John Rhoads

• September 24th, 2021

John L. Rhoads was well-known for applying his brilliance and technical skills in helping Alabama entrepreneurs launch their businesses as a nationally recognized leader in the accounting industry.

He started his career in 1942 at Ernst & Ernst, which eventually became Ernst & Young. He was made partner in 1967 and retired in 1980.

In the 1960s and 1970s, he served companies in Huntsville’s rapidly-growing aerospace sector, helping several become large publicly-owned institutions. As a senior auditing and accounting technical partner, he guided companies through their interactions with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Some of the industries he worked included aerospace, farming, healthcare, and manufacturing. For example, his financial expertise helped a Birmingham-area medical facility open its doors, grow, and proceed with a stock offering. He was admired by his colleagues for his insistence on adhering to the highest ethical standards of the public accounting profession.

As a result of his reputation, he served as Council Chairman of the Alabama Society of CPAs and President of the Birmingham Chapter of the Institute of Management Accountants as well as a member of that organization’s National Board of Directors.

Rhoads was an ardent supporter of Alabama’s educational institutions, either by his service to the University of Alabama at Birmingham as an adjunct faculty member or through scholarship and program support.

That support at The University of Alabama takes form in the John L. & Margaret E. Rhoads Endowed Scholarships in the Accounting, Athletics, and Food and Nutrition programs, plus the John and Ann Rhoads Softball Stadium, built in 2000 and recently enhanced. Endowed scholarships at the University of Alabama at Birmingham support students in the Accounting program.

Rhoads was a longtime executive committee member of the Jefferson County chapter of The University of Alabama National Alumni Association, serving as its Vice President and Treasurer for over 20 years. He lived in Birmingham and graduated from The University of Alabama with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting.

Rhoads passed away in 2001; his widow Ann Rhoads passed away in 2021.

Jay Grinney

• September 24th, 2021

Jay Grinney is the former president and chief executive officer of HealthSouth Corporation (now Encompass Health Corporation), having assumed that role in May 2004. He retired from HealthSouth in December 2016 after leading the successful turnaround of one of the nation’s largest healthcare companies. Grinney currently serves as an industry advisor to KKR, a global investment firm, and is chairman of the board of Global Medical Response, a KKR-owned patient transportation company.

After the discovery of a $2.7 billion accounting fraud orchestrated by the company’s founder, many believed HealthSouth would file for bankruptcy. The challenges facing the company were significant.  It had been delisted from the New York Stock Exchange and was under investigations by both the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ); had no current, audited financial statements; was in default on its debt covenants; faced a major Class Action lawsuit; was hobbled by a bloated and inefficient corporate structure; and had lost the trust and confidence of its employees, physicians, patients, and business partners.

Upon becoming CEO Grinney recruited a first-class management team and embarked on a multiple-year turnaround. That enormous effort included restating two years of fraudulent financial statements and preparing new, audited financial statements (both of which required more than one million man-hours to achieve); reaching a $100 million settlement with the SEC, a $325 million settlement with the DOJ, and a $445 million settlement to resolve the Class Action litigation; divesting three, non-core business segments to raise $1.2 billion to help satisfy those settlements; recapitalizing its balance sheet; streamlining the company’s operating systems and strengthening its internal controls; and repositioning HealthSouth as a preeminent post-acute healthcare provider. On October 26, 2006, HealthSouth was re-listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Grinney and his team then focused on growing the company by developing hospitals in new markets and acquiring competitors, including the $730 million purchase of Reliant Health Partners. This growth continued as HealthSouth expanded into home health and hospice services with the $750 million acquisition of Encompass Home Health and Hospice in 2014, followed by the $170 million purchase of CareSouth Home Health and Hospice a year later. In 2018 the company rebranded itself as Encompass Health and is today one of the largest post-acute providers in the U.S. with approximately 43,000 employees providing care to more than 364,000 patients annually.

Prior to joining HealthSouth, Grinney was president of the Eastern Group of Hospital Corporation of America (NYSE:HCA) and before that, senior vice president at The Methodist Hospital System in Houston, Texas where he began his career.

Grinney previously served as a director of Energen Corporation, an NYSE-listed oil and gas exploration company; Envision Healthcare, a KKR-owned physician staffing and ambulatory surgery company; and Coca-Cola Bottling Company, a privately-held bottling and distribution company based in Birmingham, AL. He also served on the board of directors of the Federation of American Hospitals, including a term as its Chairman.

He has been active in civic organizations, serving on the boards of directors of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, the United Way of Central Alabama, and the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama.

Grinney earned a Bachelor of Arts from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota; and both a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Healthcare Administration from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

He and his wife Melanie reside in Mountain Brook, Alabama.  He has three children, Naomi Grinney, Rachel Emami, and Matthew Grinney, and seven grandchildren.

Stan Starnes

• September 24th, 2021

Stancil “Stan” Starnes is the executive chairman of ProAssurance Corporation, having served as its chief executive officer from 2007 to 2019 and he is President pro tempore of the University of Alabama System Board, representing the Sixth Congressional District.

Born in Tuscaloosa, he grew up in Birmingham and attended The University of Alabama, graduating from the business school at the age of 20. He then attended Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law, edited the Cumberland Law Review, and graduated summa cum laude and first in his class.

Practicing law was something of a family tradition – his father was a lawyer – and in 1975, they established Starnes and Starnes, now known as Starnes Davis Florie. They specialized in courtroom advocacy, representing a wide variety of clients in civil litigation, across the state and further afield. Among many accomplishments as a lawyer, was his authorship of the Alabama Medical Liability Act, which was enacted by the Alabama State Legislature in 1987, as well as subsequent amendments to the Act.

