Elton B. Stephens

• October 11th, 2021

Elton Stephens believes anyone can successfully sell anything.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Elton Stephens succeeded.

Olin B. King

• October 6th, 2021

Olin Berry King, founder, and chairman of SCI Systems, Inc. of Huntsville, has already decided on his epitaph: “You always knew where he stood.” Where King and his company stand, for starters, is at the top of the contract electronics manufacturing business.

SCI Systems, Inc., with 6,000 employees in Huntsville, is the city’s largest private employer and the state’s largest company. The company also has 37 plants in 17 countries and has 31,500 employees worldwide. The company had sales of more than $8 billion for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2000.

King started his business in 1961 in the basement of his south Huntsville home. He and two partners pooled their money – $21,000 – and formed Space Craft, Inc., and set out to design and build satellites. The company quickly became a major subcontractor, building components and instrumentation for NASA’s Saturn V rocket, the vehicle that launched man to the moon.

In the Vietnam War era, SCI made subsystems for military aircraft, then applied that experience to commercial aircraft. In 1976 SCI began making computer terminals for IBM. The big break came in 1981 when SCI began to make personal computers for IBM. Company sales rocketed from $46 million to $500 million by 1985.

SCI, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, is today an $8 billion company that builds electronic products for companies such as Hewlett-Packard Co., and Nostel, as well as several hundred companies involved in the telecommunications, computer, medical, and defense industries.

King built SCI based on the principles of competitive cost, quality, reliability, and responsiveness. And with the daily advances in high tech, many people think the best days are yet ahead for SCI, called by Forbes magazine the “Kmart of the electronic industry.”

King is the son of George Olin King, a Methodist minister, and Elizabeth Berry King. He was born March 17, 1934, in Sandersville, Ga., in the state’s peanut growing region, but he and his family moved with his father’s ministry.

He eventually enrolled at North Georgia College in Dahlonega to study physics and mathematics, graduating at 19. Following his graduation, he spent two years of active duty; during the Korean War, he was a Signal Corps officer. He also took additional courses in engineering at the University of Pennsylvania and Rutgers University. He worked briefly as a design engineer at RCA, then moved to a position with the Army’s ballistic missile program, arriving in Huntsville in 1957. He spent the years between 1957 and 1961 helping build satellites and missiles with Werner von Braun. And then, at age 26, he went from engineer to entrepreneur, teaming with two partners to start Space Craft, Inc.

A key reason for SCI’s astounding success has been its flexibility. One of the firm’s first projects was a satellite for Johns Hopkins University. But the attention of the public and the government soon turned from satellites to scientific manned space programs and King and company began building electronic systems for the Saturn V rocket and other NASA and military missile projects.

When the space projects began to fade, King put the company to work building cockpit controls and other electronic systems for military aircraft.

In the mid-1970s, several large companies such as Hewlett Packard and IBM began looking for answers to the highly competitive challenge of manufacturing electronic products. One answer was to contract with firms such as SCI to build the external equipment the companies designed. The company turned heads across the world when IBM chose it as the primary manufacturer for its original personal computer. The electronic products manufacturing business has mushroomed in the past two decades and shows no indication of slowing.

To meet the growing demand for electronic components and products, King and SCI embarked on an expanded growth program. It has more than six million square feet of manufacturing space in 17 countries across Europe, the North Americas, and Asia and has other facilities under construction.

In 1968, King married his wife, Shelbie, with whom he has raised four children – Elizabeth Smith, George King, Rosemary Lee, and Jay Hoyle, three of whom live in Huntsville. The couple also has six grandchildren who all live in Huntsville.

As you would expect, King has spent a lot of time in the air, traveling to all parts of the globe. Still, he has managed to include in his busy schedule a variety of other business activities, including directorships at Regions Financial Corporation and Regions Bank of Huntsville. He has held directorships with Interfinancial, Abbott Medical Electronics Company, Baker Automation Systems, Deltacom, and Adelantos de Tecnologia, S.A. de C.V. He is a partner in Valley Telephone Services, Inc. and has been active in real estate development in the Huntsville/Madison County area.

