Donald C. Brabston

• October 5th, 2021

An ancient Chinese proverb says, “One generation plants the trees, another gets the shade.” Early in life, Donald Campbell Brabston learned to plant trees of service for the future and to help others less fortunate. His mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Dameron Brabston, taught him to tithe to his church and serve others. Brabston’s life, including his business career and his civic leadership, has enriched the lives of countless people.

Don Brabston, CPA, was born and raised in Birmingham, graduating from Ramsay High School and Birmingham-Southern College (Phi Beta Kappa). He earned his M.B.A. at Northwestern University, where he excelled in the classroom and as a leader on campus. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Omicron Delta Kappa, Beta Alpha Psi, and Beta Gamma Sigma honorary societies and was president of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity.

When World War II began, Brabston completed Northwestern’s two-year M.B.A. program in a record nine months and immediately joined the Navy. Brabston served on the battleship USS Alabama for two and a half years during World War II and attained the rank of lieutenant commander. He received nine battle stars and Philippine Liberation Ribbons.

One week after returning from the war in 1945, Brabston joined the Birmingham office of Ernst & Ernst (later Ernst & Whinney and now Ernst & Young LLP) where he retired 34 years later as managing partner of the Alabama practice. When he became a partner, the firm’s Alabama practice had a professional staff of 30. Under Brabston’s leadership, the firm’s Alabama offices in Birmingham, Huntsville, and Mobile grew to approximately 200 professional accountants, nearly all of whom were CPAs. He hired the first woman and the first African-American on the professional staff in the firm’s southern offices.

In the 1960s, Brabston saw the need for changes in the way the accounting profession served Alabama businesses. The state’s economy was becoming more diverse with strong growth in the health care, banking, insurance, and high technology industries. Also, Medicare, bank-holding companies, and other new laws regulations, and reporting requirements were dramatically affecting the demands of these industries. Brabston recognized the significance of these changes early on and adopted a strategy of developing and training staff and partners with highly specialized industry skills to address the needs of these fast-growing businesses. At the time of his retirement in 1979, Ernst & Whinney was the dominant professional services firm in Alabama, and the Birmingham office was the firm’s largest office in the South.

Brabston believed in recruiting beyond the firm’s requirements to meet the immediately foreseeable needs of Alabama businesses. This philosophy enabled him to recruit and train outstanding accountants for his own practice and for positions in the firm’s offices around the country. Fellow managing partners knew they could always call on Brabston for help whether the need was for short-term assistance requiring highly specialized skills or to fill a long-term leadership position. As a result, dozens of individuals recruited and trained by Don Brabston went on to serve as partners in firm leadership roles. Three partners (all University of Alabama graduates) eventually became vice-chairmen of Ernst & Young and served on its executive management committee, overseeing the Big Four international firm’s operations around the world.

Don Brabston built a culture at the firm which emphasized active participation and leadership in community affairs. He often told employees that “we should pay our civic rent.” He led by example, setting high standards for service in and supporting important civic affairs.

Don Brabston was a leader in the accounting profession throughout his career. In 1947, he received the Silver Medal for placing second out of about 7,500 candidates nationwide on the Certified Public Accountants examination. Brabston served in active roles with the Institute of Management Accountants for many years. He was a national vice president of the Institute and a member of its national Board of Directors and Executive Committee and president of its Birmingham chapter.

Brabston has long been involved in support of education. He has been honored as an Alumnus of the Year by Birmingham-Southern College and was a founder and the first president of Birmingham-Southern College’s Norton Center, the purpose of which is to foster relationships between the college and business. He served as chairman of The University of Alabama’s Accounting Advisory Board for many years, during which time the University’s accounting department became the School of Accountancy. He is a lifetime member of Samford University Board of Trustees, having served 31 years, and has served as chairman of the executive, business affairs, and investment committees.

