John Cecil Persons

• September 16th, 2021

A Birmingham News editorial stated, “Rare indeed is the man who serves so outstandingly in so many ways. John C. Persons was such a man.”

Persons enrolled in The University of Alabama Law School, and after graduation worked for Jones and Penick law firm. After a lengthy courtship, Persons married Elonia Hutchinson and moved to Columbus, Miss. Hoping to continue his law career, Persons moved back to Tuscaloosa in 1915 to establish a law practice. Instead, he bought an interest in a lumber company and soon controlled three others. Persons rebuilt his financial base after World War I by incorporating two new lumber companies. After a series of mergers, Persons served as president of American Traders National Bank. Under Persons’ leadership, the bank survived the Great Depression by merging with First National Bank. When Persons returned after World War II, he was soon promoted to chief executive officer and guided the bank for another decade of growth. Persons served as a Captain in the Army during World War I, earning the Distinguished Service Cross, and as a Major General in World War II, earning the Distinguished Service Medal for his service in the South Pacific. Persons served his community and its youth through affiliations with the Birmingham Board of Education, Junior Achievement, Boys’ Club, American Legion, and Red Cross. Persons served in a professional capacity in the Birmingham Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank and the Advisory Board of the Federal Reserve Bank in Washington.

Mervyn Hayden Sterne

• September 9th, 2021

Mervyn Hayden Sterne made Birmingham his home in 1909, and for more than six decades he would be one of its most notable leaders.

In 1916, he formed M.H. Sterne and Company, a firm specializing in stocks and bonds. In 1917, Sterne suspended business and joined the Army, was commissioned a First Lieutenant, and served eleven months in France. After his discharge, he formed the investment banking firm of Ward, Sterne, and Company, which became one of the leading financial institutions in the state. Today, Sterne, Agee, and Leach, Inc., is a prominent investment banking business. Sterne and his partners were pioneers in financing schools and modern road paving programs. In 1922, Sterne married Dorah Heyman. Sterne’s dedicated spirit extended to his religious life as well. He was affiliated with Temple Emanu-El. In 1936, he was the first chairman of Birmingham’s United Jewish Fund. Sterne served in World War II, serving as a major with the Army Services Forces, General Staff Corps. Upon his discharge, he returned to Birmingham where he raised more than $400,000 in just two days for aid for Europe’s Jews. He also organized a fundraising drive for Birmingham Southern College and Howard College, which raised $1,500,000 in just seventeen days. In 1948, he was nominated for Birmingham Man of the Year. In 1968, the Alabama Securities Dealers Association recognized him as one of the south’s leading investment bankers.

James Franklin Rushton

• September 9th, 2021

The story of ice manufacturing in Alabama is the story of James Franklin Rushton and his father, William James Rushton.

In 1881, the elder Rushton purchased an ice machine which he set up in Birmingham. The city’s rapid growth in the late 1880s provided a ready market for Rushton ice, and the business prospered. The younger Rushton, known familiarly as Frank, began work in the family ice factory as an oiler in the engine room. Eventually, he worked in every department and became an expert in all facets of the business, and by the turn of the century, he was his father’s chief assistant. Eight ice plants were constructed in the Birmingham area. Through their retail sales outlet, the City Ice and Delivery Company, the Rushtons arranged efficient delivery of their ice to customers. Together father and son developed the business into one of the largest and most successful of its kind in the south. Frank served several years as a vice-president of the National Association of Ice Industries. After his father’s death, Rushton further expanded the family business by establishing the Franklin Coal Mining Company and the National Coal and Coke Company. Frank Rushton is also remembered for his public service. His most notable public work was his leadership of bond drives during World War I. His colleagues at his funeral observed of him, “no man of his generation was more closely identified with all that was best in Birmingham.”

Louis Pizitz

• September 9th, 2021

Louis Pizitz, a part of the great migration of Jewish immigrants to the United States in the late 1880s, longed to be free from the restrictive laws that had led to the poverty of the Jews of Eastern Europe.

Pizitz arrived in New York in 1889 and soon took out naturalization papers and married Minnie Smolian, a former resident of Poland. Pizitz began his career as a peddler, and his experience taught him lessons he never forgot: buy wisely, sell honestly, know your customers and treat them with dignity. The panic of 1893 and the lure of a developing metropolitan area drew him to Birmingham in 1897. With a few hundred dollars, he rented a small building on First Avenue North and opened his store with eight employees. Pizitz was successful in Birmingham. He often shared his good fortune with others. In 1915, thousands of coal miners and their families faced starvation in the midst of labor strife. Pizitz sent truckloads of food and clothing to the mining communities. During World War I, he headed numerous Liberty Bond drives. Pizitz weathered the Great Depression, and in 1937, his store had grown to 74 departments and 600 employees. Pizitz was a pillar in the Birmingham Jewish community and was a founder of the Temple Beth-El. In 1948, he won the Good Will Award of the National Conference of Christian and Jews. In Birmingham’s Centennial Year, Louis Pizitz was chosen one of ten leading businessmen in the city’s history.

Charles A. Collat, Sr.

• August 17th, 2021

With over $1 billion in annual sales and 1,500 associates distributed across 79 locations in 14 states, Mayer has grown to be one of the largest electrical product distributors in the nation.

Collat joined Mayer as an associate in 1953 in its corporate offices in Birmingham, Alabama, soon after serving his country in the U.S. Air Force in Japan during the Korean War. Mayer was – and remains today – a family-owned business: Patsy Weil, whom he married in 1953, was the daughter of the company’s founder.

Working his way up the ranks within the company, Collat became owner and president in 1979.

Realizing the need for education in the distribution industry, he and his wife established the Ben S. Weil Chair of Industrial Distribution at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. However, their commitment to UAB goes deeper than that: over the years, they have given well over $25 million to the school and are among its strongest supporters.

In recognition of their contributions, the business school at UAB is now known as the Collat School of Business. He is also a member of both its Leadership Cabinet and President’s Council. Collat has been recognized for his service to the institution with its President’s Award and was the recipient of an honorary doctorate of humanities.

Collat’s personal philosophy is “Do Good and Be Better” which is something he has strived to do all his life. To that end, he has served in a leadership capacity at community-oriented organizations such as the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind Foundation, the Boy Scouts of America and Rotary Club. He was also a past president of Temple Emanu-El in Birmingham and created and chaired the Temple’s endowment fund for many years.
Collat was born in Savannah, Georgia. He attended the University of Georgia where he earned an accounting degree.

He was married to Patsy Weil Collat for 62 years. She passed in January 2015. They have four children: Nancy Goedecke, Caki Mendel, Susie Collat and Charles Collat, Jr. Collat has ten grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. He is currently married to Joanna Gotlieb Collat.