He was named as one of the “Best Lawyers in America” for over 20 consecutive years. He was elected to the prestigious American College of Trial Lawyers in 1989, an organization comprised of less than one percent of the lawyers in the United States. He is the youngest lawyer from Alabama ever so elected. He served for over twenty years on the Supreme Court of Alabama Advisory Committee on the Alabama Rules of Civil Procedure and was named Chairman of the committee in 1998.

In 2006, Starnes joined Brasfield & Gorrie as President of Corporate Planning and Administration and in 2007, he was named CEO of ProAssurance Corporation, a position he held until July 2019. Under Starnes’ leadership, ProAssurance expanded to write one or more of its insurance products in all 50 states from its offices throughout the United States, its Captive facility in the Cayman Islands, and through its Lloyd’s Syndicate in London.

During each year with Starnes as CEO, ProAssurance was named one of the top-50 casualty insurance carriers in the United States out of a universe of over 3,500 carriers.

The company also transformed itself from a physician-centric, regional, mono-line insurance company to a healthcare-centric, national, specialty insurance company, offering a range of products including physician and hospital professional liability, workers compensation, and life sciences.

During his 12-year tenure as ProAssurance CEO, Starnes helped return over $2.1 billion to shareholders while growing their equity by 37% from $1.15 billion to $1.58 billion.

Starnes has served on a number of community and non-profit boards, including the Boards of Directors of ProAssurance, National Bank of Commerce, and Ascension, the largest non-profit healthcare provider in the United States. In addition to his leadership role on The University of Alabama System board, he is also a member of the UAB Health System Board. Furthermore, he is a member of the board of the Crimson Tide Foundation.

He was named the outstanding alumnus of Cumberland School of Law in 2002 and was the inaugural Scholar in Residence at Cumberland in 2005. He is a member of the Alabama Bar Association, the Birmingham Bar Association, the American Bar Association, and is an advocate in the American Board of Trial Advocates.

Starnes also serves the community through affiliation and membership in a variety of organizations. He has served as a community advisor to the Junior League of Birmingham. He is a past Captain of the Monday Morning Quarterback Club and serves on the board of trustees of the Crippled Children’s Foundation and is its current chairman.

He is a member of the board of directors of the Newcomen Society of Alabama and is a member of the Birmingham Area Advisory Board of the Salvation Army. He is a life member of the Alabama Law Foundation and a charter member of the Atticus Finch Society. He is a life fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

In 2018, he was elected to the Alabama Academy of Honor, an organization whose membership is limited to 100 living Alabamians.

He and his wife, Joan, have been married for over 40 years. They have three children, all of whom are now married. All live in Birmingham along with seven grandchildren.

William P. G. Harding

• September 22nd, 2021

William P.G. Harding made an enduring contribution to the forma­tion of our nation’s unique form of central banking – the Federal Reserve System.

This native Alabamian served on the Federal Reserve Board from the day it was formed on August 10, 1914, until the expiration of his eight-year appointment on August 9, 1922. During

the last six years of his term, he was the Board’s Chief Executive Officer (then known as Governor) through the trying times of World War I and the troublesome post-war period. His book, The Formative Period of the Federal Reserve System, published in 1925, is still one of the best ac­counts of how the U.S. finally established a more lasting central banking system.

William P. G. Harding was born in Greene County, Alabama on May 5, 1864 – son of Horace and Eliza (Gould) Harding. Soon after the War Between the States, the family moved to Tuscaloosa, where young William received his early education under well-known local tutors. The family’s home was not far from the campus of The University of Alabama, which he entered in 1878. He received an AB degree in 1880 and an AM degree in 1881. At the age of seventeen, he was the youngest student to have received that degree. After graduation, he took a brief course at a business college in Poughkeepsie, New York, before returning to Alabama.

In 1882, he became a clerk and bookkeep­er for a private bank in Tuscaloosa – the J.H. Fitts & Co. (now First Alabama Bank).

In 1886, he moved to Birmingham to work as a bookkeeper for Berney National Bank. Promotion came slow­ly, but by 1893 he had risen to the position of Cashier. In 1895, he married Amanda Moore, daughter of Sydenham and Mary Moore, who had mov­ed from Eutaw to Birmingham. In 1896, William P.G. Harding moved to the First National Bank of Birmingham as Vice President. By 1902, he had become President of First National, which was then the largest financial institution in the state with one­seventh of all the deposits of all national banks in Alabama.

Soon after his elevation to the Presidency, the young Hardings moved to the “most fashionable neighborhood in town.” Their neighbors were another Tuscaloosa family who had moved to Birmingham – the Rob­ert Jemisons. Years later, Robert Jemison, Jr., who called Harding a close personal friend, provided an insight into the char­acter of Alabama’s first central banker, when he recalled:

Unfortunately, very few people knew and appreciated Mr. Hard­ ing, particularly as a good citizen because he was not the type of person who knew how to ‘sell himself,’ or mix with people in a gracious and cordial manner. He was essentially a student and would often let his mind drift into thoughts and ideas while in the presence of people with whom he should be interested in what they were discussing at the time.”

William P.G. Harding became a strong figure in the economic life of Birmingham, the State, and the region. He served on the Board of Directors of the Birmingham Rail­way, Light and Power Company. He was the primary motivator behind three well-known Birmingham landmarks -Elmwood Ceme­tery, the Tutwiler Hotel, and the City of Fair­field. His astute financial advice enabled others to make these projects succeed. In 1908, bankers in the State acknowledged his abilities by naming him President of the Alabama Bankers’ Association. In 1913, he served as President of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce.

Then in 1914, William P.G. Harding was chosen as the South’s representative on the first Federal Reserve Board. About his ap­pointment, he later wrote:

“I felt complimented upon my selection to be a member of the Federal Reserve Board, a body about which there had been so much talk for several months. I had no idea, however, at first of accepting the offered appointment. I was a native of Alabama and had been for twenty-eight years a resident of Birmingham. I had seen the place grow from a town of ten thousand to a city of more than one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants, and had been promoted from a bookkeeper’s desk to the presidency of the largest bank in the State.”

