mobile for further processing. The 1umber concentration yard was known as Gulf Lumber Company.

After suffering operating losses for several years, May sought new management and contacted the Stimpson brothers to gauge their interest. So after working in numerous capacities under the tutelage of their father, Stimpson and his older brother Billy and younger brother Gordon assumed management of the company and agreed to split the profits 50-50 with Ben May.

With clearly defined responsibilities each brother performed his duties and meshed into a management team that was the envy of the industry. They were held in high regard by their peers for their work ethic and the ability to get along, but more so looked upon with awe as three brothers that were best friends. Under their management, Gulf Lumber Company evolved into one of the most innovative lumber companies in the nation respected for its high standards for quality. Having the responsibility for sales and marketing, Ben Stimpson steered Gulf into niche markets of treated lumber and machine stress-rated lumber while serving first in the capacity of vice president and later as president.

Today, independent logging crews haul more than 400 loads of logs per week to the Mobile plant, most of them from timberland Gulf manages in southwest Alabama, northeast Florida, and southeast Mississippi. The logs undergo a complicated process of weighing, debarking, sawing, trimming, sorting, drying, planing, and grading before the finished product is shipped. State-of-the-art computers are used in each area of the processing to assure that the quality standards are met.

Gulf Lumber Company, one of the largest sawmills in Alabama, annually produces 105 million board feet of yellow pine products shipping primarily into Midwestern and Northeastern markets. About 80 percent of the product is sold to treating plants and truss manufacturers, with about 10 percent going to retail lumberyards, and 10 percent being exported into countries in the Caribbean. Additionally, the company produces 40 million board feet of treated lumber in its own treating facility and recently began an import lumber division to bring in pine lumber from South America.

In 1973, following the death of Mr. May, the three brothers acquired the ownership of Gulf Lumber Company from the May estate. In 1992, Ben Stimpson and his brothers turned the reins of leadership over to the third generation of the sawmilling Stimpsons.

As might be expected of a man who made his living from timber and timberlands, Ben Stimpson has been active in organizations dedicated to protecting timber resources. He has served as a director of the Alabama Forest Products Association as well as a director of the Southern Forest Products Association. He also served on the board of the Southern Pine Inspection Bureau for nine years, three of which were as chairman.

In addition to his interest in preserving the wise use of timber resources, Stimpson has been passionate about wildlife management and conservation. Having been taught by one of the deans of wildlife conservation. Ben Stimpson knows well that wildlife management is as much about managing people as it is about managing wildlife.

Highly respected for his knowledge in this area, he served as president and a member of the board of directors of the Alabama Wildlife Federation and in 1964 received the Governor’s Conservation Award as well as the M.O. Beale Scroll of Merit for his contributions to wildlife conservation. Additionally, he served as a member of the Governor’s Advisory Board for the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources from 1971 until 1985. Like his father before him and his two brothers, Ben Stimpson is an avid outdoorsman, hunter, and fisherman. Stimpson’s hunting passion is the wild turkey and few can match his bream fishing expertise.

Much of the Stimpsons’ personal life revolves around Choctaw Bluff, a private family enclave overlooking the Alabama River in Clarke County where Ben has been president of the Choctaw Bluff Hunting Club. The tradition began when Stimpson’s father began acquiring land in the 1920s. Ben and his brother have continued to add tracts over the year.

During the late 1940s, he was given the responsibility for renovating an old home, the Big House, on the property for the family’s use. In 1975 Ben built his personal home on the property which he named Stonewall after the nearby Civil War-era Fort Stonewall. On weekdays, Ben and Nedra, his wife of 47 years, find peace and solitude within the confines of Stonewall.

Weekends and holidays are different. On any given weekend one or all the couple’s five children, Ben C. Stimpson and John C. Stimpson, Nedra S. Crosby, Mary S. Turner, and Greer S. Stephens, could be present. In tow could be all or some of the 16 grandchildren.

Though devoted to his family and business, Ben Stimpson has always found time to give to the Mobile community. For 29 years he served on the Board of Trustees of the Mobile Infirmary while chairing numerous committees and helping direct the hospital in its growth from a 300-bed facility to 700 today. He was also instrumental in forming the infirmary’s holding company, Infirmary Health Systems.