During his business career, Brabston was a tireless servant and civic leader. In retirement, Brabston has remained committed to and continues actively serving his community and state.

Brabston served in leadership positions of numerous civic organizations. He served as president of the Birmingham Area Chamber of Commerce and chaired the taxation committee of the National Chamber of Commerce. While Brabston was its president in 1979, the Birmingham Chamber initiated its Crime Stoppers program which offers rewards for tips leading to arrests and convictions for crimes in the city. On behalf of the chamber, he worked hard to promote racial harmony in the city. Following an incident in which an African-American woman was shot by a white Birmingham police officer, Brabston led a negotiating team of community leaders in successfully addressing the concerns of African American citizens. This effort was critical in preventing an economic boycott and potential further serious conflict.

Brabston served as Chairman of the Board of United Way of Central Alabama in 1975, 1976, and 1981 and is the only chairman in the history of that organization to serve three times in that capacity. He was one of the founders instrumental in establishing the United Way Community Food Bank and was a member of its board of directors and its treasurer.

He was chairman of the Salvation Army and recipient of its highest award for a lay individual, the William Booth Award. Brabston has been a trusted advisor to commanders of the Greater Birmingham Area Salvation Army for 40 years and he is an Emeritus Member of the Advisory Board.

Brabston was chairman of the Young Men’s Christian Association of Birmingham for several years and a trustee of the YMCA for over 25 years, as well as chairman of its Capital Funds Campaign. During his tenure as chairman, the first African-Americans joined as members of the Birmingham YMCA.

He served as vice president, treasurer, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Birmingham Football Foundation, Inc., and as chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Alabama Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (for three years), as well as president of the Baptist Hospital Foundation and director of its Baptist Hospital Service Corporation. He was a member of the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham Steering Committee, as well as a director and member of Rotary Club of Birmingham. He has served on the board of the Birmingham Chapter of the American Red Cross and other civic and charitable organizations, including the Greater Birmingham Convention and Visitor Bureau, Executive Service Corps of Birmingham (as a founder and chairman), and the Metropolitan Arts Council (as chairman of Its allocations committee). He was a member of the first Oil and Gas Board of Alabama.

Brabston is a life deacon and has served as chairman of the board of trustees, chairman of the board of deacons, and chairman of the finance committee (for over 25 years) at Mountain Brook Baptist Church and is a member of the church’s Endowment Trust Fund Board.

While a student at Northwestern, Brabston met and married Mary Jane Coolman, his wife of 53 years until her death in 1996. He has a son, Donald C. Brabston, Jr. of Manhattan Beach, California, and a daughter, Mary Elizabeth Brabston, of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and one grandson, Benjamin Kenneth Forman Brabston of Manhattan Beach, California.

Another old Chinese proverb proclaims, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today.” Although he paid his “civic rent” long ago, Don Brabston’s dedication to service today at age 83 is as active as it was as a boy when his mother first taught him to tithe. Brabston’s trees of service have grown tall and continue to grow straight and strong. And the shades from his trees have benefited and “will continue to benefit people.”

Bernard A. Monaghan

• October 5th, 2021

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

J. Stanley Mackin

• October 4th, 2021

James Stanley Mackin, retired chief executive officer of Regions Financial Corporation, rose to the top of the banking industry thanks in large part to his vision and an uncanny sense of what was right for his company. With Mackin holding the reins, Regions grew from a company with $6.3 billion in assets in 1990 to $43.7 billion prior to his retirement in 2001.

Mackin was born to Louis and Aileen Tanner Mackin on July 30, 1932, in Birmingham, Ala., and grew up on the city’s Southside. He graduated from Auburn University with a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Management and also graduated from the Stonier Graduate School of Banking and the Commercial Lending School at the University of Oklahoma.

After his graduation from Auburn in 1954, Mackin served in the United States Navy on active duty from 1954-1958, before he returned to Birmingham to enter the construction and real estate business. He served in the Naval Reserve from I 950 until 1961 and retired as a commander in the United States Naval Reserve.