He is a member of the Board of Trustees, The University of Alabama System, and member of the University of Alabama in Huntsville Foundation.

He is a founding trustee of the Alabama Heritage Trust Fund, a founding director of the Alabama Supercomputer Network Authority, has been a member of the Governor’s Task Force on Economic Recovery, and a member of the Council of Twenty-One of the Alabama Commission on High Education, and has served as a director of the Alabama Research Institute.

His civic activities include serving as a founding member and past chairman of the Research Park Board of the City of Huntsville, director of the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce, the Huntsville Museum of Art, and the Huntsville Symphony, and a founding director of the Huntsville Hospital Foundation.

He was selected Alabama’s Chief Executive Officer of the Year by The Birmingham News in 1998 and won the Huntsville Madison County Chamber of Commerce’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award, in 1994. In 1984 he was named the National Management Association’s Executive of the Year, and in 1997, he was named by Electronic Buyers News, a leading trade journal, as one of “25 industry executives who made a difference,” which called him “the father of the contract electronic manufacturing services industry.”

His hobbies include collecting antiques for his Greek Revival style antebellum home located in Huntsville’s Twickenham Historic District, and he and his wife enjoy entertaining.

King has remained loyal to the city of Huntsville and the red soil and cotton fields that surround it. “I would say that Huntsville has proved fertile soil in which to grow business as well as cotton,” he said.

Despite the changes and the volatility of the electronic boom and the ups and downs of high-tech stocks, Olin King has remained a constant at SCI, focusing on increasing sales, holding down costs, pleasing shareholders, maintaining quality, and being responsive to customer needs.

King recently stepped down as chief executive officer and board chairman in a low-key, matter-of-fact manner that has been a hallmark of his management style. At that time, he was interviewed by The Huntsville Times and was asked, “When you started SCI 38 years ago in your basement, did you ever envision it becoming an $8 billion company ranked No. 245 on the Fortune 500?”

“Yes,” King replied. “I just didn’t think it would take this long.”

John H. Watson

• October 5th, 2021

John Holman Watson knows a good investment when he sees one. He’s built his life and career around an uncanny ability to recognize good deals early on and make them happen. And he does it so everyone involved benefits from the venture.

Watson was born to Absolom and Mary Outlaw Watson on February 12, 1938, in the small rural community of Skipperville in Dale County.

With the success he has made for himself over the course of his 66 years, you’d think Watson would be beaming with pride. But friends and those that know him say the exact opposite, that even though he may facilitate a business deal and all credit for its succeeding should go to him, Watson would rather others get the praise for his work.

Watson worked a variety of jobs coming up, from delivering ice to carpentry to roof work. When he graduated a year early from Newton High School in 1955 he had a desire to play college football and become an engineer. He had promise as a running back but turned down a scholarship at The University of Alabama for Auburn University’s then superior engineering program. He also figured he could land a position on the football team as a walk-on.

He failed to make the team and was disappointed greatly, even more so when the Tigers won their only national championship that year. But, as he had learned early in life, when something doesn’t go right you have to move on to something else.

The first person in his family to attend college, Watson was a co-op student, working at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville and The Corps of Engineers at Ft. Rucker, and became involved in the advanced ROTC program at the University. Upon graduating from Auburn in 1960 with a degree in mechanical engineering, Watson married Gail Pearson of Ozark and entered the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a second lieutenant.

After serving on active duty in 1961 and 1962 during the Berlin Crisis, Watson and his wife moved back to Dothan where he took a job as an engineer for Smith’s Inc., the largest mechanical contracting firm in the area.

Watson worked 100 hours a week, and in 1966 he and two other employees bought 47 percent interest in the company from James M. Smith. Four years later they purchased the rest of the firm, a transaction made possible by Mr. Smith providing the financing.