In 1970 Stimpson was elected to the Board of Trustees at St. Paul’s Episcopal School. At the time it had grades kindergarten through grade five. It is no secret that Ben became passionate about St. Paul’s School. During his 22-year tenure on the board during which he served as chairman for one term St. Paul’s has developed into the largest Episcopal college preparatory school in the continental U.S.

Ben Stimpson has worked hard but has played hard and enjoyed life. He and his brothers, sons, and nephews have gambled on the Southern forest and invested in the future of the land they love. His hope is that he will be judged as having been a good steward of the resources and talents entrusted to him, and his dream is that his children and grandchildren will strive to be good stewards as well.

Garry Drummond, Sr.

  • October 5th, 2021

In 1943, Heman Drummond obtained a bank loan of $300 to buy new equipment for his Walker County coal mine. He secured the loan with three mules, one of which was named “Tobe.” “Tobe” still lives, but he lives today in the form of a dragline with a boom longer than a football field and a bucket that holds 115 cubic yards of material.

That parallels the story of Drummond Company, Inc.

If you look at a map of the nation’s coal reserves, you will see a large coalfield that extends from northern Pennsylvania down through Kentucky and Tennessee into northwest Alabama, down into the Jasper area. That’s where Heman Drummond founded the H.E. Drummond Coal Company in 1935, in an area between Empire and Sumiton. Garry Neil Drummond, Sr., one of five sons, is now chairman and chief executive officer of Drummond Company, Inc., which in almost 68 years of operation has become one of the leading coal-producing companies in the nation.

Drummond Company employs more than 3,300 people around the world and has annual revenues of more than $800 million, placing the company in the top 500 of the Forbes list of largest private companies.

The company’s holdings include large coal mines in Alabama, Wyoming, and Columbia, South America; a worldwide coal sales organization, ABC Coke, the largest merchant foundry coke producer in the United States, and a real estate division with major community developments in Alabama, Florida, and California. The company headquarters is located in Jasper, with some executive and staff offices in Birmingham.

Garry Neil Drummond has been actively involved in the company since his graduation from The University of Alabama in 1961, where he earned a civil engineering degree He and his brothers have built the company into a major economic force. The 1960s were a period of growth for the Drummond Company, which leased new reserves, developed new mines, and acquired larger and most efficient equipment. By the late 1960s, the company had coal sales approaching $8 million.

Coal industry observers say the company’s big break came in 1969 and 1970 when Garry Neil Drummond, who had then been with the company eight years, negotiated a contract with, Ataka & Company of Tokyo, a Japanese company, to deliver $100 million in coal over the next 10 years. The Japanese company needed metallurgical quality coal that was found in the eastern half of the Warrior Basin, Drummond Company’s backyard. That was the firm’s first export sale, but it opened the way for what became a major part of the business, and Drummond, after becoming CEO in 1973, has negotiated many more ventures with the Japanese steel industry.

The company expanded rapidly during the 1970s to meet the Japanese demand and to compete for additional business worldwide. A major step in the growth of the company has been the merger of Alabama By-Products Corporation, which was incorporated in 1920. The ABC coke plant at Tarrant is the largest single producer of foundry coke in the United States. Drummond Company acquired majority control of ABC’s voting stock in 1977, and eight years later completed the acquisition of all ABC stock through a tender offer. By the end of 1985, ABC was merged with Drummond and continues to operate as a division of Drummond while maintaining its nationally recognized name.

It was also in 1985 that Drummond ventured into real estate development with Oakbridge, a $500 million residential, commercial, professional office, and business park community in Lakeland, Florida. Rancho La Quinta is located in La Quinta, California, near Palm Springs. The project, a 700-acre golf-oriented residential development, was acquired in 1992. Development activities restarted in 1993 and include residential communities and a country club with two 18-hole courses. Liberty Park is a 3,300-acre mixed-use development in Vestavia Hills, Alabama. Development started in 1991 and includes residential communities, corporate offices, retail space, and Old Overton Golf Course, ranked by Golf Digest in 1994 as “America’s Best New Private Course.”

Garry Neil Drummond has been the chief executive officer of Drummond Company, Inc. since 1973. The four other brothers also have been involved continuously in company operations. E. A. “Larry” Drummond is president of the company, Segal E. Drummond is executive vice-president and assistant to the chief executive officer, Donald D. Drummond is president of the Drummond Coal Division, and John H. Drummond is vice-president management.

