William Stender

• September 28th, 2021

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

He has four children and 19 grandchildren.

Dorothy Davidson

• September 28th, 2021

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Robert O. Baron

• September 24th, 2021

Robert “Bob” Baron is the president and CEO of Baron Weather, Inc., an international leader in weather data intelligence systems. The company has created and implemented live radar and storm tracking technologies that enable emergency officials to quickly detect dangerous storms and disseminate alerts to those in harm’s way. They provide weather intelligence products and solutions to a wide array of industries, meteorological organizations and public servants around the world.

Baron Weather patented the ability to send alerts exclusively to people directly affected. It presents its data in various formats, allowing its products to be used in a variety of use cases including road weather, aviation, nautical navigation, and recreation. Furthermore, via SiriusXM, the weather to the cockpit, WxWorx, continues to be an industry leader.

The company provided this warning system technology to the state of Alabama free of charge following the 2011 super outbreak of tornadoes, when the Governor’s task force established a need for a statewide alert system of this nature.

In 2007, the National Weather Service chose Baron Services to upgrade each of its 171 radars to possess dual polarity capabilities made possible by Baron’s technology.
Baron founded the company in 1990 after a tornado outbreak – including a devastating F4 that hit Huntsville – made clear a need for site-specific weather alerts. The system visualized strike-by-strike lightning data from NASA‘s nearby Marshall Space Flight Center and its first two users were Huntsville Utilities and aerospace contractor, Thiokol, Inc., both of whom were highly interested in gaining better understandings of lightning strikes. For the former, to better position trucks after lightning storms; for the latter, knowing where lightning was striking around propellent-filled rockets.

Prior to this, he served as chief meteorologist at Channel 48, Huntsville’s NBC News affiliate. He brought 22 years of industry experience to his company.
“I have known Bob for many years and cannot think of any individual who deserves the honor of induction more,” said William Stender, Jr., a 2016 Alabama Business Hall of Fame inductee.

“He is a self-made man, working from an early age, from the bottom up, as a media personality in radio and television to a respected member of the meteorological broadcast community to an enterprising entrepreneur in the weather data dissemination arena to, finally today, the highly respected Chief Executive Officer of Baron Weather, Inc.”

Baron is a long-standing member of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and was the recipient of the AMS Seal of Approval for Television in 1982. AMS honored him again in 2010 with elevation to AMS Fellow for outstanding contributions to atmospheric sciences.

He was recognized as the 1996 Small Business Executive of the Year by the Huntsville and Madison County Chamber of Commerce, and in 1998 Baron Services received the Mass Mutual Blue-Chip award for small businesses. In 2005, Baron was recognized as a candidate for Inc. Magazine’s Entrepreneur of the Year, and in 2006 the Alabama House of Representatives awarded him a commendation based on his company’s contributions to the safety and well-being of the public.

He attended the University of Tennessee, where he graduated with his undergraduate degree in broadcast journalism. In 2011, UT’s Haslam College of Business named Baron Entrepreneur of the Year.

Baron and his wife Phylis recently celebrated their 54h wedding anniversary. They have two children, son Robert Jr., who is a recently retired Executive Vice President at Baron Weather, Inc., and daughter Elizebeth.

Marcus Bendickson

• September 24th, 2021

Dr. Marcus J. Bendickson is the former CEO and chairman of the board of Dynetics, which, under his leadership, became the second-largest employee-owned company in Alabama.

Dynetics provides high-technology, engineering, IT, and scientific services and solutions to government and commercial customers alike in the national security, cybersecurity, space, and critical infrastructure industries. Its 17th employee, Bendickson facilitated the buyout of Dynetics from its founders through an employee stock ownership purchase (ESOP) and became CEO of the company in 1989, after originally joining Dynetics as an engineer specializing in radar systems.

He knew the company’s business well: the early part of his career was spent on the development of digital simulation techniques used to provide timely and cost-effective methods of predicting radar and missile system performance. These digital models gave detailed insight into failure modes and performance anomalies that sometimes were difficult to achieve with hardware testing.  Some of these models have been in continuous use in evaluating a variety of weapon systems for over 40 years.

