Industry: Transportation

Daniel Jeremiah Haughton

  • October 26th, 2021

Daniel Jeremiah Haughton’s oft­repeated advice was, ”You do the best you can with what you’ve got.” Perhaps his rise to national prominence as an astute and skillful leader in the aviation and aerospace industries and in civic affairs stemmed from the fact that he followed his own advice.

Dan Haughton, born September 7, 1911, grew up on a farm near the small town of Dora in Walker County, Alabama. The son of Gayle and Martha (Davis) Haughton, he graduated from West Jefferson County High School as valedictorian of his class. In 1929, he enrolled in The University of Alabama. To earn enough money to finance his education, he drove a school bus, transporting miners to and from work and children to and from school; worked in a garage morning and afternoons and in lunch­rooms to pay for his lunch. During summer vacation, he earned $2.00 a day as a loader in a coal mine. About these work experiences, Dan Haughton later said, “I wouldn’t give up my expe­riences . . . for anything . . . I know how a guy feels when he works and he’s tired, and I know how to get tired and keep on going.”

When Dan Haughton graduated in 1933 with a B. S. degree in Accounting, he found few opportunities in depression-ridden Alabama. Thus, he went to California where he worked in construction companies until 1936 when his career in the aerospace industry began, as a cost accountant with the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation in San Diego.

In 1939, Dan Haughton joined Lockheed Air­craft Corporation in Burbank as a systems analyst and coordinator, with responsibilities for estab­lishing procedures for ac­counting, industrial securi­ty, production controls, and manpower. His honesty, integrity, accuracy, com­mon sense, and infinite capacity for work must have been quickly noticed. In 1941 he became assistant to the vice president of Lockheed’s Vega Aircraft Corporation subsidiary. His responsibilities included production planning, pro­curement, production, and deliveries. By 1943, his unusual management abilities were recognized by promotion to works manager of Vega Aircraft, with direct responsibility for its aircraft produc­tion programs. In early 1944, he was named assistant general works manager of Lockheed.

In 1946, Dan Haughton, who had established a reputation during World War II as a production specialist who could do equally well with men, machines, and money, was appointed assistant to Lockheed Aircraft’s vice president of manufacturing. In 1949, he became president of Lockheed’s subsidiary Airquipment Company and its Aerol Company, Inc. in Burbank.

In late 1950, in response to the need for bombers in Korea, the U.S. Air Force asked Lockheed to reopen a World War II bomber plant in Mariet­ta, Georgia. Thus, in January 1951, a nucleus of 150 Lockheed employees from Burbank moved to Marietta to form the Georgia Division-among them, Dan Haughton as assistant general manager of the new division (now the Lockheed-Georgia Division). One year later he was named general manager of the Georgia Division and a vice president of Lockheed Aircraft Corporation. In 1956, he returned to Burbank to become executive vice president of the corporation. He became a member of the board of directors in 1958 and was elected president of the corporation in 1961. He became chairman of the board in 1967 and served until his retirement in 1976.

As Lockheed executive vice president, president, and then chairman, Dan Haughton oversaw the development of such famous planes as the high-altitude U-2 and SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft, the C-5 military transport, and the L-1011 Tristar commercial jetliner.

One of his greatest achievements was his success in keeping Lockheed from financial disaster in 1971 when Rolls-Royce went bankrupt while develop­ing the engines for Lockheed’s L-1011 Jetliner. Using his patriarchal management style (which Fortune called “red-dirt southern courtliness”), he persuaded the British government to take over Rolls-Royce and continue the engine program; he arranged a $75 million credit package; and he pledged Lockheed assets as collateral when he con­vinced the U.S. government to guarantee a $250 million commercial loan from a group of 24 banks.

In recognition of his untiring efforts on behalf of Lockheed, Aviation Week in 1971 honored him, “for his indefatigable, courteous, frank, and suc­cessful campaign to keep his corporation afloat on the stormiest financial and technical waters the in­dustry has ever seen.” The Greater Los Angeles Press Club named him “Headliner of the Year,” for the most delicate balancing act in the annals of modern American business . . . “in snatching his company from the brink of bankruptcy.”

In an unprecedented gathering, thousands of Lockheed employees and their families crowded the Los Angeles Convention Center for a “Day with Dan” to express their appreciation for his leadership. Dan Haughton had truly earned his unofficial nickname ”Uncle Dan.”

Dan Haughton’s leadership extended beyond the aviation and aerospace industry. He was also a leader in public service which benefited millions of Americans, locally and nationally. In civic and philanthropic affairs, he was known as one who could be counted on to give generously of his time and personal resources. He chaired funds for numerous causes such as Red Cross, United Way, and Boy Scouts. He devoted 20 years of ceaseless effort as a fundraiser, director, and national chair­man for the Multiple Sclerosis Society to help fight the disease that in 1980 claimed his beloved wife, Martha Jean (nee Oliver), whom he had married in 1935.

Among the many honors Dan Haughton re­ceived were honorary Doctor of Law degrees from The University of Alabama (1962), George Washington University (1965), and Pepperdine University (1975); and an honorary doctor of science degree from Clarkson College of Technology (1973). Early in 1987, he was nominated and elected to the prestigious National Aviation Hall of Fame.

Other recognition included: the National Defense Transportation Association’s National Transportation Award (1965), the National Management Association’s Man of the Year (1966), Sales and Marketing Executives Interna­tional Marketing Executive of the Year (1968), and the National Aviation Club Award of Achieve­ment (1969).

Daniel Jeremiah Haughton died in Marietta, Georgia, on July 5, 1987. In a corporate manage­ment memo dated July 6, 1987, Larry Kitchen, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Lockheed wrote, ‘With Dan Haughton’s death yesterday, Lockheed lost a fervent cham­pion, the aerospace industry lost an esteemed leader, and every Lockheed employee lost a good friend.”