But a letter from President Woodrow Wil­son convinced William P. G. Harding to accept the eight-year appointment. He accepted the “great opportunity to serve the country” and made “the sacrifices necessary to accept.”

He divested himself of all business ties in Alabama, including that of the bank, and agreed to serve at a salary of only $12,000 annually. When he was sworn in as a member of the first Federal Reserve Board on August 10, 1914, he became Alabama’s first central banker.

During the next eight years, William P.G. Harding, as a member of the Board, assumed an enormous amount of work and responsibil­ity. The Board had to supervise the creation of the twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks, the selection of their directors, and the appointment of their staff. Even the construction of the buildings to house the banks was a massive undertaking.

The greater burden of the Board arose from the start of World War I, which put enormous pressure on the financial system of the United States. Harding served as Governor of the Federal Reserve Board during this time. He also served -without any additional pay – as Managing Director of the War Finance Cor­poration, created by Congress to finance the United States’ participation in the war.

A post-war recession brought controversy about the Federal Reserve System and even bitter attacks on Harding from a senator from Alabama on the floor of the Chamber. Because of the controversy and the fact that William P.G. Harding had no close relationship with the newly elected President Warren P. Hard­ing, it was not surprising that the President chose not to re-appoint the Federal Reserve Board’s Governor. In 1923, William P. G. Harding accepted an appointment as governor of the Regional Federal Reserve Bank in Boston.

Through the years, Harding received hono­rary degrees in recognition of his accomplish­ments. In 1916, The University of Alabama conferred an L.L.D. and for years after contin­ued to feature him at commencement services. He also received honorary degrees from Har­vard and Columbia Universities in 1922.

William P.G. Harding died in Boston on April 7, 1930. At his request, he was buried in his old hometown of Birmingham in Elmwood Cemetery.

Those who knew him best have said that he “loved Alabama and he loved Birmingham. He was one of Alabama’s and Birmingham’s most loyal citizens.”

(Biographical information derived primarily from a paper by Philip C. Jackson, Jr.)

Herbert Clark Stockham

• September 22nd, 2021

The story of the life of Herbert Clark Stockham is closely interwoven with the phenomenal growth and development of Stockham Valves & Fittings, Inc. in Birmingham into one of the world’s largest producers of pipe fittings and valves.

Born in Chicago on March 24, 1888, he was the oldest son of Kate Frances (Clark) and William H. Stockham. In 1903, the family moved to Birmingham where William Stockham founded Stockham Pipe & Fittings Company. Though only fifteen at the time, young Herbert joined his father and a crew of five in setting up shop in a rented car barn. He continued to work every minute he wasn’t in school at Chicago English High and the University of Illinois Preparatory School.

After his studies were completed, he returned to the plant to work wherever he was needed – learning everything he could about the foundry business. He advanced to assistant secretary, secretary and was vice president at the time of his father’s death. He then became president. As president from 1923 to 1953 and Chairman of the Board from 1946 until his death, Herbert Clark Stockham was “the chief architect in Stockham’s rise through growth and expansion.”

During the early years of Herbert Stock- ham’s presidency, the company experienced growth. He initiated plant mechanization and the establishment of a warehouse in Houston, Texas, the company’s third.

Though the Great Depression brought two years of serious losses, the company survived – not only because of careful management but also because of the progress that had been made in employee relations.

Following the “Stockham credo” – the Golden Rule in action the company had begun to raise working standards long before the depression. The company was among the first in Birmingham to install facilities for inspirational and recreational activities. It also began to provide free medical and dental care, safety programs with group insurance, group hospitalization, pensions; higher pay, and shorter hours swiftly following.

In 1935, the company launched the product of one of its most outstanding research programs – the Bronze Valve. By 1941, the company had developed Iron Body Valves, but the entrance of the nation into World War II delayed the full development and production of the valves. The company geared itself to the needs of the Army and the Navy for munitions and cast steel fittings for warships. In 1942, the company received the first of three Army-Navy “E” production awards.

After the war, the company began an all-out program of reconditioning, modernization, and expansion. Production of valves began in earnest. The success of the valve production and sales is reflected in the change of name in 1948 from Stockham Pipe & Fittings Company to Stockham Valves & Fittings, Inc. By this time, the company had also established warehouses and sales offices in many of the major metropolitan areas in the nation.

The essence of Herbert Stockham’s qualities as a leader is reflected in the Preface he wrote for Links to Better Living, 1903-1953: The Story of Stockham, 50 Golden Years:

“Stockham is land, buildings, and equipment. But those are only a min­or factor. Primarily Stockham is peo­ple. Not the faceless, anonymous mass sometimes described as capital and labor, but proud and accom­plished artisans, eager, enterprising, fresh, warm, and friendly people with personalities to express and ambitions to fulfill. People with skills to merge in making the products and supplying the service on which Stockham reputation is built.

“Stockham is a successful enter­prise. My father furnished the vision and high principles that bred that success. The progress through the years we owe to many people. Especially do we feel a deep sense of gratitude to the loyal friends and customers who are the backbone of any business.”

A champion of the Free Enterprise System, Herbert Stockham was active in various pro­fessional organizations which fostered its growth. He was an original organizer, the first vice president, and the second president of Associated Industries of Alabama, as well as a member of AIA’s Board for many years. He­ was a president and member of the Board of Trustees of the National Association of Fit­tings Manufacturers. He also served as re­gional vice president of the National Associa­tion of Manufacturers and a member of the board for Alabama.