Among his many honors, Garry Neil Drummond was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Science from The University of Alabama and was the UA College of Engineering Distinguished Lecturer for 1987-8 and outstanding Fellow in 1987. He received the Keith-Woodman Award in 19 87 and was inducted into the Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame.

He served on the University of Alabama Board of Trustees from 1983 through 2001. during which time he served three years a President Pro Tempore. He and the Alabama Coal Industry established the Garry Neil Drummond Endowment at The University of Alabama in 1985.

He is actively involved in state, national and international organizations within the coal industry and has served on the board of numerous local and state organizations dedicated to charitable causes and economic development. He serves on the board of the National Mining Association, Business Council of Alabama, SouthTrust Corporation, the Center for Energy and Economic Development, and is a past chairman of the board of Economic Partnership of Alabama. He is a member of the Birmingham Rotary Club and was elected to the Alabama Academy of Honor in 1989. He al o has been active in the Boy Scouts of America and in several conservation organizations including Ducks Unlimited.

Drummond is the father of four sons and one daughter. He lives in the Birmingham area with his wife, the former Peggy Snoddy. Ir. Drummond’s father was inducted into the Alabama Business Hall of Fame in 1990.

Bernard A. Monaghan

  • October 5th, 2021

The late Bernard A. Monaghan, former chief executive officer of Vulcan Materials Co., was a successful lawyer who left the legal profession to become a successful and innovative businessman as president and chief executive officer of Vulcan Materials Company until 1981.

Vulcan is the largest U.S. producer of construction aggregates, which it sells primarily to the private sector. The construction materials unit operates more than 220 aggregates plants, not including other production and distribution facilities, in the U.S. and Mexico.

Born in Birmingham to Bernard A. and Mary Frances Monaghan, he attended Birmingham-Southern College and earned a law degree from Harvard at 21, after which he traveled to Britain and earned a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford.

After finishing at Oxford, he returned to Birmingham where he joined the law firm of what is now Bradley Arant Rose and White During World War II he rose to the rank of captain in the Marine Corps and received the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star medal. He remained active in the Marine Corps Reserve, rising to the rank of Lt. Colonel.

In 1948, he became a partner in the law firm and four years later took a leave of absence to serve as Department Counselor for the Department of the Army, for which he received the Exceptional Civilian Service Medal in 1953.

Almost 40 years earlier, the Ireland family had purchased a 75 percent interest in Birmingham Slag, a small Alabama company established in 1909 to process slag from a Birmingham steel plant. Third-generation Charles Ireland became president in 1951 and transformed Birmingham Slag from a regional operation into a national one. In 1956 it renamed itself Vulcan Materials and went public.

Monaghan had worked closely with Vulcan for many years as company counsel and consultant, so it was not a complete surprise when the company’s board of directors hired him as executive vice president in 1958. His hiring came at a time when the company was growing rapidly, expanding its facilities through acquisitions and mergers with production facilities in 12 states.

The firm was undergoing a period of reorganization and transformation from a family-owned business to a national corporation and at 42 years old, it was his responsibility to make sure the transition and reorganization worked.

As the slag supply decreased, the company began acquiring companies dealing in other aggregates, detinning, and chemicals. Monaghan realized the potential of chlorinated solvents, which are used in pharmaceuticals, chemical processing, aerosols, food extraction, paint stripping, dry cleaning and metal cleaning, and specialty adhesives. Detinning takes tin-plated steel scraps and separates the tin from the steel for re-sale.

Under Monaghan’s leadership, Vulcan’s diversification and expansion moved the company into the Forbes 500 ranking. Today Vulcan Materials Company is a leading provider of infrastructure materials required by the American economy. Vulcan Chemicals produces basic industrial chemicals, which include chlorine, caustic soda, hydrochloric acid, potassium chemicals, and chlorinated organics. Vulcan’s chemicals serve many industries and are used in a wide range of modern applications.

Monaghan was an active supporter of education, serving on the board of governors of Indian Springs School and as a trustee at Birmingham Southern College, where he was awarded a Doctor of Humanities degree. He also was a member of the Alabama Rhodes Scholarship Committee. The B.A. Monaghan’s Professorship in Business Administration at Birmingham Southern College is named in his honor.