He is survived by one sister, Sarah Haughton Rodgers of Northport, Alabama, and twelve nieces and nephews.

Biographical information was derived from material compiled by James W. Jacobs & Associates, Inc., Sun City West, AZ, for the National Aviation Hall of Fame, Inc., 1987; from Lockheed publications-The Southern Star and Star Dusters Newsletter; and from articles in the Atlanta Constitution and the Marietta Daily Journal.

William D. Sellers, Jr.

  • October 26th, 2021

The late William D. Sellers, Jr. – Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Baggett Transportation Company, of Birmingham – has been described as the type of citizen whose work behind the scenes makes a big difference in the quality of life in the community and/or state.

This distinguished transportation executive and benefactor of higher education was born in Anniston, Alabama, on Friday, June 13, 1913. Because his father established a medical practice in Birmingham four years later, William, Jr. grew up in Birmingham. After graduating from high school in 1931, he obtained a football scholarship at The University of Alabama. (He played on the same freshman team as Paul “Bear” Bryant and in later years was instrumental in persuading his friend and former teammate to return to the University as coach).

To help finance his education during those lean years of the Great Depression, William Sellers used his ingenuity to find or create jobs for himself. He received free room by taking care of   Gorgas Hall-stoking the furnace and checking the hot and cold water supply. He persuaded the Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, a local florist, and a furniture store to hire him as a campus representative who would convince fraternity, sorority, and boarding houses to patronize their businesses.

After receiving his pre-med degree in 1934, William Sellers completed one year of medical school at the University. He continued to use his ingenuity to finance his education. For example, when the Rose Bowl Special rolled out of Tuscaloosa in December 1934, it was William Sellers who had the advertising contract to give away free Coca Colas.

In September 1935, he transferred to the medical school at Tulane. After a short time, he realized he could not work, earn a living, and go to school at the same time. He left medical school to take a job selling trucks and buses for White Motors of New Orleans. This decision set the stage for what would ultimately lead to a distinguished career as a transportation executive.

The sales job with White Motors took him back to his hometown and home state for a two-year stint. When he was to be transferred to Houston, he chose to stay in Alabama. He signed on with Pan American Petroleum, a division of Standard Oil of Indiana. He called on cities, counties, education boards, and companies throughout the state, selling a host of petroleum products.

In 1941, William Sellers called on one of his customers, Baggett Transportation Company. This sales call changed his life because he was offered a job and part interest in the company. On December 1, 1941, William Sellers’ name was added to the payroll.

Five years later, William Sellers bought full control of the company, which under his leadership became one of the most successful transportation companies in the nation.

In 1941, Baggett Transportation Company had only about 19 trailers and 15 or 20 power units – doing business only in Alabama. Under William Sellers’ leadership, Baggett became one of the major motor freight carriers of ammunition for the Department of Defense and for commercial manufacturers. Operating in 48 states, the company also became a major hauler, of general commodities, using more than 900 trailers with an equivalent number of power units.

“It takes good supervision and good teamwork to get the job done,” William Sellers once said. But he provided even more incentives to excellence. He not only made sure that everyone was

well trained but also encouraged safety in every phase of the business through bonuses for safe operations. He provided profit-sharing programs and good retirement programs for employees. Because the employees respected “Mr. William” (as they called him) and his goals, they rarely left Baggett; and under his leadership, Baggett Transportation Company established an enviable nationwide record in sales and service.

While leading Baggett Transportation Company to new heights, William Sellers also found time to encourage the development of the transportation industry through active participation in the Alabama Trucking Association. He served three terms as the association’s president and also as a director. He also served as a chairman and director of the Alabama Motorists Association. This “pretty good trucker,” as he once described himself, was also what he called “a part-time banker”-that is, he was a member of the board of directors of First Alabama Bank of Birmingham (now First Alabama Bancshares) and served as chairman of the board from 1977 to 1986.

He was also on the board of directors of Multimedia (parent company of the Montgomery Advertiser-Alabama Journal Newspapers) and of American Heritage Life Insurance Company of Jacksonville, Florida, and he served as a director of Alabama State Docks.

This busy, but well-organized, executive also gave his time and financial support to enhance the quality of higher education in Alabama, particularly at his alma mater, The University of Alabama. He was one of the founders of the Chair of Transportation in the College of Commerce and Business Administration. He served as a member of the C&BA Board of Visitors and as chairman of the Commerce Executives Society-both groups dedicated to providing private support for the enrichment of the College’s programs and services to students. Also a member of the University’s President’s Cabinet, he led the University’s successful sesquicentennial campaign for capital funding. With a goal of $38.4 million, the campaign pledges reached $61.8 million from alumni and friends of the University. William Sellers said the success was due to the staff and alumni scattered throughout0the country. But both Drs. Roger Sayers, President of the University, and John L. Blackburn, former Vice President of Development, have attributed much of the success to William Sellers, a great friend of the University who worked every day to inspire others to support the enrichment of education at the Capstone.

In his hometown, William Sellers lent his time, talent, and financial support to help provide needed services to citizens. As a president and trustee of the Crippled Children’s Clinic and Foundation and the Eye Foundation Hospital, he was instrumental in raising funds for needed treatment centers. He helped establish the Charley Boswell Golf Classic to benefit the handicapped. He was also a member of the Birmingham Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America. For his contributions to the business community and by efforts on behalf of higher education and the community service, William Sellers, Jr. received the following recognitions:

In 1974, the H. Chester Webb Award for distinguished service from the Alabama Trucking Association; in 1981, an honorary doctor of laws degree from The University of Alabama; in 1984, the Outstanding Civic Leader Award from the Alabama Chapter of the National Society of Fund Raising Executives; The University of Alabama National Alumni Association’s Distinguished Alumni Award; and a certificate of appreciation from the State of Alabama for outstanding and dedicated service in the area of education; in 1985 induction into the Alabama Academy of Honor for accomplishments and service benefitting or reflecting great credit on the state.