Carrying on the tradition of community ser­vice set by his parents, Herbert Stockham gave of his means, his time, and his energy to civic, religious, educational, and charitable activi­ties. He was a member and a president of the Birmingham Sunday School Council, which bestowed upon him life membership in recog­nition of his service. A devout church worker, he was a steward and Trustee of the Highlands Methodist Church in Birmingham and a member of the Board of Directors of the Alabama Christian Advocate. He was elected and served as a director of the Board of the Community Chest.

He was a member of the Executive Commit­tee of Birmingham Southern College (which awarded him an honorary Doctor of Laws de­gree in 1949). He was tapped for ODK in recognition of his leadership and service. He also served as a representative of the State of Alabama on the Board of Trustees of Tuskegee Institute. In 1949, he was selected as “Alabam­ian of the Week” in recognition of his promo­tion of good race relations.

After Herbert Clark Stockham died sudden­ly on January 24, 1958, one well acquainted with him wrote:

“… In almost fifty-six years of ser­vice – through his ability, energy, and integrity of character – he con­tributed greatly to Stockham’s growth and progress … Herbert Clark Stockham was a leader – in industry, in church, and in the state … The memory of him shall stand as an inspiration to all of us.”

At the helm of the family firm, today is Herbert Cannon Stockham – son of Herbert Clark and Virginia (Cannon) Stockham. The Stockham’s daughter – Virginia Lee (Mrs. George Ladd) – also resides in Birmingham.

The “Stockham credo” and Stockham products continue to exert an influence in Birmingham, the State, the nation, and the world.

Henry Fairchild DeBardeleben

• September 22nd, 2021

Henry Fairchild DeBardeleben once said, according to historians, “Break a young mustang into a foxtrotting gait. That’s what we did to the Birmingham district.

“There’s nothing like taking a wild piece of land, all rock and woods, ground not fit to feed a goat on, and tum it into a settlement of men and women, making payrolls, bringing the railroads in, and starting things going …

‘That’s what money does, and that’s what money’s for. I like to use money as I use a horse – to ride!”

And “ride” he did. He put the power of his fortune, his credit, and his tremendous vitality into the development of Birmingham as the “Pittsburgh of the South.”

Henry Fairchild DeBardeleben was born in Autauga County, Alabama, on July 22, 1840. His father Henry died when the boy was twelve years old. His mother, Mary Ann (Fairchild) DeBarde­leben, subsequently moved to Montgomery where the youngster secured work in a grocery store. Being a native of New York, Mrs. DeBardeleben sought the company of others from that area. The Daniel Pratts, whom she had known in New York, became benefactors of the widow and her three young children.

When young DeBardeleben was sixteen, he became the ward of Daniel Pratt, Alabama’s first great industrial magnate, whose plants were in Pratt­ville, a few miles from Mont­gomery. The young man lived in the Pratt mansion and attended school. He was made ”boss” of the teamsters and foreman of the lumberyard, and later superinten­dent of the cotton gin. Upon the outbreak of the War Be­tween the States, he joined the Prattville Dragoons in the Confederate Army. He served until after the Battle of Shiloh when he was detailed to take care of a Prattville grist mill and bobbin factory which supplied food and clothing to the Confederate Army.

In 1863 he had married Ellen Pratt. After the war, he continued to run the Prattville mills for his father-in-law. In 1872, Daniel Pratt bought a controlling interest in the Red Mountain Iron & Coal Company in Birmingham and made Henry DeBardeleben manager of the reconstruction of the Oxmoor furnace and the development of the Helena mines. The panic of 1873 temporarily closed the works. This same year, Daniel Pratt died, leaving his estate to the Henry DeBardelebens.

In 1877, Henry DeBardeleben joined James W. Sloss and Truman H. Aldrich in ownership of the Eureka Mining and Transportation Company, which was reorganized in 1878 as the Pratt Coal and Coke Company with DeBardeleben as president. Two years later, he and T. T. Hillman founded the Alice Furnace Company, and between 1879-81 built the Alice furnaces, named in honor of DeBardeleben’s eldest daughter.

In 1881, because of ill health, he sold his holdings and took his family to Mexico. But by 1882, apparently fully recovered, he returned to Birmingham and with W. T. Underwood built the Mary Pratt furnace (named for his second daughter). He acquired the mineral rights to a tract of land on Red Mountain. Illness again took him from Birming­ham, this time to Texas, but by 1885 he was back in Birmingham. In 1886, he and David Roberts, whom he met in Texas, formed the DeBardeleben Coal & Iron Company (apparently, whenever he traveled away from home, he could, through his personality, persuade men of means and enterprise to follow him to Birmingham). He also organized the Pinckard-DeBardeleben Land Company.

These interests led to the founding of the town of Bessemer, ten miles west of Birmingham, and near the great Red Mountain iron seam. In Bessemer, named for the British inventor of the Bessemer process of steelmaking, four furnaces and an iron mill were erected. In 1887 these two firms merged into the DeBardeleben Coal & Iron Co.

In 1891, the Tennessee Coal, Iron, and Railroad Company took over controlling interest in the company. DeBardeleben was made vice-president. After three years of virtual retirement in this position and the death of his wife, DeBardeleben was so restless that he went to New York and made an attempt to gain control of the company through stock purchases. He lost his entire fortune.

Indomitable in the face of ill fortune, he, with his sons, Henry and Charles, explored new fields and started mining in St. Clair County, Alabama, and in the Acton Basin southeast of Birmingham.

In 1910. What had he accomplished in his lifetime? His Red Mountain seam, with his Pratt coal seam, was the basis for the development of industrial Birmingham. He was the first to succeed in making pig iron in Birmingham cheaper than it could be made elsewhere. He built the first coal road in Ala­bama and aided T. H. Aldrich in exploring and developing the Montevallo coal fields. He con­tributed to the development of his region not only through the enterprises with which he was directly connected but also by attracting to Birmingham moneyed men of ambition who established other enterprises. He talked of making steel long before it was made in the Birmingham district, and was instrumental in the construction of the first rolling mill and furnaces.