The commercial operations sector of Dynetics, comprised of automotive electrical rapid prototyping, computer network design, and information security, rose to about 20% of the company’s annual sales under the direction of Bendickson. In 2011, Dynetics became a 100% ESOP Corporation with over 1,500 employees. By the time he retired from the CEO position in 2015, Dynetics generated about $275 million in sales.

Bendickson remained on the Dynetics board of directors following his retirement, supporting the company greatly during its acquisition by Leidos in 2020. This deal was followed by a period of exceptional growth for Dynetics.

Over the last part of his career, Bendickson devoted considerable time and effort in teaching, training, and assisting other companies in realizing the value of employee ownership via Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOP).  He has served on a half-dozen ESOP company boards and given numerous talks on the subject. His passion for employee ownership and the value it offers to both the company and the employee are well recognized in the community.

Outside of his professional endeavors, Bendickson has served organizations that propel the business interests of Huntsville forward. He has been a member of the boards of directors for BB&T Greater Huntsville Advisory Board, the Huntsville Chamber of Commerce, and the HudsonAlpha Foundation. Additionally, he is vice-chair of the Board of Trustees for the University of Alabama at Huntsville Foundation and chaired its Campus Planning Committee.

He also lends his expertise to other organizations. He chairs the American Management Association’s board for small growing companies, serves on the Cook’s Museum of Natural Science board, and is on the advisory board of the Alabama Policy Institute.

Bendickson’s service and contributions to industry have been recognized by several organizations. In 1993, he was recognized as a Distinguished Alumni of The University of Alabama at Huntsville and received UAH’s Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award in 2000. In 2002, he was awarded the Professional of the Year award by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, or IEEE.

He earned his doctorate degree in electrical engineering from The University of Alabama at Huntsville. He also holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Columbia University, as well as a bachelor’s degree from Iowa State University. He was born in Albert Lea, Minnesota.

He and his wife Sheryl live near their two married children and 7 grandchildren. In their spare time, they are working to create a museum of information technology products located in the downtown Huntsville area. The couple were honored as Huntsville’s Heart of the Community by the American Heart Association in 2015. They are also active members of Whitesburg Baptist Church.

Joe Ritch

• September 24th, 2021

Currently a shareholder and member of the law firm Dentons Sirote in its Huntsville office, Joe H. Ritch is focused on issues related to government contractors in the defense and aerospace industry.

As a young lawyer, Ritch represented LG Electronics, then known as Gold Star, when it brought the first Korean manufacturing facility in the U.S. to Huntsville. He successfully represented such diverse entities as a cable television company against a municipality which blocked a competing company from acquiring it, and assisted Chrysler Technologies in numerous matters involving government affairs before Congress.

Business creation and acquisition captured Ritch’s attention beginning in 1982 when he helped form and located funding of  Cybex Corp., a small technology company that developed and sold KVM switches. He served on the board until 1996. Cybex, later renamed Avocent, was ultimately acquired by Emerson Electric in a $1.2 billion purchase.

In 1997, he assisted a  management group along with outside investors through the purchase of the Pentastar Electronics Division (PEI Electronics) of Chrysler Corporation. The company was acquired 18 months later by Integrated Defense Technologies (IDT), owned by Veritas Capital in New York.  He served on the board of PEI and later the advisory board of IDT.

In 2000, he led a group that acquired Brown International Corp., a defense contractor that engaged in significant international work. The company was sold to AAR in 2007. Ritch served on the board of Brown from its inception in 1985 until it was sold.

He has in recent years served on the boards of CAS, Inc. Axometrics, Inc. and Perkins Technical Services, Inc., and on the advisory board of Boneal Aerospace.

Since 1994, he has led the efforts of the Tennessee Valley Base Realignment and Closure Committee, a coalition of 13 communities, local and state governments, chambers of commerce, and others in north Alabama and south-central Tennessee to relocate the Army’s aviation component from St. Louis, Mo.; in 2005 the TVBRAC effort was successful in moving  4,700 high paying jobs to the region related to missile defense,  development and acquisition; and In the last two years, he has led the efforts of the now renamed Redstone Regional Alliance to locate the U.S. Space Command to Redstone.