William Sellers was a man who always strove for excellence and who always enjoyed what he was doing-whether at work or play. (An avid golfer, he was proud that he had achieved six holes in-one-the last hole-in-one being made in 1985.)

While still doing the work he loved to do, William Sellers, Jr. died following a heart attack in his office, on Friday, July 27, 1990.

Born on a Friday in 1913, he left this world on a Friday in 1990, leaving behind a legacy of good work, good service, and goodwill. He will be missed.

William Sellers, Jr. is survived by his wife, Virginia Forsyth Sellers (whom he married in 1937) and two daughters: Forsyth (Mrs. Joseph M. Donald, Jr.) and Mary (Mrs. Henry Crommelin) of Birmingham.

John H. Dove

  • October 25th, 2021

Both smiled when they spoke of him. When John H. “Red” Dove left this life in February 1994, what remained behind him was a legacy of love. John Hal “Red” Dove was born to John and Vera Stallings Dove on October 7, 1909, in the little sawmill town of Shubuta, Mississippi. The story of his rise to the top of the transportation business is one that began when he was a young man. In his own words, told Alabama Trucker magazine in 1983, “We would take all the logs too large to handle through my father’s sawmills to the railroad siding and ship them to bigger mills in bigger towns. That was the 1920s. At that time, I hauled forest products with teams of mules and oxen. Then in 1926-27, we started using Model T Ford trucks to haul the lumber and logs too big for our mills.”

In 1931, Red, 24, and his bride Sybil Bentley moved to California to seek relief from the Great Depression. When the automobile plant where he was working shut down, the Doves headed back South penniless – and with 6-month-old son Earl. By 1932 Red Dove’s father had settled in Dothan, Alabama, so Red moved his family there and began hauling pulpwood and produce, forming his own company, Dove Truck Lines. With the advent of motor carrier regulation in 1935, he hauled produce and other commodities until forced by ill-health to sell out. When his health returned, Red formed his second company, John H. Dove Transportation, which hauled livestock, produce, and other commodities between points in Alabama and Florida. He later merged this operation into D&D Transportation Company, Incorporated, which was based in Dothan. The company established branch offices in Atlanta, Andalusia, and Mobile, and specialized in less-than-truckload shipments.

He sold his interest in D&D in 1950. In 1955, he purchased two small Alabama trucking companies and combined them to form AAA Motor Lines, Incorporated, based in Dothan. In 1969, the rapidly growing company bought the Brewton-based firm of Cooper to Transfer, Incorporated. AAA Cooper Transportation was formed to operate both companies. When sons Earl and Mack came home from college with degrees in transportation, as the story goes, Red calculated that they probably knew more about how to take the family business into the future than he did, so he sold his interest in the company to the two young men.

That is the chronological history. It is the man who lived it that makes the story unique. Red Dove is considered a pioneer in motor freight transportation in the state of Alabama. When he began his career, the highways of the South were mostly mud or sand. In fact, he helped pave U.S. Highway 80 between Selma, Alabama, and Meridian, Mississippi. Bridges in those days were rare to non-existent – even over the Mississippi River. In the 1930s and early ’40s, trucking meant long, hard hours and small, under­ powered equipment on primitive, poorly­ marked roads. As late as 1945, the 200-mile haul from Birmingham to Dothan took eight hours, driving through the center of each of the cities and towns en route. Again, Red’s own words from 1983: “There’s no way for anybody to start like I did in ’31. It’s just too complicated with computers and everything else. You didn’t have anything then but a shoebox. You put what money you collected into it, and you paid for everything out of that box. Whenever the box was empty, you were broke.”

Red put in long hours on the road during the week and built flatbed trailers in his backyard on weekends. But he always took time for and enjoyed his growing family: wife Sybil, boys Earl and Mack, and daughter Faye.

Remembering Red, Alabama Trucking Association Director Jim Ritchie points to the H. Chester Webb Distinguished Service Award the man received from that organization, of which he was past president and chairman of the board. The Award, the highest presented by the body, recognizes distinguished service by an individual associated with the trucking industry in Alabama for his or her outstanding record of service to the industry, the Association, and to his community. Inscribed on the Award are the words of Sophocles: “This is man’s highest end/ To other’s service/ All his powers to bend.”

Alabama Senator Richard Shelby recognized that life of service in a tribute he paid to the late Red Dove on the floor of the United States Senate Tuesday, March 1, 1994. Entered into the Congressional Record, the testimony said: “He was a man of faith and family who exemplified the best of the American character in both enterprise and community service … he truly exemplified the American spirit of commerce, thrift, and hard work.”

Along with other members of the Alabama Trucking Association, Red was a charter sponsor of a Chair of Transportation in that organization’s name at The University of Alabama and was also honored in 1984 with the naming of The John H. Dove Chair of Transportation at the University of Tennessee. He served as a member of the Board of Directors and as Alabama vice president for American Trucking Associations, Incorporated, and was an active member of his home community of Dothan, serving as chairman of the board of the Salvation Army, as a member of the First Baptist Church of Dothan, the Dothan­ Houston Chamber of Commerce, the Masonic Lodge, and the Exchange Club.

John Hal “Red” Dove died February 7, 1994, survived by his wife, three children, eight grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren. There is a building on the grounds of AAA Cooper dedicated to the memory of its founder, inscribed: “As we carry on, may we continue with the vision and vigor that he represented.”

But it is, perhaps, the letter son Mack, now president and chief executive officer of what was once his father’s company, wrote to firm employees a month after Red’s death that best captures the essence of the life of the man.

“At the funeral, the preacher, who had known Pop a long time, said Pop brought ‘color and music’ to the life situations of those who knew him. He observed that Pop fit in and was an influence on all types and classes of people. To him, everyone was an individual and he had great respect for each individual. The calls and letters I have received certainly verify this observation.