In 1905, Col. L. W. Johns said he would pay off the Vulcan statue account provided the statue be erected in honor of Henry F. DeBardeleben. DeBardeleben declined the honor-one of the greatest honors proposed to a living person­because he felt such a monument to the industrial pioneer movement should perpetuate the character and achievement, not of one individual, but of all of the men in the past and present who led or were leaders in the industrial development of the Birmingham district. He would prefer, he said, a living, breathing monument that would be a foun­tain of wise charity. He proposed the establishment of a trust fund to be used for the hospital treatment of the poor and needy.

Thus, it can be said that Henry F. DeBardeleben was not just an industrial giant who fostered industrial growth in Alabama. He was also a man who exhibited the traits of those who believe that “every man should leave this world a better place for having lived in it.”

Emil Carl Hess

• September 22nd, 2021

Emil Carl Hess, Chairman of the Board of Parisian, Inc., headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, has been described as a “person who looks beyond himself … a person who has a high regard for people,” both in his business and personal life.

In helping guide Parisian from a small women’s specialty store in Birmingham to Alabama’s leading fashion specialty store for men, women, and children with stores throughout the State, he has always felt that “we may not be all things to all people, but we try … it’s our responsibility.”

In his personal life, he has always exhibited “a constant desire to see a general improvement in the quality of life in the community,” and “a sensitivity to need and the challenge it presents.”

Emil C. Hess was born on April 6, 1918, in Memphis, Tennessee, to Carl and Nettie Schwartz Hess. In 1920, the family moved to Birmingham, Alabama, after Carl Hess and William Holiner of St. Louis, Missouri, had purchased The Parisian – then a 25-foot outlet specializing in lower-priced women’s apparel, millinery, and piece goods.

Emil Hess grew up in Birmingham. He attended South Highland Grammar School and Ramsay High School. After graduating in 1935, he majored in accounting and insurance at the Wharton School, the University of Pennsylvania, from which he graduated with a B.S. degree in Economics in 1939.

Returning to Birmingham, he assumed an active role at The Parisian which had moved to its present downtown location, and which had added men’s and boys’ apparel to its stock.

In 1941, Emil Hess married Jimmie Seidenman of Washington, D. C. In that same year, he began serving in the U.S. Navy, where he achieved the rank of Lieutenant Commander before his discharge in 1945. The Hesses subsequently had one daughter, Jo Ann, and one son, Donald.

Emil’s father, Carl, had been “minding the store” since before the war, for his partner William Ho liner had retired in 1940. In 1945, Emil Hess and Leonard Salit (Mr. Holiner’s son-in-law) began operating The Parisian. Though Emil’s father remained at The Parisian until his death in 1956, he gave these two veterans free rein to implement changes.

The young men decided that The Parisian would have to change its image if it were to grow. Instead of being known as a budget store specializing in lower-priced merchandise, it would have to become known as a brand name store offering quality goods and services. They built up its stock of brand merchandise while retaining its interest-free credit policy. This two-pronged attack, plus the “special” services such as free gift wrapping and free mailing to any place in the 50 states – were instrumental in moving Parisian toward becoming the primary family clothier in Alabama. The first branch stores of Parisian were built in 1963 in Birmingham and in Decatur; by 1984, there were stores in Huntsville, Montgomery, Mobile, Tuscaloosa, and Florence – making total square footage for Parisian almost 310,000.

In 1972, after the death of Lenny Salit, Emil Hess’ son Donald (a graduate of Dartmouth) became directly involved with the management of the company (he became active operating head, as President, in 1977). In 1976, the Hess family acquired the Holiner interest in the company and continued to operate it as a family-owned company until 1983. To finance the continuing, planned expansion of Parisian, the company went public, with its common stock first sold in the over-the-counter market in November of that year. By 1987, when Parisian celebrates its 100th anniversary, there will be more stores underway in Alabama and Georgia, Florida, and Tennessee.

“You’re Somebody Special” is the message that Parisian has been communicating to customers and associates in Alabama throughout its history. This business philosophy of management has been reflected not only in the increasing quality of goods and services in the stores but also in the company’s and its associates’ contributions to community life.

For example, Parisian, Inc. holds Diaper Derbies, the proceeds of which go to children’s charities. It has sponsored fashion shows for support of worthy projects, such as Linly Heflin Scholarships for Alabama girls who might not otherwise afford college.

Parisian has also provided funds for the Hess Institute of Retailing at The University of Alabama and The Hess Institute of Arts and Humanities at Birmingham Southern. Grants and contributions are made to UAB; Auburn, Montgomery; Auburn University, and other institutions of higher learning. Parisian also provides internships for 30 to 40 high school and college students each year. Parisian was the 1985 recipient of The University of Alabama Chapter’s Beta Gamma Sigma Firm Award, presented in recognition for the most outstanding in community service in Alabama.

For the last seven years, Parisian has recognized its associates on the selling floor and behind the scenes at a Standards of Excellence Banquet. And for the last seven years, the Emil C. Hess Humanitarian Award has been presented to associates who have given freely of their time and expertise to the community through volunteer work and civic involvement. As Emil Hess has said, Parisian is excellent because of its people – “our people are our most precious asset.”

Emil Hess, as an individual, has played an active role in improving the quality of life in the community. He has been “unselfish of his time, energies, and money,” perhaps because “he judges his happiness by the community’s success.”

He has served as president of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, the Jefferson County Community Service Council, and the Greater Birmingham Safety Council. He has served as co-chairman of various divisions of United Appeal, United Jewish Appeal, the United Way Drive of Jefferson, Walker, and Shelby Counties, and various other civic and community boards.