In 1966, Mackin entered the banking world and made a smooth transition from building houses to building a bank. He took a job in the Commercial Loan Department with Birmingham’s Exchange Security Bank. By 1971 he was serving as the head of his division in what had become First Alabama Bank. The builder-turned-banker served in numerous and varying roles within the company. He served as a vice president, senior vice president, executive vice president, senior executive vice president and continued to head the Commercial Loan Division until 1983.

In 1983 he was elected president and chief executive officer of Regions Bank. He was elected chairman and CEO of the bank as well as central region president of Regions Financial Corporation in 1986. He held that office until January of 1990. At that point, Mackin was named president and chief operating officer of the corporation. He received yet another promotion in August of the same year when he was elected chairman and chief executive officer of Regions Financial Corporation. Mackin’s leadership and vision led to Regions’ growth not only in assets but also made the company a major presence in the South.

In 1998 Mackin stepped down as CEO but remained chairman of the board and he served in that capacity until his retirement in May 2001 when he reached the mandatory retirement age that he established for the bank. “It’s important to step down and bring in new people with new thoughts and energies,” Mackin told Auburn’s magazine The Shareholder. “All of my waking hours have been devoted to this bank.” Mackin is a 1998 inductee into the Alabama Academy of Honor, created by the state legislature in 1965 to honor living distinguished citizens of the state. That same year, he was honored as a “Builder of Birmingham” by ReEntry Ministries.

Aside from his heavy involvement in the banking world, Stan Mackin has also invested heavily in his community through civic involvement. He has served as a board member for the SETON Health Corporation, Alabama Public Television Foundation, Birmingham Operaworks, and the John Carroll Foundation. He is a member of the Kiwanis Club of Birmingham, Operation New Birmingham, and Leadership Birmingham Class of 1984, as well as Auburn University’s Business School Board.

Mackin has served as the president of the Better Business Bureau for North Central Alabama as well as on the board of directors for both the Boys’ Club and the Jefferson County Boy Scouts.

During his tenure, he was involved in numerous professional organizations as a member of the American Bankers Association, the Alabama Bankers Association, the American Institute of Banking, International Financial Bankers, the Association of Bank Holding Companies, and the Reserve City Bankers. He also was on the Bankers Roundtable Board

and a member of Robert Morris Associates. He is a 1991 recipient of the Auburn College of Business’ “Distinguished Alumnus of the Year” award, the highest alumnus honor given by the college.

In 1996, the J. Stanley Mackin Eminent Scholar Chair in the College of Business was established in his name by the board of directors of Regions Bank.

He married Mary Jo Williams on June 7, 1954, and the couple has three children, James S. Mackin, Jr., Leah McKinney, and Brian W. Mackin, as well as nine grandchildren.

C. Caldwell Marks

• October 4th, 2021

Overlooking Birmingham is a statue of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and forge. As a young boy, Charles Caldwell Marks used to climb through a trap door between Vulcan’s feet, stand by the top of the statue’s head, and gaze down upon the city, a city on which he has had a tremendous impact.

When he was nominated for the Birmingham Business Hall of Fame, he was described as an accomplished businessman as well as a “dedicated servant leader who has worked hard to move this community and this state forward.”

Marks was born on top of Red Mountain to Charles Pollard Marks and Isabel Caldwell on June 1, 1921, and as a young man enjoyed hunting and fishing, and traveling with his parents. Most of his early education came at Birmingham University School.

He attended the University of the South and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1942 with a bachelor’s degree in physics. He was also a member of Blue Key. After leaving Sewanee, Marks went to graduate studies at Cornell University, Harvard University, and The University of Alabama.