Watson considered growing Smith’s Inc. into a regional or national firm but decided it would be better to diversify in other types of business because of ups and downs in the economy and it would enable him to be near home and be able to spend more time with his family. His dealings with Smith and the two partners that helped him buy out the business influenced Watson to want to continue to go into business ventures with friends and partners that he liked, respected and that could add value.

Watson has had his hands in a number of businesses, including Engineered Systems, Inc., a general contracting and design firm performing only negotiated projects. The company specializes in design/build projects on shopping centers, office buildings, warehouses, and industrial buildings. In 1998 the company worked with Auburn University and designed and built the Auburn Indoor Football Practice Facility; Higgins Electric Inc, an industrial contracting, engineering, and electrical supply business; Aladan, Inc., which became the largest latex glove producer in the U.S. and the largest condom manufacturing company in the world; USA Yeast, Inc. a baker’s yeast company built in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, which is the “state of the art” baker’s yeast plant in the world. The plant will produce 1/7  of the total U.S. fresh yeast demand and is the only American-owned baker’s yeast plant in America. (Smith’s, Higgins Electric and Engineered Systems designed and built the two plants); South Alabama Brick Company, which has offices in Alabama and Florida; Southeastern Commercial Financial, LLC, a company specializing in making asset-based loans to businesses and also now has offices in Nashville, TN and Atlanta, GA; and Twitchwell, Inc., a Dothan company with manufacturing facilities in China, specializing in the manufacturer of fabric for the casual furniture market.

Watson’s greatest asset has always been his ability to foresee a business opportunity, weigh rewards against risks, and, if he believes he can make it work, bringing in as many friends and their expertise as he can, spreading good fortune amongst those he likes and respects. He has been described as selfless, soft-spoken, and concerned for others.

Watson has served as a trustee and elder in the Evergreen Presbyterian Church. He has served on the board of Houston Academy, the Dothan Boys Club, the Alabama Research Institute, and the Alabama Industrial Relations.

He was named the 1996 Presidents Council Volunteer of the Year for the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind and serves on the institute’s board. He was the 1988 chairman of the Dothan Area Chamber of Commerce and a graduate of Leadership Alabama. In 1998, he received the Community Service Award from Troy State University Dothan.

He is a past member and Chairman of the Alabama Ethics Commission and currently on the board of directors of Regions Financial Corporation.

He and his wife, Gail Pearson Watson, have a daughter, Abby Jo Watson Down, and a son, John Ronney Watson, and six grandchildren.

Mark C. Smith

• October 4th, 2021

Mark Smith vividly recalls the day he shook the hand of Dr. Wernher Von Braun, the German scientist who served as director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and the chief architect of the effort that propelled Americans to the moon.

Smith had just graduated in 1958 from Birmingham’s Woodlawn High School, and both of his parents were teachers. During high school, Smith became a ham radio buff and developed an interest in science. Upon winning first place in a science fair at Woodlawn, Smith’s prize was a handshake from Dr. Von Braun. The young high school graduate saw this as a grand opportunity and boldly asked Dr. Von Braun for a summer job. Smith went on to attend the Georgia Institute of Technology and over the next three summers, he worked at NASA in Huntsville and Cape Canaveral.

During the summer preceding his last year of college, he was employed with SCI Systems, Inc., and upon earning an electrical engineering degree from Georgia Tech in 1962 he began full-time employment with SCI as an engineering manager. In I 969 his entrepreneurial spirit took hold and he left SCI to co-found Universal Data Systems (UDS) – out of his home garage and with $30,000 in savings. UDS, the first data communications company in Alabama, was quite successful, and in 1979 with annual revenues of about $20 million was sold to Motorola. At that time, Smith became president of the DDS-Motorola Division. In 1985, the proven visionary was ready to take on yet another challenge; he left UDS and co-founded ADTRAN, Inc. As CEO and chairman, Smith led the start-up company of seven employees to become a publicly traded company in 1994, the same year ADTRAN announced a $50 million expansion of its facility. Today, with more than 1600 employees and annual revenues approaching $500 million, the company is a worldwide leader in providing high-speed network access products to the telecommunications equipment industry.