He has also served as president of the Birmingham Festival of Arts, the Greater Birmingham Arts Alliance, and the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He was Chairman of the “Goals for Birmingham” Committee. He was appointed by the Alabama State Superintendent of Education as Chairman of the Alabama School of Fine Arts for 1975-1979. In 1983, he and Mrs. Hess endowed the principal’s chair in the cello section of the Alabama Symphony Orchestra.

Throughout his life, Emil Hess has assumed certain leadership jobs in the community, because, as he has said, ‘Tm perceptive enough to see where I think there is a need and rally around the forces.”

Emil Hess has received many well-deserved honors. In 1978, he was named the Birmingham Young Men’s Business Club “Man of the Year.” In 1979, he was awarded a Doctor of Humanities degree by the University of Alabama in Birmingham; in 1984, a Doctor of Humanities degree by Birmingham Southern College; and in 1985, inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor.

Parisian continues to contribute to the quality of life in Birmingham and the State. And, Emil Hess, the cheerful man who says almost everything with a smile, is still helping to make sure that the citizens, “see flowers and trees in the spring,” without tripping over the “cracks in the walks.” He is still helping to remove the obstacles to the best quality of life in the community.

Stephen Dewey Moxley

• September 22nd, 2021

It is not possible to think of Stephen D. Steve-Moxley being out of the thick of things. We take his retirement as only a piece of paperwork,” were the opening words of an editorial in the Birmingham News on June 3, 1963, the day Steve Moxley stepped down as President of American Cast Iron Pipe Company (ACIPCO).  Indeed, Steve Moxley had always been in “the thick of things.”

For forty years, he had been a major factor in ACIPCO’s “true American enterprise, research and manufacture of an improved product at a better price.” He had also “entered fully into every aspect of the constructive life of Birmingham, the State, and the Nation.” In no small part had his efforts helped bring a new industrial water supply to Birmingham, a full engineering school to UAB, and later the Warrior­ Tombigbee Waterway to Alabama.

Stephen Dewey Moxley was born in Arnot, Pennsylvania, on June 3, 1898, son of Richard and Elizabeth Ann (Thomas) Moxley who had recently immigrated from South Wales, Great Britain. When he was four, the family moved to Wylam, a suburb of Birmingham, where his father resumed his work as a coal miner and coal mine supervisor.

The fourth of eleven children, young Steve attended Wylam Elementary School and two years at Ensley High School in Birmingham before dropping out at 16 to become an apprentice draftsman at the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company (now a part of U.S. Steel). Later, he passed an entrance exam which enabled him to become an engineering student at The University of Alabama. He completed his high school credits by correspondence at Tuscaloosa well after he had enrolled in college.

To finance his college education, he fired the central furnace at The University and worked between terms at TCI. By 1921, he had earned a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering, and by 1922, a Master’s degree in the field. While at the university, he led the organization of both Theta Tau and Tau Beta Pi. After graduation, he became a Mechanical Engineer at ACIPCO, the company to which he would give forty years of service.

In 1924, Steve Moxley married Marion Frances Bishop, a native of Marseilles, Illinois, whom he had met at The University of Alabama. The Moxley’s subsequently had three children-Gladys (Mrs. William M. Ikard) of Winchester, Tennessee; Stephen, Jr. of Huntsville, and Thomas C. of Birmingham-and 11 grandchildren.

At ACIPCO, he conceived and designed a number of machines for the production of cast iron pressure pipes by the sand spun process. In 1926, he was named Chief Engineer. Because a totally new process for the manufacture of pipe was being placed in operation, the engineers-with no precedent to follow-had to design all machinery connected with the process “from the ground up.”

Between 1927 and 1935, eight of Steve Moxley’s nine patents were issued. He had been a co-inventor of the centrifugal casting method of producing iron pipe using sand­ lined molds-a process which was very significant in the success and growth of ACIPCO in its production of superior strength cast iron pressure pipe.

In 1932, The University’s College of Engineering recognized his part in the development and practical application of this process by conferring upon him the degree of Mechanical Engineer. He was an early pioneer in pollution control at a time when few cared about pollution. By 1928 he had already incorporated dust collection equipment at ACIPCO. His 1935 technical paper on dust collection in the foundry-one of at least a dozen technical papers he wrote during his career-became the definitive paper on the subject and was reprinted and distributed for many years thereafter.

In 1937, Steve Moxley was named Assistant to the Vice President in Charge of Engineering, and by 1946 had been promoted to Vice President in Charge of Engineering and Purchases. By 1953, he was named Execu­tive Vice President; and two years later, President and Chief Executive Officer. During his presidency, the corporation in­ creased in international prominence as a producer of cast iron pipe and other metal products, with sales exceeding $40 million, a goodly percentage of which came from sales of new products first manufactured by ACIPCO under his astute leadership.

In recognition of his professional achievements, Steve Moxley received innumerable awards, such as being named in 1953 a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. In 1966, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree by his alma mater.

But his contributions to the state and nation extended beyond the professional sphere. The list of his civic, educational, and cultural activities would be as long as the uplifted arm of Vulcan, the statue standing on the mountain above Birmingham. For Steve Moxley was driven by a strong sense of obligation to repay his college, his company, and his community for the success he had achieved.

He was the head of a committee which in 1951 completely equipped Alabama’s Engineering School with one of the most complete foundries at any college. His eight years as Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce Industrial Water Committee brought him “outstanding credit for the attainment of Birmingham’s new industrial water system” and in 1958 he was elected first Chairman of the City’s Indus­ trial Water Board.

He headed the Business and Industry Division of the capital fund drive that enabled UAB to establish its first degree­ granting engineering school in Birmingham.