After graduation, he joined U.S. Steel but cut that short to join the Navy as World War II heated up. He enlisted as an officer candidate, then became a midshipman and served as a lieutenant aboard ship in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, part of it spent in escort duty protecting civilian freighters. Marks’ duties as an engineering officer proved to be valuable in civilian life. In 1945, Marks married his first wife, Jeanne Vigeant, and moved into a duplex in Mountain Brook, and began raising a family.

After World War II, on April 1, 1946, Marks and his friend Bill Spencer bought the Owen Richards Company, a small mill supply firm in Birmingham, beginning a long and illustrious business career. They sold off most of the firm’s inventory of other products and decided to focus on ball and roller bearings, gears, and mechanical power transmissions. Marks and Spencer changed the name to Motion Industries and took the company public in 1972. He served as president of Motion Industries until his retirement in 1983. In 2004, Motion Industries had sales exceeding $2.5 billion.

Marks’ next major project was helping in the formation of BE&K,  a Birmingham-based, top construction company, specializing in high technology engineering, construction, environmental and maintenance services for the process industries. It was a natural fit because Motion Industries and BE&K had many of the same clients.

While he has been very successful in the business world, Marks has also been very involved in civic life. He has served on many boards and in numerous leadership positions, including a stint as co-chairman of the United Way and another serving on the Board of Directors of the Birmingham Museum of Art and president of Children’s Hospital.

He was the managing director of the Alabama Education Study Commission, a founding director of the Executive Service Corporation of Alabama, and has also served on the Board of Governors of the Indian Springs School, Highlands Day School, and Brooke Hill School.

The 1987 recipient of a distinguished alumnus award, Marks has also been a trustee and chair of the board of regents at his alma mater, the University of the South. He is also a past vice president of its alumni association. Some of the other organizations Marks has been involved in include serving as the president of the Children’s Aid Society, chairman of the Birmingham Committee for JOO, president of the Workshop for the Blind, director and vice-president of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, and chair of the federal reserve Birmingham branch. He was one of five selected to meet with President Kennedy in Washington during the civil rights demonstrations in Birmingham.

Marks has also been awarded two honorary degrees. He was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law by his alma mater in 1989, as well as an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws by The University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1990.

In the fall of 1998, Marks was selected by the Kiwanis Club and inducted along with five other men to the Birmingham Business Hall of Fame. At present, Marks serves as director emeritus for several companies, including Genuine Parts Company, BE&K Inc., UAB Research Foundation, and The Children’s Hospital.

Marks is now married to Alice Scott Marks. He and his late wife, Jeanne V. Marks, had three children, Margaret M. Porter, Randolph C. Marks, and Charles Marks.

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.

1st. Lieutenant William J. Cabaniss

• October 4th, 2021

William J. Cabaniss, Jr. has had successful careers in business, public service, and community affairs, including serving as U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic.

Ambassador Cabaniss was born in Birmingham, the son of William Jelks Cabaniss and Florence Pierson Sanson Cabaniss. He attended The Lawrenceville School in New Jersey where he graduated in 1956 and then enrolled at Vanderbilt University.

After graduating with a bachelor of arts degree from Vanderbilt University in 1960, Ambassador Cabaniss entered the United States Army, having received his commission as a second lieutenant through the U.S.

Army ROTC program. On active duty, he served as an Airborne Ranger first lieutenant. In 1964, after a three-year tour of duty in Germany, he was awarded the Army Commendation Medal. After his service in the armed forces, Ambassador Cabaniss returned to his hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, where he began his business career with the Southern Cement Company Division of Martin Marietta Corporation.

In 1971, he resigned from his position as director of market development with Southern Cement and acquired the assets of a small metal grinding company. Since then, he has built Precision Grinding, Inc. into a successful steel plate processing and metal machining business.

Ambassador Cabaniss ran for public office in 1978 and served in the Alabama House of Representatives from 1978 to 1982 and the Alabama State Senate from 1982 to 1990.