During 2000, Smith took time off for treatment of throat cancer, and in 200 l returned to his activities as CEO and chairman, although he admits to slowing down some.

Smith has been honored with numerous awards including an Honorary Doctor of Science in 1986 from The University of Alabama in Huntsville. In 1995, he was inducted into the State of Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame and was also named “Entrepreneur of the Year” in the High Technology/Electronics category-Southeastern Division. He was the 1995 recipient of Georgia Tech’s Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award. In 1998 the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce presented him with the Distinguished Service Award. In 2000 he was selected CEO of the Year by Birmingham News, and a 2003 Forbes Magazine featured Smith and ranked Huntsville as one of the

“Best Places” to do business. He was recognized by the Alabama Information Technology Association and awarded its “2004 Lifetime Achievement Award.” Through his many civic, philanthropic, and business involvements Smith has helped establish Huntsville’s modem identity and he continues to be actively involved today. In fact, he was just named “Person of the Decade – 1990 – 2000” in Huntsville, for his “positive thinking and fearlessness.”

Smith is the son of Gerald A. and Verna Smith. He is married to the former Linda Jones of Greenville, Georgia. They have a daughter, Cynthia Smith McKeman of Houston, and a son, Clay, of Dallas, and seven grandchildren. He enjoys fishing and boating, especially aboard the boat, “High Tide II,” which he pilots up the Tennessee River every two years to watch the Alabama-Tennessee game.

James R. Hudson, Jr.

• October 4th, 2021

Mr. Hudson is founder, president, and chief executive officer of Research Genetics, Inc. He is also the founder of the Hudson-Alpha Institute.

Mr. Hudson grew up in Huntsville and graduated from Huntsville High in 1960.  Prior to beginning his professional career, Hudson served as an officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from 1967 to 1970.  During his tour of duty in Vietnam, Hudson flew many missions over North Vietnam.  Hudson’s actions during one of these missions resulted in him being awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the highest honor awarded to a military aviator.

He received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from The University of Alabama as well as a master’s degree in biology from UAH.

Mr. Hudson’s business acumen was nurtured by his father.  The senior Hudson, together with sons, Jim and Gary, operated Hudson Metals which was an aluminum and gray iron foundry in Huntsville.  Jim helped elevated Hudson Metals to the most productive small foundry in the Southeast before it was sold in 1982.

Having sold Hudson Metal in 1987 and, while earning a master’s degree in biology at UAH, Mr. Hudson founded Research Genetics with an initial investment of $25,000.  While conducting research that required a piece of synthetic DNA, Hudson was appalled when he learned it would take up to four weeks to receive his order.  It took only four hours to produce DNA but his order was in line behind many others that were to be produced by a single machine.  “In that instant, I knew exactly what my business model would be.  I was going to have enough machines that I was going to ship tomorrow everything ordered today.”

Launching from that initial business model, Research Genetics became a biotech business icon.  Through thoughtful balance and key relationships with leading academic researchers, Hudson grew the world’s leader in genetic linkage products.  Research Genetics was a chief partner in the Human Genome Project, the international effort coordinated by the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health, to identify the sequence of the DNA found inside human cells.

Mr. Hudson served as chief executive of Research Genetics until 2000 when he sold the company to Invitrogen in a deal valued at more than $130 million.

“Having the capital (from Research Genetics) opened a lot of doors to help biotech gain a foothold in Huntsville,” he noted.  Mr. Hudson has advised and incubated six successful biotech companies.  He is co-founder and served as the first president of the Biotechnology Association of Alabama.

In addition to his business career, Mr. Hudson has initiated a number of projects to revitalize Huntsville’s downtown area and make it enticing to young professionals.  His vision and passion toward ensuring its vibrancy have resulted in new arts venues, restaurants, and a greatly enhanced after-hours scene.