As a result of the Committee’s work, thousands of military and government contractor jobs were relocated to Redstone Arsenal and the surrounding areas. Furthermore, he worked with state and local officials to obtain funds for the recruitment of workers to fill open positions and a $175 million state-funded investment in K-12 facilities to make the area an attractive place for relocation.

In public service, Ritch has not only been a willing servant but a recognized leader. He served on the board of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation’s largest public power provider from 2013 to 2019, sitting as its chair from 2014 until he left the board in 2017. He was the first Alabamian in TVA’s 80-year history to chair the board of TVA, which provides flood control, economic development, recreation facilities navigation, and electricity for over nine million people across the southeastern United States.

He has served as a member of The University of Alabama System Board of Trustees and is a trustee emeritus. He is also chairman of the UAH Eminent Scholars Foundation and a member of the State of Alabama Military Stabilization Committee.

Recognition for his numerous contributions to the Huntsville area includes awards such as the Huntsville-Madison  County Chamber of Commerce Distinguished Service Award in 2003; induction into the North Alabama Business Hall of Fame; U.S. Space Club’s Community Service Award; UAH’s Outstanding Alumni Award in 1982; The Department of the Army’s Commander’s Public Service Award; and he was the recipient of Redstone Arsenal’s Good Neighbor Award, one of the first of three that have been awarded in the history of Redstone Arsenal.

He is considered the founder of UAH hockey (1979) and has been inducted into the UAH Athletic Hall of Honor and the Huntsville-Madison County Athletic Hall of Fame. He was the first hockey coach of the club hockey team that would later grow into an NCAA Division 2 National Champion.

Ritch earned his bachelor’s degree from The University of Alabama at Huntsville in 1972, his J.D. from the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University where he was the Editor-in-Chief of the law review, and graduated from New York University in 1976 with an LL.M  in taxation. He received an honorary doctorate from UAH in 2014.

Born in Selma, he has lived in Huntsville since 1953. Ritch is a member and former trustee of Trinity United Methodist Church in Huntsville and is married to Lana C. Ritch.

General. John Coffee

• September 22nd, 2021

General John Coffee epitomizes the type of dependable, public-spirit­ed private citizen who contributed substantially to the development of the frontier regions of Tennessee and North Alabama in the early 19th century.

Throughout his life as a frontier merchant, a soldier, a promoter, and a planter – he seemed to display physical and mental qualities which made other men instinctively trust him and turn to him for advice and counsel.

Born on June 2, 1772, in Prince Edward County, Virginia, John Coffee was the son of Joshua and Elizabeth (Graves) Coffee. The family subsequently moved to Granville County, North Carolina, and to Rockingham County, North Carolina, where he grew to manhood. When his father died in 1797, John Coffee took steps to assure that his mother would be well provided for.

Noting the opportunities in agriculture, commerce, and land speculation in a newly opened region in Tennessee, he purchased land on the Cumberland River in Davidson County and in 1798 moved with his mother to this thriving frontier section near Nashville. Here the Coffees established direct contact with a group of families whose names are well known in the history of Tennessee and the United States – among them Andrew Jackson. John Coffee was to become closely associated with Andrew Jackson, not only as a neighbor, but also as a business associate, a relative by marriage, an officer serving under Jackson’s command, and a friend and confidante.

When the family farm no longer demanded his undivided attention, the young man sought new horizons as a frontier merchant. After several unsuccessful ventures in the mercantile business, caused primarily by the economic and political situation of the times, John Coffee turned to survey the unoccupied lands of middle Tennessee in order to recover his fortune and repay his debts. Ironically, the depressed market which brought financial loss in the mercantile business brought financial gain to John Coffee during the rest of his life. He was able as a surveyor, land agent, and speculator to profit from the ensuing westward movement.