Ambassador Cabaniss has been a leader in the Birmingham business community, having served on the Boards of Directors of the following publicly-held companies: AmSouth Banlc, Birmingham Steel Corporation, the Southern Company, and Protective Life Corporation. He served on the Metropolitan Development Board and was past chairman; served on the Board of the National Association of Manufacturers; and previously served on the Board of the Southern Research Institute. He has held

membership in the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Alabama, Association of Iron and Steel Engineers, and the National Tooling and Machining Association. In 2002, Mr. Cabaniss received the Distinguished Builders of Birmingham Award.

He was sworn in as U.S. Ambassador to the Czech Republic by Secretary of State Colin Powell in Washington, DC on December 9, 2003. He arrived in Prague on January 9, 2004, and presented his credentials to President Vaclav Klaus on January 13, 2004. In community affairs, Ambassador Cabaniss has served on the following Boards: A+ (The Coalition for Better Education), Kings Ranch (a residential ministry for neglected women and children), and the Boy Scouts. He previously served as Board Chairman of Junior Achievement of Jefferson County and is a current member of the Birmingham Rotary

Club where he has served on the Board. He also led the Alexis de Tocqueville Society of United Way in the 2000 campaign; previously served on the Board of Trustees of Sweet Briar College; and is past Senior Warden of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church.

Ambassador Cabaniss received the Community Service Award from the Rotary Club of Birmingham in 1993. In August 2004, Ambassador Cabaniss was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor.

Ambassador Cabaniss and his wife Catherine, an artist, have two daughters, Mary Cabaniss Ballard of Seattle and Frances Cabaniss Johnson of Mobile, and two grandchildren.

M. Eugene Moor, Jr.

• October 4th, 2021

M . Eugene Moor, Jr., better known as Gene Moor, showed early in life that he was going to be a leader and had a strong desire for excellence. He became an Eagle Scout, a rank that only four percent of all Boy Scouts attain. And he did it at age 14.

Mr. Moor was born in Birmingham and attended Ramsay High School, where he was elected senior class president. After graduating from Ramsay, Mr. Moor enrolled at Auburn University. But World War II began, and Mr. Moor left Auburn in 1942 to serve as a pilot in the Army Air Corps until 1945. After the war, he returned to Auburn to finish his studies and graduated with a degree in industrial management in 194 7. After graduating from Auburn, Mr. Moor spent three years working in Alabama’s coal industry until 1950 when he began his legendary banking career at First National Bank of Birmingham which later became AmSouth Bank.

Mr. Moor began as a check sorter, but soon showed his affinity for the banking industry and quickly worked his way through the banking ranks. During the mid-1950s, Mr. Moor served as an assistant cashier, commercial loan department manager, and branch manager. In 1956, he graduated from the School of Banking of the South at Louisiana State University. Mr. Moor was promoted to assistant vice president in 1957, vice president in 1959, and senior vice president in 1967. In 1968, Mr. Moor was named executive vice president and served in this position until he was named president in 1972. Mr. Moor served as president until 1978 when he was named vice chairman of the board for AmSouth Bank.

Mr. Moor demonstrated unsurpassed dedication to banking and his customers. That dedication was evident when he landed one of the bank’s largest new accounts after hobbling through New York in a snowstorm on a broken leg to visit the prospective client.

While he was with First National, the bank changed its name to AmSouth and grew from a single Birmingham branch system serving Jefferson County, to a bank with regional influence. AmSouth currently has more than 600 branches in six states.

Mr. Moor retired in 1988, but because of his knowledge, ability, and leadership, AmSouth asked him to assist in the transition of recently acquired banks in North Florida. Mr. Moor graciously agreed and was elected vice-chairman of the board for AmSouth of Florida. Mr. Moor returned to retirement from the banking business for good in 1991. However, Mr. Moor has remained very active in civic organizations, the community, and business efforts.