Today, Mr. Hudson is the founder and president of the Hudson-Alpha Institute for Biotechnology, a non-profit research institute that emphasizes high-throughput research tools and thrives on collaboration and cooperation of researchers in academia, industry, and government.  This not-for-profit institute uses biotechnology to improve human health, stimulate economic development, and inspire the next generation of scientists.  In a very real sense, the institute continues the work Mr. Hudson started at Research Genetics. The mission at Research Genetics was to find the latest cutting-edge tools that would accelerate research and make the findings of that research available to the rest of the world in an expedient and cost-effective manner.

With a $50 million commitment from the state, Mr. Hudson spear-headed a campaign to raise $80 million in private donations that together will create 900 direct new jobs.  Mr. Hudson’s initiative is positioning Alabama to become a worldwide leader in biotech research and one of the premier places in the nation for these high-paying jobs that can’t be exported overseas.  Governor Bob Riley has predicted that within ten years employment at the Cummings Research Park Biotech Campus (of which Hudson-Alpha Institute is the cornerstone) at close to 1,600 with a combined annual payroll of more than $83 million.

The Hudson-Alpha Institute’s new four-story, 270,000 square-foot facility, which opened in November of 2007, will initially provide accommodation for nine for-profit biotech companies, as well as institute researchers and administration.  The facility contains state-of-the-art laboratories for biotechnology research and development in the areas of genetics and personalized medicine.

Governor Bob Riley described Jim Hudson best at the announcement ceremony for the Hudson-Alpha Institute, when he said, “There’s always a driving force, one person….who has the perseverance to take a vision and turn it into a reality. You’re blessed, ladies and gentlemen, to have a person like that in your midst today.  I want to thank Jim Hudson for never backing down.”

James T. Stephens

• October 4th, 2021

Mr. Stephens was born in Birmingham, AL on April 14, 1939, and son of Elton B. and Alys R. Stephens.  He attended Birmingham public schools before attending Yale University (A.B. in history – 1961) and receiving his M.B.A. degree in 1964 from Harvard.

He served in the United States Army as a lieutenant and he was airborne qualified.  His career with EBSCO began in 1965 at an early age.  He was named president and chief executive officer of EBSCO at the age of 30.  This was a major decision for his father to make but clearly speaks of his confidence in Jim’s leadership abilities.  In business matters, Jim’s mental and physical energy are constantly apparent to those who work with him.  EBSCO is a complex business organization with a very diverse mix of companies.  Mr. Stephens is engaged in all of them as if each is his only concern.

Currently, Mr. Stephens is Chairman of the Board of EBSCO Industries, Inc.  He served as president from October 30, 1970, through June 30, 2005, through the company’s major growth to its status as a worldwide company of over 5,000 employees at 36 locations in 20 countries.  EBSCO is a widely diversified sales/marketing and manufacturing company operating worldwide with 105 profit/service centers, and with sales of over $2,100,000,000.  It is the largest privately-owned company in Alabama and one of the top 200 privately-owned companies in the United States.  EBSCO has subsidiaries located around the world.

His civic involvement includes numerous positions with the Boy Scouts of America Central Alabama Council.  He is a strong believer in education which is evidenced by his civic involvement in so many different schools.  He was past president of the Board of Trustees of the Highlands School, past president of the Board of Trustees of Altamont School, a member of the Board of Trustees since 1989 of Birmingham-Southern College as well as chairman of the Board for 2005-2006.  He is on the finance committee for the University of Alabama Health Services Foundation and chairman of the Board of Trustees for the Alabama Symphony Endowment Board.  The University of Alabama College of Communication and Information Sciences inducted him into their Hall of Fame in 2003.