For these and other accomplishments, and for his reputation as a “man who went the extra mile,”   Steve Moxley was named Birmingham’s Man of the Year for 1960. Later, as President of the Warrior Tombigbee Development Association, he helped promote the _successful completion of that waterway. He served as a trustee of Southern Research Institute and the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

He was a director of Carraway Methodist Hospital, Jefferson County Community Chest, and Junior Achievement of Birmingham. He contributed significantly to the support of the Medical School at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. He was a member of the Board of Stewards at the First Methodist Church.

Steve Moxley told his employees “It is our job to prove that the Golden Rule in the industry is practical” and the “only way to meet a problem is full-on-face-to-face.” To his friends, he often said that whatever success he’d achieved in life, he owed to The University of Alabama and his wife “Bunny.” What others said of him is equally telling-“His incomparable quality is his ability to find the time and energy to do what needs to be done. He does not seem to be able to say No to any worthwhile endeavor or individual.”

Steve Moxley’s continuing involvement ended abruptly on February 22, 1967, as a result of a tragic automobile accident in which four days before, his wife and three others, including his wife’s brother and sister-in-law, had also been killed.

The people and the community he loved and served will long remember this great man and his accomplishments.

Ben Screws Gilmer

• September 22nd, 2021

This realistic philosophy, combined with the humanistic belief that people and their needs should be uppermost in decision making, led him through four companies and 17 positions in the Bell System to the chair he occupied from 1967-1970 as the first Southern president of AT&T.

Ben Screws Gilmer was born March 5, 1905, in Savannah, Georgia, son of Meriwether Nicholas and Josephine (Screws) Gilmer. His parents, each descended from a long line of native Alabamians, returned to their hometown Montgomery when he was six months old.

Ben Gilmer grew up near the State Capitol. As a boy, he often played on the western slope of the Capitol grounds and sat in the gallery after school watching the deliberations of the legislatures in which his grandfather Ben Screws (former captain in the Confederate Army) had served as State Senator.

The young man was educated at what a Montgomery reporter called “the famed schools” of Sayre and Lawrence streets and Sidney Lanier High School, from which he graduated in 1922. Having exhibited a natural facility for precision, order, and mathematics during high school, he chose engineering as his calling. He enrolled in the electrical engineering course at Auburn University and graduated with a B.S. degree in 1926.

Ben Gilmer’s long career with the Bell System began in June 1926. He worked in Birmingham as an in­ staller for the Southern Bell   Company or a month before the time when he and 41 other recently recruited college graduates were to report in Atlanta for the Company’s six-month training course.

His first day was not exactly auspicious­ he remembers that he ran out of gas on the way to work. Some have said that this may have been his last faux pas. From then on, his commitment to be “the best telephone man in the world” was evident in the steadily increasing responsibilities delegated to him.

Although a graduate electrical engineer, he never got involved in watts, volts, and decibels in the telephone business. He wound up in marketing and development activities which led to cost and rates with a natural transition into regulatory matters. After completion of the introductory training course, the young man progressed through a series of positions in the Commercial Department of Southern Bell in Atlanta.

During the early and middle 1930s (when depression had created a de­ mand for rate reduction) and up until the U.S.’s entry in World War II, he appeared frequently as a witness before regulatory commissions in the nine states comprising the Southern Bell Territory and acquired the mantle of Expert Technical Witness. Although he found it “fun” to match wits with witnesses and lawyers “on the other side,” the young executive always kept in mind that his main purpose was to represent the company policies and position favorably-to stress that the basic aim was to serve the customer most economically.

As he later said, “Business teaches us a stern lesson: The consequence of attempting too much, as the consequence of doing too little, is a failure. Finding what is right is a process of matching needs with resources, of rigorously assigning priorities that distinguish between what must be done, what can be done, and what had best be scheduled for tomorrow.”

In 1942, Ben Gilmer went on military leave. After serving for three years in the U. S. Army Air Force and attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel, he returned to Southern Bell as an executive in the Atlanta office. Once more he was called upon to testify before regulatory commissions, this time in an economy faced with the decline in purchasing power of the dollar.

By 1948, he had been named Assistant Vice President. When the Louisiana manager of the company became ill that year, Ben Gilmer was sent, on 24 hours notice, to take over the position. He was responsible for all public aspects of the job, including customer accounts, customer relations, public relations, regulatory and legislative affairs, market studies, and growth forecasts for the construction of expanded facilities and capacities. In less than a year, he was back in Atlanta as General Commercial Manager, assuming responsibility for the management of these activities in the nine states serviced by Southern Bell.

In two years, he went to Northwestern Bell Company as Vice President and General Manager with responsibility for all company operations. In only one year, he was named Vice President of the California operations of the Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company, where he served three and one-half years before re­ turning to Atlanta as Southern Bells’ Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. He served in this position for about a year before being named President of Southern Bell, where he served for 8½ years. In 1965 he went to New York as Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of AT&T. During his tenure as vice president, he made his last appearance before a regulatory commission about the need for objectivity in controlling competition in communications so that the public would receive optimal service for the least cost.

In 1967, Ben Gilmer was appointed President of AT&T. During his career, Ben Gilmer was known as a man who had an uncanny knack for pulling together the technical and non-technical aspects of a problem.

Even after his retirement, he remained a director of AT&T, a member of its executive committee, and the director of several of its corporate subsidiaries. Among the other corpora­tions on whose board he has served are the U.S. Pipe and Foundry Corporation, Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company, Merck & Co., and the West Point Pepperell Manufacturing Corporation.

In addition to his demonstrated ability in the corporate world, Ben Gilmer has contributed leadership in the economic, civic, cultural, and educational activities of his community and region. He has served as either director, chairman of the board, or trustee of more than thirty civic and charitable organizations, such as the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, the Atlanta United Ap­ peal, and the National Executive Council of the Boy Scouts of America. He has been chairman of the Auburn University Foundation, a trustee of Agnes Scott College, an elder in the Presbyterian Church, and a member of various professional engineering and business honoraries.