“He was remembered by those who knew him a long time ago. A driver who worked with Pop at D&D Transportation in 1948 brought in a tattered picture of him and Pop taken in front of his truck. Mrs. Andrews, a former customer who ran a food warehouse in Dothan in the ’40s and ’50s, came to show her respect.

“Both smiled when they spoke of him.”

For family, friends, and the business community of the state of Alabama, memories of Red Dove – and the good times, as Mack put it so well – will surely last forever.

William M. Spencer, III

  • October 25th, 2021

Born to Margaret Woodward Evins Spencer and William M. Spencer, Jr., December 10, 1920, in Birmingham, Alabama, Bill Spencer spent his early childhood there, moving with his family to Demopolis during the Great Depression. “My father … took over the running of my grandfather’s plantation since my grandfather had been incapacitated by a stroke,” he wrote of the move. Young Bill began his high school education in the river town, moving to Chattanooga, Tennessee, to study at Baylor School, where he graduated with honors in mathematics. Next was college at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, where he distinguished himself as a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Omicron Delta Kappa, and Blue Key, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry (optime means) in 1941. He was named a distinguished alumnus of that institution in 1984.

While plans were for Bill to attend the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, a call to perform service for his country intervened after one year, and he joined the United States Marine Corps on April 1, 1942. Upon completion of training at Quantico, Virginia, he was awarded a regular commission in the Corps and assigned there as an instructor. He then applied for overseas duty and was assigned to the Second Marine Division, which he joined in New Zealand in 1943 and remained with until after the end of World War II.

Again, Bill Spencer’s words: “During my service with the Second Division, I was on five landings, starting with Tarawa, where I served as an artillery forward observer and a naval gunfire spotter. We were in Saipan, Tinian, Okinawa, and Iheya Shima – an island north of Okinawa – and finally Nagasaki. We were the first troops to land there after the atom bomb was dropped.”

Discharged a captain with a Bronze Star, Bill Spencer brought his college and combat education home to Alabama, a man changed by what he had seen in the Central Pacific Theatre – and a man with a firm determination to succeed in business.

In 1946 he and an assistant purchased Owen-Richards company, then a small operation with sales of about $500,000. Under his leadership, the firm would grow to be a much larger company by the name of Motion Industries, Incorporated, with multiple branches spread across the United States. Bill Spencer was elected president of the company in 1952 and chairman in 1973. Along the way, he also attended the Graduate School of Business Administration of Harvard University and oversaw a successful initial public offering of Motion Industries in 1972. Later in his tenure, Motion was merged into Genuine Parts Company, an Atlanta, Georgia-based company traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The merger was considered particularly noteworthy for its tax-free status.

After retirement from Motion, Bill Spencer joined with others to form a new company, Molecular Engineering Associates, the aim of which was to commercialize some of the outstanding research work being done at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He also served as chairman of this com­pany. Then, in 1986, along with Dr. John Montgomery of Southern Research Institute and Dr. Charles E. Bugg, director of the Center for Macromolecular Crystallography at UAB, he formed BioCryst Limited to make drugs by a novel method known as structure-based rational drug design. In 1994 this successful business venture by Bill Spencer had its initial public offering and is now traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange.

Along with a successful personal business career, the gentleman has also directed his business acumen and expertise to the benefit of other organizations over the years by serving as a member of the Board of Directors of Alabama Great Southern Railroad, AmSouth Bank NA, BE&K Incorporated, Health Services Foundation, Mead Corporation, Robertson Banking Company, Genuine Parts Company and Southern Research Institute. He is a current member of the BE&K, Incorporated, Emeritus Board, and the Emeritus Board of Genuine Parts Company, along with serving as an active member of the Board of Directors of Altec Industries, Incorporated; BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Incorporated; Molecular Engineering Associates, Incorporated; Secretech, Incorporated; and Southern Research Technologies.

A member of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, he is currently a trustee for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Robert Meyer Foundation, and the UAB Research Foundation. These current service efforts come as the latest chapters in a long history of such service: in the past, he has served as president of the Alabama Safety Council, the Birmingham Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Birmingham Festival of Arts; as the chairman of the Baptist Medical Center Fundraising Drive and St. Vincent’s Hospital Foundation; as president and chairman of Baptist Hospitals Foundation of Birmingham, Incorporated; and as co­chairman of the Birmingham Symphony Fund and the United Appeal Drive. He has also served on the Board of Visitors for The University of Alabama College of Commerce and Business Administration and as a member of the UAB President’s Council. Bill also founded the Spencer Chair of Medical Leadership and the Evalina B. Spencer Chair of Oncology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Continuing the tradition of commitment to and leadership of the Birmingham Museum of Art begun by his father in 1959, Bill Spencer served as chairman of the Museum Board from 1986 to 1994, leading the Museum’s successful transition from an outstanding regional museum to an institution that is now enjoying national attention. His leadership was a key to the success of the $20 million campaign to renovate and expand the Museum, trans­forming it into the extraordinary new museum – with sculpture garden – that exists today.

Bill Spencer has served as president of The Club, The Downtown Club when it was operational, and The Mountain Brook Club. He was chosen as Outstanding Alabama Philanthropist in 1989 by the Alabama Chapter of the National Society of Fundraising Executives and named Citizen of the Year in 1992 by the Women’s Committee of 100.

Bill enjoys spending many of his so-called retirement days at Waldwick, the plantation home of his youth, in Gallion, Alabama. Architectural historians consider the home one of Alabama’s finest examples of Gothic Revival architecture.

The Alabama business community con­siders William M. Spencer, III, one of the finest examples of a life led in pursuit of business excellence, and in service to his community

G. Mack Dove

  • October 5th, 2021

Mack Dove, by his own admission, as a young boy loved to say, “vvvrrooommmmm!”

That same noise might well be used to describe the sound of the family business, AAA Cooper Transportation, of Dothan, Alabama.