Mr. Stephens is philanthropically involved in the Elton Bryson Stephens Science Laboratory Center at Birmingham-Southern College, the Alys Robinson Stephens Performing Arts Center at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, the Alabama Symphonic Association, and the Boy Scouts of America.  He is a member of the United Way’s Alexis de Tocqueville Society.  He chaired successful campaigns for the University of Alabama’s School of Information Sciences in the 1990s.  He also chaired a successful campaign for the Boy Scout’s Character for Central Alabama Council.  The University of Alabama was privileged to have Mr. Stephens as the keynote speaker for the May 12, 2007 commencement ceremonies.  (nominated by Ehney A. Camp III in 2007)

Marvin Mann

• September 28th, 2021

Marvin L. Mann graduated from Samford University in 1954 with a bachelor’s degree with majors in accounting, economics, and office management. He earned an MBA with majors in marketing and economics from The University of Alabama in 1958. He graduated from Northwestern University’s International Executive Program in Switzerland in 1980 and was president of the class.

Mann joined IBM in Mobile, Alabama in 1958 as a computer systems account executive. He ultimately became a Vice President at IBM. Among Mann’s greatest achievements was his role in something commonplace around the world today – the Universal Product Code. While Mann was manager of IBM’s Store System Business unit, the UPC was developed in cooperation with major retailers and manufacturers IBM gave the UPC to the industry. In celebration of the 25^th anniversary of the first successful contributions to the UPC. Mann played a key leadership role in the success of the UPC and was the keynote speaker at this event.

Mann served as president and CEO of the Satellite Business Systems Company, a large partnership of IBM, Aetna Casualty, and Comsal. He managed the company and later led the sale of the company and merger with MCI Corporation. He served as general manager of the IBM typewriter business where he and his team laid the foundation to transition from typewriters to computer printers. He was president of the IBM Information Products Division that developed and manufactured typewriters, printers, and copiers. ATMs and other banking systems, and numerous other worldwide businesses.

After his retirement from IBM in 1991, Mann worked with the private equity firm, Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, in the purchase of IBM’s desktop printer and typewriter business. He was chairman, CEO, and investor in the newly founded company, Lexmark International. Lexmark became a highly competitive, high-growth computer printer company listed on the New York Stock Exchange operating in more than 150 companies. Mann retired in 2010 as Chairman Emeritus of Lexmark for life.

Mann served as a member of the board of independent trustees of Fidelity Investments for 13 years, the last five years as chairman of the board. He also served on the board of directors of M.A. Hanna Corporation, Cleveland, Ohio, and Imation, Inc. in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Upon retirement, Lexmark established a $250,000 scholarship fund in Mann’s name at The University of Alabama. He continues to support the scholarship fund and the university in numerous ways. He and his wife, Frances, endowed the Frances Marvin Mann Center for Ethics and Leadership at Samford University. His charitable service encompasses numerous worthy causes. In the early days at Lexmark, a number of the employees and managers were helping to build Habitat for Humanity houses. With Lexmark’s support, the employees built a house each year and have helped with additional houses for more than 20 years.

Mann was presented with an honorary Doctor of Commerce degree in 1993 and named Alumnus of the Year by Samford University in 1993 and 2004. In 2006, Samford presented him with the Ethics-in-Business Award, an annual award known as the Marvin Mann Ethics-in-Business Award at The University of Alabama. Mann is a member of the president’s cabinet and the Board of Visitors for the Culverhouse College of Business.

Mann served three and a half years in the Navy as a Navy Exchange Officer. He and his wife, Frances, were married for 53 years and have two children, Tara and Jeff; two granddaughters, Leah and Olivia; and two great-granddaughters, Madeline and Charlotte.

Beverly Phifer

• September 28th, 2021

Beverly Clarkson Phifer is the chief executive officer of Phifer Incorporated, a family-owned business founded in Tuscaloosa in 1952 by her father, Reese Phifer. Phifer Incorporated is an industry leader in the manufacture of wire and highly advanced synthetic fabrics used in insect screens, solar control fabrics, drawn wire, engineered products, and designed fabrics industries. Under Phifer’s leadership, the world’s largest producer of aluminum and fiberglass insect screening has capitalized on its wire drawing and textile weaving expertise.