Despite the long absences demanded by his career, Ben Gilmer has maintained close ties with the State of Alabama, as the Governor and the legislature recognized when they invited him to address a joint session in 1967. Nine years before, Auburn University demonstrated its respect for his achievements by awarding him an honorary Doctor of Science degree. In 1969, the Alabama Conference of Christians and Jews recognized his “outstanding contribution to improving human relations” by giving him its National Brotherhood Award for promoting equal opportunities in the industry. In 1975, he was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor by the State Legislature. Similar recognition of his achievements and contributions has also come in Georgia and the nation.

Since 1939, Ben Gilmer has been married to the former Dorothy Cunningham of Decatur, Georgia. They now reside in Atlanta where their daughter, Mrs. Penn W. Rooker, and their two grandsons-Penn W. Rooker, Jr., and Ben Gilmer Rooker – also live.

Realism, humanism … “The Gilmer Blend” continues to be apparent in the life of Ben Screws Gilmer, the man whom both Alabama and Georgia claim as a “native son.”

Robert Hugh Daniel

• September 21st, 2021

After less than a year in Jasper, the young man evidently decided that his future lay in Alabama, for he received authorization from his brother to open a branch office of Daniel Construction Company in 1935 as a new vice president of the company.

By the time that he retired in 1977, Hugh Daniel had become the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of one of the nation’s largest publicly owned, full-service construction companies-Daniel International Corporation. He had led the way for the organization of general contractors in Alabama. He had exhibited his faith in the future of Birmingham-concretely, through such structures as the 20-story Daniel Building in the downtown area, and less visibly, in the contribution of his time and talents to almost every worthy cause in the community.

Born in Anderson, South Carolina, on September 1, 1906, Robert Hugh Daniel was the youngest of five sons of James Fleming and Leila Mildred (Adams) Daniel. Even during his elementary and middle school days in Anderson public schools, young Hugh showed the same eagerness to learn and to achieve that he did in later years.

Always an excellent student, at an early age he also had the initiative to secure a paper route. While completing his secondary education at Piedmont High School and Junior College in Demorest, Georgia, he worked as a typesetter for the local newspaper; and after graduation from high school, he continued his newspaper work for a year until his next oldest brother could complete his senior year at Georgia Tech.

Hugh Daniel then entered the Citadel, the military college in South Carolina, where he achieved a distinguished record as a scholar and as a leader in extracurricular activities. An English major, he became the valedictorian of the Class of 1929. He participated in almost all phases of college life as editor-in-chief of the college paper, as vice president of the senior class, and as a leader in various athletic, cultural and social organizations. During the summer months, he continued to show energetic drive by working for Townsend Lumber Company in Anderson, South Carolina.

When Hugh Daniel graduated from The Citadel in 1929, the Great Depression had begun. Even with his outstanding college record, he felt fortunate to get work as a night clerk at the Atlanta YMCA where a small salary and room and board were provided. Then, in 1934, came the opportunity to join his brother’s newly founded construction company, called the Daniel Construction Company, in Anderson, S.C.

In November of that year, Hugh Daniel was sent to supervise the building of the Bank­ head Housing Project in Jasper, Alabama. And while the project was under construction, he persuaded his brother Charles to let him remain in Alabama. Thus, in 1935, Hugh Daniel opened a branch office of Daniel Construction Company in the Webb-Crawford Building in Birmingham and was made vice president of Daniel Construction Company.

A year later, he married Martha Stone Cobb of Vernon, Alabama; and the Daniel family began to become an important part of the business, civic, cultural, and educational life of Birmingham. The couple subsequently had two sons-Robert Hugh, Jr. (now of Atlanta) and Charles William (of Birmingham). Within three years after Hugh Daniel opened the office in Birmingham, his impact on the construction industry in Alabama was apparent. He foresaw the need and initiated the move to organize general contractors into an Alabama Branch of Associated General Con­ tractors. He served as president of the organization both in 1941 and 1949 and was later named a life member.

When the U.S. entered World War II in 1941, Daniel Construction Company received two of its largest contracts to date-to build shipyards in Savannah and Brunswick, Georgia. As soon as the shipways for the Liberty ships were completed, Hugh Daniel volunteered for military service. He served as a lieutenant in the U. S. Navy Civil Engineering Corps from 1943 to 1945.

Returning to Birmingham after his discharge from the Navy, the young vice president of Daniel Construction Company rose to the challenge of the demand for construction during the next ten years. By 1955, he had been made President and Treasurer of the company. In 1957, the company built the Bank for Savings Building, the first high-rise building to be constructed in Birmingham since 1927. Hugh Daniel’s theory was that if space was avail­ able, new firms would be attracted to the city.

In 1964, after the death of his brother Charles, Hugh Daniel was named Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Daniel Construction Company. In that same year, he helped found Central Bank and Trust (now Central Bank of the South) and remained as Chairman of the Board until 1979; and he became Chief Executive Officer and Treasurer of Daniel Realty Corporation, formed as a subsidiary of Daniel Construction Company.

To his adopted hometown, Hugh gave many hours of service to various cultural and educational organizations. He also served as a director of the Alabama Gas Corporation, Florida National Banks o Florida, Inc., Southern Bank, and Trust Company in Greenville, South Carolina, and the United States Pipe and Foundry Company.

In recognition of his achievements, he was awarded four honorary degrees: a Doctor o Science by the Citadel in 1957 and by Piedmont College in 1965; a Doctor of Humanities by Birmingham-Southern College in 1976; and a Doctor of Letters by the University of Alabama in Birmingham in 1977. In 1976, he was elected to the Alabama Academy of Honor, and in 1977-78 was listed in “Who’s Who in America.”

Robert Hugh Daniel died at a Birmingham hospital on October 28, 1983.