Mr. Moor currently serves as chairman of the board of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama, a position he has held since 1968, after serving on the company’s board for four years. He has played a critical role in Blue Cross’ growth and success and helped increase the company’s membership from less than one million members to 3.6 million. In 2001, Blue Cross recognized Mr. Moor’s service by dedicating its new corporate headquarters to him, naming it the M.E. Moor, Jr. Corporate Center.

Mr. Moor has served as a board member for a number of area businesses, including Alabama By-Products Corporation, Matthews Electric Supply Company, and Engel Mortgage Company. He also served as the president of the Alabama Bankers Association.

Mr. Moor has been involved in a number of civic and philanthropic causes in many leadership positions. He was instrumental in helping Blue Cross establish the Alabama Child Caring Foundation (ACCF), a nonprofit organization that provides medical coverage for disadvantaged and uninsured Alabama children. Since its inception in 1987, the program has served over 50,000 children.

Mr. Moor has served as the United Appeal (now United Way) co-chairman and chairman, president of the Community Chest, corporate chairman of the United Negro College Fund, and treasurer of the Girl Scout Board and Y.M.C.A. In addition, he has served as chairman of the Birmingham Post Office Postal Customers Council and finance chairman CHM, Heart Fund, as well as on The Salvation Army Advisory Board, Boy Scouts Board of Directors, Birmingham Downtown Improvement Association, Birmingham Centennial Corporation, and Downtown Action Committee. Additionally, Mr. Moor dedicated his time to the Alabama Chamber of Commerce, Operation New Birmingham, The Newcomen Society, The Redstone Club, and Rotary Club of Birmingham.

In a lifetime filled with achievement, if you ask Mr. Moor, he would probably say his greatest successes in life include his wife of 61 years, Anne, and his four children and nine grandchildren.

Charles Watkins Adair

• October 4th, 2021

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Elmer B. Harris

• October 4th, 2021

Elmer B. Harris says you can’t buy a step-by-step manual for achieving success, and you can’t find a secret seasoning for making something out of yourself. But for someone whose life is recognized marked by ambition, it’s surprising how Harris can whittle down his prosperity, notch by notch, success by success, to reveal one modest, bare-bones mantra — one he’s followed since he was a kid.

“Don’t ever turn down an opportunity,” he said. Not even when it’s flipping hot dogs and scooping sundaes.  Aside from his first job at the local Dairy Queen in his hometown, Clanton, a few more opportunities knocked on teenage Elmer’s door.  Clanton’s WKLF radio station was looking for help, so 15-year-old Harris signed up to be a DJ. He got the job, and there he played requests for “Hound Dog,” gospel, popular, reported the news, and learned how to be articulate. He introduced himself to worldly affairs and had constant interaction with all sorts of people from different backgrounds — an experience that helped him when he became a leader in business.

Born in 1939 to Alton and Lera Mae (Mitchell) Harris, he attended elementary and high school in Clanton.

While he worked at the station and at Dairy Queen, Harris squeezed in two other jobs.  He ran a printing press and also worked in a local machine shop.  A year or two after Harris graduated from Chilton County High School, a gentleman strolled into the shop and presented Harris with an opportunity.  He asked Harris if he wanted to be considered for Auburn’s co-op education program with Alabama Power Company.  Harris said yes and interviewed with Alabama Power the next week. For five years, he alternated spending three months studying electrical engineering at Auburn and the next three in Selma learning engineering, management, and leadership skills from the folks at Alabama Power.  “If you can learn how to manage and lead people toward their own successes,” Harris said, “your company will take care of itself.”  He believes a person should always find a way to say YES, not NO when needs and opportunities arise.

He graduated from Auburn in 1962 with a degree in electrical engineering and then earned his master’s degrees in engineering and business administration a few years down the road. He has received six honorary doctor degrees.  He stayed on with Alabama Power and over the years handled positions of increasing responsibility in the company, including being elected senior vice president, and then executive vice president and chief financial officer in 1979.  In 1985, he made a move to become the executive vice president of Georgia Power Company, a sister company. And when he returned to Alabama in 1989, he became Alabama Power Company’s President and CEO.  When he came back, he felt several things needed to be changed to increase employee initiative and decision-making, increase employee relationships with customers, enhance community and charitable activities, and minimize price increases.