Phifer has led the privately held company through many expansions. The scope of Phifer Incorporated has expanded from the original product – aluminum insect screening – into a multitude of wire, fiberglass, and specialty textile fabrics. Some of the precision woven products manufactured by Phifer Incorporated are actually called “Technical Textiles.”

The company’s primary manufacturing and corporate offices are located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Additional warehouse, production or subsidiary operations are in Fayette, Alabama, California, Italy, India, and Asia. Phifer Incorporated exports all products worldwide and has a full international sales and traffic staff.

Phifer Incorporated has been at the forefront of environmental stewardship and is a leader in the manufacture and sale of energy-saving sun control fabrics for both the residential and commercial markets. The company has no less than 20 branded products that offer a broad range of options to reduce solar heat gain, preserve interior surfaces and materials, improve the quality of home and work environments and protect natural resources by conserving energy. Phifer Incorporated has also introduced lines of sun control fabrics and designed fabrics for outdoor furniture that are 100 percent recyclable.

In 2002, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management nominated Phifer Incorporated for the Governor’s Conservation Achievement Award, and the Alabama Wildlife Federation selected the company as the Air Conservationist of the Year. Phifer Incorporated was the first manufacturer in the industry to achieve GREENGUARD  certification.

Phifer Incorporated employs approximately 1,200 people in Tuscaloosa. When jobs and business were being lost in the outdoor furniture and fabric industry due to a large part of the customer base moving their plants to China, Phifer made the decision for the company to manufacture a raw material in China and ship this raw material to Phifer Incorporated in Tuscaloosa. This gave the Tuscaloosa plant a competitive advantage and resulted in the continued growth and hiring at the Tuscaloosa plant.

Phifer’s interests include numerous worthy causes, such as the West Alabama Food Bank, the Salvation Army,

Temporary Emergency Services, the Soup Bowls, the Good Samaritan Clinic, the Red Cross, the West Alabama Promise Neighborhood, and Christ Episcopal Church’s Lazarus Ministry.

Phifer is a member of The University of Alabama President’s Cabinet, the Museum Board of Regents, the Denny Society, the Women of the Capstone, and the Board of Visitors for the Culverhouse College of Commerce.

Phifer has recently married Frank Wingard and they both continue to work in their respective family businesses and make their home in Tuscaloosa.

William Stender

• September 28th, 2021

William H. Stender, Jr. is co-founder and retired chief executive officer of CAS, Inc., in Huntsville, a leading provider of systems engineering and technical assistance for a wide range of military applications, principally to the U.S. Department of Defense and similar or related agencies.

Stender entered the United States Army in 1964 as a Second Lieutenant at Ft. Bliss, Texas. During his 10 years in the military, he served in the Army Rangers and in Army Air Defense in Infantry units in Germany, Alabama, Texas and Vietnam.

After 10 years in the military, he joined IBM in Huntsville as an Advisory Engineer and five years later, in 1979, along with a partner, put his military background to use and formed CAS, Inc., a company specializing in weapon systems analysis, where he served as chief executive officer until 2006 when the business was sold to EDO Corp.

Services provided by CAS include system engineering and analysis support for theater missile defense, air defense, aviation, and land-combat missile systems. When the company was sold, it had 1,000 employees operating in 13 states and on military bases worldwide. CAS reported revenue for the 12 months ended March 31, 2006, of $184.3 million.

Stender, a graduate of Brown High School in Atlanta, received his Bachelor of Science degree from Georgia Tech in 1964 and his master of science from the University of Texas-El Paso in 1971.

He has been heavily involved in all aspects of missile system development, management, acquisition, and deployment,

directing studies of the sophisticated Patriot missile system, Hawk, Army TACMS, and other missile systems for the United States and its allies. He was part of the testing program for Patriot and Sgt. York and also directed the development of simulations in the areas of radar detection and airborne target intercepts.