He received the 1967 Gold Knight of Management Award from the National Management Association and in 1978 he was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor. In 2003, he was inducted into the Birmingham Business Hall of Fame.

He was a member of the board of directors of Beatrice Foods of Chicago, South Central Bell, Protective Life, SouthTrust Bank, Avondale Mills, and Southern Research Institute.

He also was a member of the Downtown Club, Mountain Brook Club, The Relay Club of Birmingham, and The Chicago Club.

A leader of cultural affairs in Birmingham, he was a member of Trustees for the Birmingham Civic Ballet, Birmingham Symphony Association, the Rushton Lectures of Birmingham, and a member of the Newcomen Society. He was given the 1972 Brotherhood Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews.

His other civic interests included: participation as a member of the Executive Steering Committee of the Alabama Heart Hospital; Board of Directors of the Birmingham Committee of 100; Board of Directors of the Alabama State Chamber of Commerce; Director and member of the Executive Committee of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce; member of the Board of Trustees of the Ireland Foundation of Birmingham; Chairman of the Jefferson County Survey Committee in 1950 to 1952; member of the National Executive Committee and Chairman of the Birmingham Executive Committee for the National Council on Crime and Delinquency; Board of Directors of the National Institute for Public Affairs, Washington, D.C., 1967 to 1973; Board of Directors for the Birmingham Urban League, 1968 to 1974.

Active in fund-raising for civic causes, Monaghan was chairman of the 1967 Ford Foundation Matching Grant Campaign for Birmingham-Southern College; agent for the Harvard Law School Fund from 1956 to 1960; on the Board of Directors for the Birmingham Community Chest, 1960, 1962 to 1966; Chairman, Special Gifts Campaign for the National Conference of Christians and Jews, Alabama Region in 1961 and 1963; Director and Chairman of the 1959 Christmas Seals Campaign for the Anti-Tuberculosis Association of Birmingham; chairman of the 1965 Foundation Committee of the Rotary Club of Birmingham; member of the Board of Directors of the Baptist Hospital Foundation; served the United Negro College Fund as the corporate chairman of the Birmingham Area 1977 Campaign; member of the Alabama Rhodes Scholarship Committee since 1949 and its Secretary in 1972; member of the Steering Committee for the Samford University’s 1970 Decisive Years Campaign.

He was married in 1941 to Margaret Rushton, with whom he had a daughter, Margaret Monaghan. He later was married to the former Mary Jackson Hughes.

Charles Watkins Adair

  • October 4th, 2021

It’s a long way from Dora, Alabama to LaQuinta, California, but Charles W. Adair is no stranger to travel.

Born in 1923 to William Fred and Frances Esther Adair, he began his working life as a laborer in a blast furnace and along the way held a variety of professional and managerial positions with companies whose names are synonymous with Birmingham’s development as a 20th-century city.

Adair graduated from Bessemer High School in 1941 and went to work in the iron ore mines operated by U.S. Steel Corporation. Two years later, he found himself in the middle of World War II, serving for eight months in the Army Infantry before moving over to the Army Air Corps. While in the Air Corps, he served in the 20th Air Force in the South Pacific as a flight engineer on a C-46 cargo plane.

When the war ended he returned to Alabama and attended The University of Alabama, where he received an accounting education and went to work in U.S. Steel Corporation’s steel mill.

His next move was over to Woodward Iron Company in 1948, where he held various positions in accounting and finance, and in 1966, was named vice president of finance and controller, positions he held when Woodward merged with Mead Corporation. He also was general manager of Longview Lime Division, Chattanooga Coke and Chemicals Division, and Roane Electric Division.

He was promoted to executive vice president of the Mead’s Woodward Division in October 1971 and a few months later was named president of Mead’s Iron and Metals Group and Group Vice President of Mead Corporation.

In 1982 he retired from Mead to become vice president and assistant to the chief executive officer at the Drummond Company, a mining and real estate development company with corporate headquarters in Birmingham. Presently, Drummond operates surface and underground coal mines in Alabama and a large surface mine near LaLoma in Colombia. In addition, Drummond operates Alabama By-Products Corp., a coke facility in Tarrant, Ala., where Adair went to work in 1983 as president and chief executive officer. Three years later he became executive vice president of administration at Drummond, before retiring from that position in 1989.