While Harris was president, a lot of things changed.  On his first day, he “burned” all eight books of procedures and replaced them with “any employee is authorized to make any decision that is in the best interest of the company and its customers, bar none.”   He remembers back in the days of the late 70s and early 80s when Alabama Power had about a 30 percent approval rating with its customers. He attributed that mostly to the lack of direct communication and relationships between the company, elected officials, and its customers. In a bold decision, Harris cut about 50 percent of the supervisors and managers at Alabama Power, predominantly by using early retirements.  He wanted employees to be able to make immediate decisions and be able to give customers immediate answers.  The company’s approval rating climbed significantly into the 95-98% range.  There’s no substitute for personal relationships is another one of Harris’s philosophies.

In the early 90s when Harris was president of Alabama Power, one of the biggest opportunities for the state fell onto his plate.  He remembers when he, Governor Jim Folsom, Jr., and his ADO Director Billy Joe Camp, first got wind that Mercedes-Benz in Stuttgart was looking for a place outside Germany to open a plant. The company announced they had selected 200 potential sites around the globe and Alabama wasn’t one of the chosen. When Folsom asked Harris if Alabama should try to get Mercedes to come, Harris said yes.  He told Folsom the state had to be aggressive, put a team together, start setting goals, and stand behind every commitment made, even if when it became uncomfortable.  Alabama was the only candidate that made every deadline and parameter Mercedes set, and when it came down to the wire, Alabama offered Mercedes a controversial (at the time, but not now) $250 million incentive package and won the plant.  That’s another one of Harris’s philosophies:  When an opportunity comes up, you do what you have to do to be competitive and win in an honest ethical manner.

Throughout his professional life, Harris has made charity part of his career. He founded the Alabama Power Foundation, the largest corporate foundation in the state, and funded it at over $150 million dollars.  The foundation has given nearly $100 million to Alabama charities and institutions. He also founded the Georgia Power Foundation when he was Georgia Power Company’s executive vice president.  He has held leadership roles at many civic and nonprofit organizations and served on the board of directors for well over twenty-five corporations and entities, including Mercedes-Benz US International, Southern Company, Samford University, the Business Council of Alabama, the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama, the Boy Scouts of America and Nature Conservancy.   Harris is a graduate of the Air Command and Staff College as well as the Air War College.  He served twenty-five years in the military as a command pilot flying the latest jets in the Air Force inventory and achieved the rank of Colonel in the Air Force and Brigadier General in the Alabama Air National Guard.  He retired from the Air Force when “the Power Company started interfering with my pleasure.”

Continuing his long history of international and economic development activities, Harris serves as Honorary Consul General of Japan. He is married to Glenda Steele Harris.  They have two children, Lori Harris Elmore and Tommy Harris, and six grandchildren.

Aubrey Derrill Crowe

• October 4th, 2021

For most of Dr. Crowe’s medical career, he was engaged in balancing a successful medical practice with building one of the largest medical malpractice insurance companies in the United States.

As a practicing urologist, in 1976, Dr. Crowe was chosen by the State Medical Association to lead a group of physicians in the development of a plan to form a malpractice insurance company.  This became necessary when all but one of the major national insurance companies left almost all Alabama physicians with the prospect of practicing medicine without liability insurance.

After unsuccessful attempts to find coverage with companies in the U.S. and Europe, Dr. Crowe and his colleagues formed the Mutual Assurance Society of Alabama (MASA) in 1976.  A key part of their strategy was the defense of every single case in which there was no negligence. At that time, the national trend was to settle most cases, and that had spawned a large number of frivolous malpractice suits, resulting in the unsafe depletion of the reserves of the companies that wrote this insurance.