Today AAA Cooper Transportation is one of the largest transportation companies in the nation, with 74 terminals that serve more than 15,000 cities and communities in 15 states. AAA Cooper owns and operates a fleet of more than 1,900 tractors and 4,300 trailers and employs nearly 5,000 people. Over the past 40 years, the firm’s revenues have increased at an 18 percent compounded growth rate.

Mack Dove was born in 1936 in Dothan, the second son of John Hal “Red” Dove and Sybil Bentley Dove. Red Dove grew up in Mississippi hauling timber with mule teams and oxen before moving to Model T Ford trucks in the 1920s. Red Dove moved to California for a short while, then returned to the South and settled in Dothan, where he began hauling whatever needed to be hauled.

Mack Dove attended Dothan’s public schools and began his working life bagging groceries at the Piggly Wiggly on weekends. His father’s business gradually expanded as Dove Truck Lines until 194 2 when it was sold, and Red Dove bought another truck line and named it J.H. Dove Transportation Company. Two years later the firm merged with D and D Transportation Company in Atlanta, extending its reach down to the Florida Panhandle. That company was sold in 1951 and in 1954 he bought a small trucking company and changed its name to AAA Motor Lines.

Meanwhile, Mack and his older brother Earl were earning degrees in transportation from the University of Tennessee and both became active in the family business. Mack was active in the Reserve Officer Training Corps, and after a stint of active duty in the U.S. Army, served seven and a half years in the reserve, where he attained the rank of captain. The ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s were a period of tight regulation by the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Dove family decided the best way to expand the company would be through buying operating routes or companies that were not operating their routes to the greatest potential. A turning point in company history came when AAA Motor Lines bought Cooper Transfer of Brewton, Alabama, in 1969, to be operated as a wholly-owned and independent subsidiary of AAA. Mack became president of Cooper and moved the firm to Dothan. Earl took over as president of AAA. The two sons, in 1973, merged the two companies and bought all of the stock in the resulting company from their father. The company then became AAA Cooper.

In the early ’70s, it began to become obvious that the trucking industry was in for

a big change in the form of industry deregulation. Congress deregulated the telephone and airline industries before turning its attention to trucking in the late ’70s. Deregulation meant that services and rates that had formerly been tightly regulated were thrust open. Truckers, telephone companies, and airlines were set free to devise services and set prices as they saw fit. Massive industry consolidation was the result in each industry as companies expanded services to include areas formerly reserved and protected for other carriers. AAA Cooper expanded its service area beyond Alabama, Georgia, and Florida to Texas, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Virginia. Growth was explosive as new routes were added.

In 1989 Earl retired from the business. The company continued its ambitious expansion plan, purchasing nine terminals from Bowman Transportation Company, and moving outside the Southeast to Chicago, Minneapolis, and Philadelphia, then to Texas, and eventually began “truck-to-ship-to-truck” service to and from Puerto Rico. The expansion has not come at the expense of the company’s customers in its home territory. As deregulation became reality, a number of AAA Cooper’s competitors immediately began looking to the bigger markets in the North and West.

“So when they went to Chicago, we went to Charlotte,” Dove said in an interview with Southern Motor Cargo. “When they went to Los Angeles, we went to Dallas. Our strategy was to continue to be an LTL carrier, and when their attention got diverted to other, more exciting areas, we concentrated on where they were and were fortunate enough to get their business.” Dove has always had an interest in education, especially when it involved AAA Cooper employees. Employees are offered reimbursement of tuition for all academic and job-related technical courses, providing they maintain an acceptable grade average.

Under Dove’s leadership, AAA Cooper has established itself as a leader in safety in an industry that is fraught with danger, from hauling hazardous materials to making sure a vehicle is properly chocked. In addition to his degree in transportation from the University of Tennessee, Mack Dove also received the university’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 1982. He completed the advanced studies program at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Business and has been named a Paul Harris Fellow by the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International. The award was created in memory of the founder of Rotary as a way of showing appreciation for those who contributed to the foundation’s humanitarian and educational programs.

Dove has served his community and state as faithfully as he has the trucking industry. He is a past chairman of the Alabama Trucking Association, was a member of the policy and finance committee of the American Trucking Association, is currently on the executive committee and the board of directors of the American Trucking Association, and is chairman of the Litigation Center, American Trucking Association.

John A. Williamson

  • October 4th, 2021

John Alexander Williamson, by his own admission, was a risk-taker, a characteristic which, as he wrote in his book, “would stand me in good stead in the Pacific” where he earned hero status in World War II.”

Williamson was born in Brighton and moved to Birmingham at age two. He attended Hemphill School, skipping several grades, and starting at Ensley High School a year and a half younger than his classmates. He graduated from Birmingham-Southern College in 1939 with a degree in mathematics and a minor in English.

He began his professional career selling Chevrolets for Drennen Motor Company but World War II was brewing and Williamson joined the Navy, eating extra heavily in order to gain the needed weight to be accepted. He was a Navy veteran of both World War II and the Korean conflict and was decorated for bravery and leadership. Mr. Williamson commanded a sub-chaser in the Caribbean and a destroyer escort in the Pacific during World War II. As Executive Officer of the Destroyer Escort, USS England, he directed his ship in attacks that sank six Japanese submarines in 12 days. His ship was credited with materially impacting the course of the Pacific Campaign and he received the Presidential Unit Citation. Williamson also held the Legion of Merit for Combat and the Silver Star Medal for Combat in the Pacific Area.

While serving as an instructor in the Anti-Submarine Warfare and Seamanship in the Subchaser Training Center in Miami, he developed a man overboard recovery procedure that was later named the “Williamson Turn,” which is still used in the U.S. Navy as well as in other navies and the merchant marine and is credited with saving countless lives at sea.