Drummond called again in 1994, this time asking Adair to handle the start-up duties at a real estate development in the California desert.  By this time the Drummond Company had moved into real estate development and golf courses, a ready-made position for Adair, who still plays frequently and shoots his age.

Adair was given the responsibility for planning and managing the operations of Rancho La Quinta Country Club in La Quinta, California (home of the ’96, ’97, and ’98 Skins games). Homes there range from $400,000 to $850,000 plus.

Adair now is a member of the board at Drummond Company and at Ford Tool & Carbide Company, Inc. He formerly served on the boards at Central Bank (now Compass Bank), AmSouth Bank-Birmingham, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama, and Alabama By-Products Corporation.

He is presently on the board of Fellowship House, and has a long history of civic involvement, including serving on the boards of the Boy Scouts of Central Alabama, St. Anne’s Home, as president of the Regional Council on Alcoholism, as chairman of the Baptist Hospital Foundation, the United Way of Central Alabama, the Bessemer Committee of One Hundred and the Bessemer Chamber of Commerce. He is a former member of the Birmingham Rotary Club and a member and elder at Briarwood Presbyterian Church.

He and his wife, Martha Edd Chisenhall, have three children, seven grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren.

Elbert Allen “Larry” Drummond

  • October 4th, 2021

Elbert Allen “Larry” Drummond has been an integral part of the Drummond Company’s incredible success in his positions of vice chairman and chairman of the Executive Management Committee.

The company began in 1935, with the vision of H.E. Drummond, the family patriarch and an entrepreneur who made the decision to enter the coal business in his native Sipsey, Alabama.

Upon H.E. Drummond’s death in 1956, the business was carried on by his sons, who build upon their father’s vision for the company. By the early 1970s. Drummond Company had entered the export coal market and quickly became an industry leader, with foreign sales offices opening shortly thereafter.

A decade after its formation, Drummond Company, Inc. undertook a sizeable capital expansion program to establish itself as the largest surface mining company in Alabama. This was quickly followed by the acquisition of Alabama’s By-Products Corporation. Recognizing that there were significant opportunities in the low-cost, low-sulfur coal markets in Colombia, a decision was made in the late 1980s to expand offshore and secured extensive mining rights there. Larry Drummond has been a major force in advancing all these initiatives.

Today, Drummond Company employs 5,100 directly with revenues of $5 billion annually.

While the coal mining activities were expanded, Drummond’s land management activities led the company through joint ventures, inro real estate development in Florida, California, and Alabama.

Located near Lakeland, Florida, is Oakbridge, a 1,500-acre mixed-use development, and Drummond’s first venture into real estate development. This planned community has its own country club and golf course, as well as residential, retail, professional, and commercial spaces.

Located in Vestavia Hills, Liberty Park community is near Drummond’s home office in Birmingham. At nearly 4,000 acres, it is also the largest planned community initiated by the company, with seven residential neighborhoods, corporate offices, retail space, and the Old Overton Golf and Country Club, named by Golf Digest as American’s best new private course in 1994.

Rancho La Quinta is in the California desert near Palm Springs and is a 725-acre golf-oriented residential community with two golf courses which has received local, state, and national recognition.

Building on the success of Rancho La Quinta, Drummond Company purchased an additional 1,000 acres for a second development in California. Andalusia at Coral Mountain is in La Quinta and features a world-class championship golf course. Upon completion, Andalusia will include about 800 homes in a variety of sizes and styles, reflective of the Andalusia region of southern Span.

Drummond received a Bachelor of Science degree in commerce and business administration from the Culverhouse College of Commerce at The University of Alabama in 1965, and a master’s degree in accounting from UA in 1966, followed by a law degree from The University of Alabama School of Law in 1969.

He is a member of the Alabama Bar Association, the Board of Visitors of the Culverhouse College of Business, The UA President’s Cabinet, at The University of Alabama, and the United Way of Central Alabama’s La Societe Nationale.

He is a director of the Boy Scouts of America Black Warrior Council, the board of the First Commercial Bank, the selection committee of the Alabama Business Hall of Fame, the Walker Area Community Foundation, the Alabama Conservation and National Resources Foundation, and the American Family Business Institute. He is a member of the First Baptist Church of Jasper. He and his wife, Abbie Sue, have three children: Terri Renee Drummond Lyon, Scott Allen Drummond, and Patrick Lee Drummond. He enjoys hunting, fishing, and golf.

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