Mutual Assurance was one of nearly 50 policyholder-founded companies to emerge from the turbulent liability climate in the U.S. in the seventies. They were derisively called “bedpan mutuals” by the traditional insurance industry experts who predicted that most of them would not survive (and this prediction proved true).

This was not the case for MASA, and by 1985, had paid off both its $5.5 million bank loan and the direct $2.5 million capital loans from physicians. At that time, the company had expanded through the provision of dental liability insurance and hospital liability insurance.  Under Dr. Crowe’s leadership, the company continued to prosper.

Mutual Assurance demutualized and began trading on the NASDAQ system in September 1991.  Policyholders received stock valued at $10.00 per share and the company’s market capitalization was $69 million.  In 1993, Dr. Crowe retired from the active practice of medicine to devote all his time and energy to leading the company.  In 1994, Mutual Assurance began to move outside Alabama and acquired insurance companies and books of business in West Virginia, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri while once more changing the name of the company to MAIC Holdings.  By 1996, MAIC Holdings moved to the New York Stock Exchange with a market capitalization of $129 million.  Expansion continued throughout the Southeast and Midwest.

In 2001, its merger with Professional Group, a Michigan-based insurer of similar size, was completed.  The merger resulted in the creation of ProAssurance, a New York Stock Exchange company with a market capitalization of $450 million.  The combined company is the product of 13 separate M & A transactions and employs almost 600 people.

Today, ProAssurance is the 4^th largest medical malpractice company in the United States and its market capitalization is approaching $2 billion.  Over the past 30 years since its founding, the written premium has grown from $8 million to approximately $550 million in 2007.  The company insures more than 30,000 physicians with more than 35,000 policies in force, including most physicians in private practice in the state of Alabama.

The leadership and determination of Derrill Crowe led a dedicated group of employees who adopted his vision, and in three decades, turned a single-state insurance company into a market leader that has delivered financial security and lasting value to its policyholders, shareholders, and employees.

In the 1980s, Dr. Crowe was also a leader in two revolutionary advances in Alabama healthcare.  He was instrumental in developing the first free-standing, physician-owned outpatient surgery center in Alabama (now known as the Outpatient Care Center); and he initiated outpatient treatment of kidney stones by Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy.  This treatment alternative was established in a manner that minimized the cost of care while making it readily available within a cooperative physician network throughout Alabama.

Dr. Crowe is a native of Troy, Alabama, and did undergraduate work at Howard College (now known as Samford University) in Birmingham.  He completed his graduate medical education at the University of Alabama Medical College in 1962.  Dr. Crowe completed his internship in 1963 and a surgical residency in 1964, both at Lloyd Noland Hospital in Birmingham.  He underwent residency training in Urology at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, which he completed in 1967.  Dr. Crowe is also a 1990 graduate of the prestigious Owner/President Management Program at Harvard University’s School of Business.

Throughout his 40-year career, Dr. Crowe has been active in organized medicine, serving his colleagues and The Medical Association of the State of Alabama in a variety of positions including their Board of Censors and the Alabama Board of Medical Examiners among others, he was also a member of the Jefferson County Medical Society.  In early 1985, he was asked to serve as the chairman of the Alabama Certificate of Need Board.

Dr. Crowe sits on the Board of Advisors at his collegiate alma mater, Samford University, and was the commencement speaker for Samford’s 1996 graduation at which time he also received his undergraduate degree.

Dr. Crowe was honored by the Birmingham News as “CEO of the Year” for 2004 for his role in establishing ProAssurance as a leader in Alabama and the nation.  One of the judges said of him, “Derrill has line up ProAssurance against all the competition, and they have the best balance sheet, the best management, and the best reserve situation.”  In March 2008, Dr. Crowe was elected to the Alabama Healthcare Hall of Fame, which honored him for his work in medicine and at ProAssurance.