After his military service, Williamson returned to Birmingham and work as a car salesman with Don Drennen and later as a district manager with General Motors. Williamson became prominent in American automotive affairs through his consulting and training activities, which developed into a lifelong mission of developing businesses based on finding and filling customers’ needs with high levels of professionalism and integrity. These activities led to the creation of several allied business firms, including his career-long core consulting firm, John Williamson & Associates, later known as Williamson, Merrill, Taylor, & Darling, and then Vantage Associates. He was the founder and chairman of Key-Royal Automotive, whose mission was to increase professionalism in the automobile business and to increase the success of automobile retailers. Key-Royal sought to attract bright young people into the retail automobile field, teach them the business, and help them to become independent dealers. Key-Royal grew to over 25 retail dealerships throughout the United States and operated a training arm that worked with automobile manufacturers and dealers around the world. Mr. Williamson was also a founder of Birmingham-based CARS, Inc., which was an early pioneer in the integration of computers and technology in the automotive business. CARS eventually became publicly traded DYATRON which later merged into SunGard Data Systems, a specialty company in the operations of computers and computing systems with products utilized in the automobile, banking, personnel, brokerage, and mortgage banking industries. John Williamson founded each of these firms and served each as a perpetual advocate, board member, and, from time to time, chairman.

John Williamson received the National Freedom Foundation Award for his open address to Congress, “After 200 Years,  Citizen Speaks to Congress,” published July 4, 1976. In 1999 he was presented the Department of Defense Medal for Distinguished Public Service, the highest medal that can be bestowed on a civilian. Mr. Williamson is well-known in the Defense Department establishment and has lectured military students on numerous occasions, including the War College. He served on the boards of numerous defense-related organizations. Mr. Williamson also was extremely active in religious and civic affairs, serving on and often chairing the boards of numerous organizations. It was once said that he was such a prolific and determined fundraiser for charity that people would hide behind a tree when they saw him coming down the street. In addition to his business career, he tirelessly sought to help others, both directly and through numerous charitable and civic endeavors, devoting particular attention to the Boys and Girls Clubs, the Boy Scouts, IMPACT Family Counseling, Re-Entry and KAIROS prison ministries, and the Rotary Club.

David Richardson “D.R.” Dunlap

  • October 4th, 2021

In a memorial to its co-founder, president, CEO, and chairman for more than 50 years, the newsletter of Alabama Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company said:

“The high esteem in which David Dunlap was held by every worker at this company, by members of the marine industry throughout the nation, as well as by the entire local community, is evidenced in the numbers of people from all walks of life who paid this last tribute to this remarkable man. For those closest to him, the loss will be immeasurable. But the legacy of high ideals which he leaves will sustain us in our grief and challenge us to greater endeavor throughout the years to come.”

David R. Dunlap was born in Mobile on June 19, 1879, to David R. Dunlap and Virginia Wheeler Dunlap.  He was educated at University Military School where he was a commanding officer of the first graduating class. He received a bachelor’s degree with honors from The University of Alabama at age17 and completed his education in law.

In 1916, Mr. Dunlap, then president of Alabama Iron Works, joined his cousin, George Dunlap, who led Mobile Marine Ways, to consolidate holdings and buy Ollinger and Bruce Dry Dock.  Gulf City Boiler Works became a part of the shipyard operations which became Alabama Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company (ADDSCO) in 1917.

Mr. Dunlap married his wife of 50 years, Tallulah Gordon Sage in 1918.  This was followed in the next three years by two children, Tallulah Sage Dunlap and David Richardson Dunlap Jr.  Five grandchildren followed.

World War I brought challenges for ADDSCO, which trained some 4000 workers and eventually built three minesweepers, two steamers, and two large sea-going barges for the U.S. government.

Following facilities and property expansion, in 1941, ADDSCO contracted to build and outfit 20 Liberty-type ships.  Eighteen months after the first keel was laid all 20 ships were ready for duty.  To do its part for World War II, ADDSCO maintained 36,000 employees at its peak, built 102 tankers and repaired or converted an additional 2800 vessels.

In years that followed, ADDSCO helped build Mobile’s Bankhead Tunnel, jumbo-sized tankers and pioneered other structural and equipment conversions.  Ultimately 700 new ships were constructed and 24,000 vessels were repaired or converted during Mr. Dunlap’s career at ADDSCO.

Mr. Dunlap was as much a part of ADDSCO as its foundations and crossbeams. His vision brought together the capital and workforce to form a successful all-around ship repair and construction facility in the Port of Mobile. An original capitalization of $600,000 created a billion dollars of income during his leadership.

Mr. Dunlap loved to fish and hunt and he faced tough assignments or near impossible undertakings with courage and determination.  His contributions to his city, state, and nation spanned two world wars, a depression, and changing times.

He was the original cashier and an original stockholder of Merchants National Bank (now Regions Financial Corporation) where he served as a director for many years.  Other directorships included Waterman Steamship Corporation, Mobile Towing and Wrecking Company, Alabama Power Company, Shipbuilders Council of America, and the Mobile and Alabama Chambers of Commerce.

Mr. Dunlap served on the Board of Governors of Spring Hill College from which he received an honorary degree.

Upon the loss of his son in the Pacific Theatre during World War II, Mr. Dunlap established an education trust to benefit Mobile and Baldwin County students.  The David R. Dunlap Jr. Memorial Trust has provided deferred payment, low-interest education loans to more than 1000 students.

The Mobile Press-Register editorialized about Mr. Dunlap at his death in November 1968:

“His name came to be known almost synonymously with ADDSCO because of his prime role in its success.  His sphere as a builder extended beyond ADDSCO and his other business interests….He made himself an outstandingly valuable citizen in helping to build Mobile into the famed industrial seaport it has become during his eminent career.  His long and useful citizenship is one of the good fortunes from which Mobile benefits and for which all can be thankful.”

Angus R. Cooper, II

  • September 28th, 2021

Angus R. Cooper, II, is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Cooper/T. Smith Corporation, headquartered in Mobile, Alabama.