Stender has served in many civic leadership roles throughout the Huntsville community, including serving as chairman of the March of Dimes annual drive; chairman of the Hospice Huntsville annual benefit drive, chairman of the capital fundraising campaign for the National Children’s Advocacy Center, chairman of the Huntsville Library Foundation and the Huntsville Hospital Foundation annual golf tournament.

He also served on the board of directors for the Madison County United Way, the Huntsville-Madison County Chamber of Commerce, the Huntsville Rotary Club, the Culverhouse College of Commerce, the Association of the United States Army, and president of the Huntsville Association of Old Crows.

In 2000 he served in a volunteer capacity as interim Chief Executive Officer of the United States Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville and later served as the Chairman of the Alabama Space Sciences Exhibit Commission.

Since his retirement, he has served as chairman of the Huntsville-Madison County Veterans Memorial Foundation, which raised $5 million to date to build a memorial to recognize all veterans of the United States armed forces.

Stender was selected Small Business Executive of the Year by the Huntsville-Madison County Chamber of Commerce and Small Business Person of the Year for the state of Alabama by the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Stender, a native of South Carolina, also is the author of Master Switch, an espionage novel that explores the terrifying consequences of a breach of security that puts the United States forces and Israeli defenses at risk.

He has four children and 19 grandchildren.

Dorothy Davidson

• September 28th, 2021

Dorothy S. Davidson is Chairman of the Board and CEO of Davidson Technologies, Inc., which has distinguished itself as an innovator in the aerospace and defense industries. The company offers a full spectrum of engineering, technical and management services for missile, rocket, cybersecurity, and strategic intelligence systems.

A native of Northern Virginia, Davidson received a BS in mathematics in 1956.

Her career started as a Research Mathematician with the US Air Force Air Staff at the Pentagon during which time she was selected for the one-year Management Intern Program.

In 1962, Dr. Davidson joined the research staff at the US Patent Office as a research mathematician where she developed algorithms to use in patent searches.

In 1965, Dr. Davidson joined private industry where she worked on Department of Defense programs in designing Command and Control and Information Retrieval systems for both field and headquarters.

During the 1970s, she began designing systems for military use within the NATO community. Within her scope of NATO support, Davidson worked with private industrial firms and research institutes for member countries on the development of weapon systems.

In 1996, she and her husband Dr. Julian Davidson founded Davidson Technologies. After the death of Julian in January 2013, she took on leadership duties at the company.

In 2017, The University of Alabama in Huntsville celebrated the grand opening of the D.S. Davidson Invention to Innovation Center (I2C) business incubator, which provides space for start-ups, innovation teams, and corporate partners to work together in an environment conducive to collaboration. The Center also helps UAH connect with federal research agencies on Redstone Arsenal and the larger high-tech community.

Dr. Davidson has been active in the community providing her time and resources in support of organizations, including the Huntsville Museum of Art, the Huntsville Symphony, the Saturn V Restoration Executive Committee, the US Space and Rocket Center, the National Children Advocacy Center, Calhoun Community College, Boys and Girls Club, and the Auburn University Museum of Art.

She has helped fund the construction of the Davidson Center for Space Exploration. The Center’s mission is to honor the many Alabama engineers who worked in the missile and space programs at Redstone Arsenal and Marshall Space Flight Center, as well as celebrate the life of Werner von Braun, who played a crucial role in America’s space and defense programs.

In addition to Dr. Davidson’s contributions to community, science, and culture, she supports at-risk youth in Alabama. With her purchase of a 10,000 square foot home on ten acres for the Kids to Love Foundation, she has provided girls in the Huntsville foster care system with a place to receive support and guidance. She has also fully funded the Kids to Love KTech Program, which teaches skills related to advanced manufacturing, finance, automotive, and healthcare.

Furthermore, she supports Girls Inc., a mentorship and empowerment program, and scholarship programs at Greengate School, The University of Alabama in Huntsville, and Auburn University.