Mr. Cooper was born March 28, 1942, in Mobile, Alabama, and attended University Military School graduating in 1960. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Alabama in 1964. In 1995, he received the Achievement in Transportation Award from the University Of Alabama Culverhouse College Of Commerce.

After graduation from college, he joined Cooper Stevedoring Corporation. Under his direction, Cooper Stevedoring has grown and operates in 37 ports on the East, Gulf, and West Coast of the United States, plus operations in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico. It has also expanded into services of ship docking and undocking, mooring, warehousing, barging and barge towing business. One of Cooper’s latest acquisitions is Kimberly Clark’s marine and timberlands division now renamed Cooper Marine and Timberlands, Inc.

The story of the Cooper family businesses began in the late 1800s when Henry Harrison Cooper and his two brothers emigrated from Scotland eventually settling in Baldwin County, Alabama in an area appropriately named Rosinton. They were rosin farmers securing rosin for Naval stores from the plentiful Baldwin County pine trees. Henry Cooper’s son Angus, one of fourteen children, went to work on the Mobile waterfront and began the Cooper family stevedoring tradition, and in 1905 established what eventually became Cooper/T. Smith Corporation.

Angus Cooper’s son, Ervin, joined the family’s business. He married, had two sons (Angus II and David), and went on to personally direct the firm’s expansion to ports throughout the U.S. Both sons set out on a seemingly impossible mission: to grow the business worldwide and compete internationally with the biggest maritime firms in the world.

He currently serves on the Board of Directors of IBERIABANK, the Coast Guard Foundation, and Crescent Towing & Salvage Co., Inc. He is Vice President of Crimson Tide Foundation, and is a member of the Chief Executives Organization, Inc. He is Chairman of the Senior Bowl and the Mobile Arts & Sports Association, and a member of the Mobile Carnival Association, Mobile Touchdown Club, Eastern Shore Art Association and the New Orleans Business Council, and the World Presidents’ Organization. He is the Honorary Chair for the Alabama Kidney Foundation. In 1998, he received the World Trade Club Award at the United Nations in New York. In 2004 he received the Bank One Junior Achievement Award and in 2005 he was chosen as a Role Model for the Young Leadership Council. He was named “Maritime Person of the Year 2005” by the Propeller Club of New Orleans. He also received the 14th International Maritime Hall of Fame Award in 2007. In 2009 he was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor.

Mr. Cooper is on the Board of Directors of the National WWII Museum, the Audubon Institute, and GulfQuest Maritime Museum.

He formerly served on the Board of Trustees of The University of Alabama System, the Board of Directors of Whitney National Bank of New Orleans, Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of the Port of New Orleans, Director of Federal Reserve Bank, Alabama Dry Dock & Shipbuilding, Inc., Boy Scouts of America, Children’s Hospital and various other civic and social organizations. Mr. Cooper was the former co-chairman of the United States Olympic Committee – Mobile.

Mr. Cooper is an active member of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Fairhope. He has four children, Carol Elizabeth (Lisa), Angus, 111, Scott and Claire Ellen, and nine grandchildren.

David J. Cooper, Sr.

  • September 28th, 2021

David J. Cooper, Sr. served as President of Cooper/T. Smith Corporation, headquartered in Mobile, Alabama from 1983 to 2008. In 2008 he became Vice-Chair, the position he currently holds.

Mr. Cooper was born on August 21, 1945, in Mobile, Alabama. He graduated as a member of the Class of 1963 from University Military School, and the Class of 1967 from the University of Alabama in The School of Commerce and Business Administration with a B.S. in General Business.

After college, Mr. Cooper joined his family’s stevedoring company. The company operates in thirty-seven (37) ports on the East, West, and Gulf Coasts of the United States, plus operations in South America and Mexico. Cooper/T. Smith has also diversified its business interests, including thirty-one (31) subsidiaries and affiliated companies. The Company also owns Ruth’s Chris Steak House in Mobile, Ruth’s Chris Steak House in Jackson, Mississippi, Felix’s Fish Camp, and The Bluegill Restaurant on the Mobile Bay Causeway.

He serves as a Director on the Corporate Boards of Alabama Power Company, Regions Financial Corporation, International Transportation Service (Kawasaki) in Long Beach, California, and CSC Assurance in Hamilton, Bermuda. He is a current Director of AAA (Alabama Automobile Association), Economic Development Partnership of Alabama, and is a former Director of SouthTrust Bank (now Wells Fargo); and a former Director of AmSouth Bank (now Regions Financial).

Mr. Cooper also served as Chairman of Infirmary Health System; Mobile Carnival Association; Mobile Industrial Development Board and Vice-Chair of Alabama State Port Authority. He is a former Director of the Alabama State Chamber of Commerce, American Red Cross, University Military School, Old Dauphin Way School, Julius T. Wright School, and UMS-Wright Preparatory School where he served as Chairman of the Board. He is past President of the Country Club of Mobile, the Touchdown Club, and other civic and social organizations. ”

He is a former member of the Young Presidents’ Organization and the World Presidents’ Organization. In 1995 he received the Achievement in Transportation Award from the University Of Alabama Culverhouse College Of Commerce, the 1996 Outstanding Alumni Award from the UMS-Wright Preparatory School, and was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor in 2011.

Mr. Cooper is an active member of Christ Episcopal Cathedral and is married to the former Joanne Knowles. They have three grown children: Ashleigh, Margaret, and David, Jr., and six grandchildren.

Prime F. Osborn, III

  • September 21st, 2021

Prime F. Osborn III, had the grand total of 65 cents in his pocket when he arrived at The University of Alabama campus as a freshman in 1932. He wanted an education, he wanted at least one job, if not two, and he wanted to become involved in as many campus activities as possible. Despite the difficulty of achieving any of those goals during the Depression, young Osborn managed to find the time and the energy to accomplish them all. In doing so, he established a reputation as a gifted problem-solver and leader-characteristics that would propel him on a long and distinguished career. When he retired in 1982, he was chairman of the board of the nation’s largest railroad system, a nationally honored civic leader, and one of the country’s most highly regarded and articulate supporters of the American free enterprise system.

Born in Greensboro, Alabama, in 1915 to Prime F. and Anne (Fowlkes) Osborn, Prime Osborn III spent the first twelve years of his life on his family’s cotton farm outside of town. In 1922 he moved with his parents and sister to Greensboro, where he graduated from public school before entering The University of Alabama. His gift for organization and his natural ability as a leader quickly became apparent on campus. While supporting himself with a job in the registrar’s office, with a laundry route, and with other jobs, young Osborn excelled at his studies as well as in extracurricular activities. By the time he graduated from the University’s law school in 1939 he had been tapped into virtually all of the campus’ most prestigious academic, social and civic organizations and had served as president of many of them.

His first full-time job as assistant attorney general for the state of Alabama ended when the U.S. entered World War II and Osborn left to join the war effort. After graduating from the army’s Command and General Staff School in 1942, he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel of artillery and served in the Pacific Theatre (Hawaii, Guam, Saipan, and low Jima), where he was highly decorated for his distinguished service. Osborn returned home after the war to join a law firm, but when he learned of an opening for a lawyer with the Gulf, Mobile, and Ohio Railroad in Mobile, he changed his mind and applied for the position for the railroad instead. That decision, made in 1946, turned out to be one of the most important in his life, for the young lawyer soon found that he had entered what he still calls today “the most fascinating business in the world.”

Railroads and railroad mergers (which became his specialty) were to dominate his career from that point on, and he quickly rose to the industry’s top executive ranks. In 1951, he became general solicitor for Louisville & Nashville Railroad (L&N), and in 1957, vice president and general counsel of Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company (ACL). As head of ACL’s law department, Osborn was involved in the merger of that company with Seaboard Air Line in 1967, a merger seven years in the making that formed Seaboard Coast Line Railroad Company (SCL).

The formation of SCL was only one of the many mergers Osborn helped engineer, but today it remains one of the highlights of his career. Even larger mergers, however, lay ahead, and with each_ successive one, Osborn’s problem-solving and leadership skills propelled him further up the executive chain of command. By 1970 he was president of SCL and president of Seaboard Coast Line Industries (SCLI), in which capacity he orchestrated the acquisition of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad in 1972. That same year he was made L&N’s s president and chief executive officer. By 1978, Osborn was chairman of the board and chief executive officer of SCLI and its primary railroads, SCL and L&N. The largest and most challenging merger, however, was still to come.

On November 1, 1980, Prime Osborn and Hays T. Watkins, chairman, and chief executive officer of the Chessie System, Inc., completed the merger of Seaboard Coast Line Industries with the Chessie System (Chesapeake & Ohio, Baltimore & Ohio, and Western Maryland railroads) to form the holding company, CSX Corporation. Osborn became chairman of CSX’s s board, Watkins was named president, and the merger they had orchestrated Business Week magazine was characterized as “one of the more remarkable success stories of 1981.”

By 1982, the year Osborn retired as board chairman, CSX Corporation was the world’s largest hauler of coal and the nation’s largest rail system in revenues ($5.4 billion) and assets ($8.1 billion). CSX included the Chessie System Railroads, The Seaboard System Railroad, CSX Beckett Aviation Inc., CSX Minerals Inc., CSX Resources Inc., Florida Publishing Company (the Florida Times-Union, the Jacksonville Journal, and the St. Augustine Record), The New River Company, the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad Company, and The Greenbrier resort hotel in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.

Although Prime Osborn rose to a position of eminence as head of a remarkably successful industrial complex, his professional career has been far from the sole interest in his life. Few top business executives in the country, in fact, have contributed more of their time to local and national civic organizations than has he. Over the years he has served on the board or as an officer of nearly thirty organizations, including colleges, universities, hospitals, religious and charitable institutions.

Not surprisingly, many of these organizations have honored him with the highest awards they can bestow. Jacksonville, Florida named him Man of the Year in 1962. The Boy Scouts of America presented him the Silver Beaver Award (1965), the Silver Antelope Award (1967), and the Silver Buffalo Award (1972), and a lake on a scout reservation has been named in Osborn’s honor. In 1973 he received the Religious Heritage of America Award, and in 1976 Olympic champion Jesse Owen presented him the Bicentennial Brotherhood Award for the National Conference of Christians and Jews. Osborn has also received the Americanism Award from the Anti Defamation League of B’Nai Brith and the Salvation Army’s William Booth Award as well as the Order of Distinguished Auxiliary Service-the latter an award presented by the Salvation Army to only 60 individuals in the U.S. in the last 100 years. In 1982 he was honored with the highest awards bestowed by the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce and the American Academy of Achievement, and he was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor.

Osborn’s professional contributions have been widely noted as well. He is the recipient of honorary doctorates from The University of Alabama, Florida Southern College, and Troy State University. The National Defense Transporation Association named him Transportation Man of the Year in 1981, and in 1982 CSX Corporation endowed the Prime F. Osborn Professorship in Transportation at the University of North Florida. He is married to Grace Hambrick of Brookville, Mississippi, also a graduate of The University of Alabama. They have one son, U.S. Navy Commander Prime F. Osborn, IV, and one daughter, Mary Anne Osborn, a candidate for Holy Orders at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge.

Today Prime Osborn is retired, but as more than one reporter has noted, there is nothing “retiring” about him. His involvement in civic and charitable work continues, as does his lifelong interest in railroads. “The retention of transportation as a private enterprise is absolutely imperative,” he says. “Foremost among that is the railroad system. We have a very great responsibility to preserve it.” No single individual had done more to preserve it than Prime F. Osborn III.

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