Between 1807 and 1812, John Coffee, along with John Drake, became surveyors and locators for William P. Anderson and John Strother, one of the partnerships which sprang up after the passage of an act in 1806 which settled a long-standing dispute (North Carolina vs. Tennessee vs. U.S. Government) about ownership of land in Tennessee. Such partnerships and land companies sought warrants for unoccupied lands in order to sell the property. Coffee and Drake, as surveyors and locators, were to receive one-half of any cash and lands Anderson and Strother might receive. During this time, John Coffee also formed an in­ dependent partnership with John Drake. He was also called upon by many leading men of the state to give advice and to assist in their purchases.

In October 1809,  the bond already existing between John Coffee and Andrew Jackson was strengthened when Coffee married Mary Donelson, niece of Mrs. Jackson. Mary received a plantation as a wedding gift, and there at Jefferson Springs on Stone’s River, Coffee built a home called Sugar Tree Forest and briefly turned his attention to developing the plantation.

In 1810, in order to settle affairs with Anderson, Strother, and Drake, he agreed to act as agent in surveying and laying off the townsite of Huntsville, Alabama.

He was also instrumental in persuading territorial officials to select Huntsville as the county seat of Madison County. After the completion of this work and the settlement of his affairs with Anderson, Strother, and Drake, he seemed to be in a position to devote his time to the plantation. But in 1812 came the call to military service to defend the frontier.

During the campaigns against the British and the Indians, John Coffee led a regiment of cavalry as part of Andrew Jackson’s force of Tennessee volunteers. His astute leadership and unerring courage soon brought him the rank of Brigadier General. His feats during the Battles at Horse Shoe Bend and New Orleans are a well-known part of history.

When General John Coffee returned from military service in 1815, he used the knowledge gained during the campaigns to extend his land interests into a new region. By 1817 he had been appointed surveyor-general of the newly created political unit called the Alabama Territory. His first task was to oversee the survey of the region North of the Tennessee River. When the work was completed, he established a land office at Huntsville, where the necessary plats and descriptions were prepared for use in the opening sale of land in the new territory.

In his capacity as surveyor general, he was able to profit, as was the custom of the times, from his or his clerk’s dispensing of information that enabled persons to buy land in the district.

He also participated in the organization and direction of stock companies in which problem region. One of the companies was the Cyprus Land Company which promoted the town of Florence. That his activities as a speculator were not construed by federal authorities as inconsistent with the duties as Surveyor of Public Lands is indicated by the fact that General Coffee was reappointed by each successive presidential administration from Monroe to Jackson.

By the end of 1817, John Coffee had decided to settle in Alabama. He bought a choice tract of 1,280 acres near Florence where he built a new home, which he named Hickory Hill. In 1819, he leased Sugar Tree Forest and moved his family to Alabama.

John Coffee shifted his major interests to the plantation and to his family and friends. The plantation became known as one of the most perfect plantations in North Alabama – fairly managed and expertly productive.

That John Coffee also found time to serve the interests of the Florence Community is evidenced by a resolution drawn up by city authorities after  General  John  Coffee’s  death on July 7, 1833, stating “a due sense of general moral worth,  feeling a general lively gratitude for his public services and revering him for his upright work as a private citizen, (who gained) by his kindness and benevolence  to  the poor, and by his honesty  and  integrity  the  respect and confidence of every class of the Community.”

General John Coffee was given a military funeral, and as Andrew Jackson later said, “The vast concourse of people who attended … show how firmly he was fixed in the affections of his fellow citizens.”

(The information in this biographical summary was derived primarily from “The Life and Activities of General John Coffee,” the dissertation presented to the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University by Gordon T. Chappell in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1941.)

Lonnie S. McMillian

• August 17th, 2021

Lonnie S. McMillian was a visionary serial entrepreneur who led a series of companies aligned with telecommunications and biotech – and helped make Alabama a home for innovation.

His interest in tech was sparked while studying radar technology as a member of the United States Marine Corps during the Korean War. After the war, he attended Georgia Tech, where he earned a degree in electrical engineering in 1955. He then embarked on a wide-ranging career in electronics that included co-founding a computer manufacturer, Systems Engineering Labs, joining SCI in Huntsville as chief engineer, and working at Universal Data Systems as vice president of engineering.

In 1985, he co-founded ADTRAN, a telecommunications firm, which today is one of Huntsville’s largest non-public employers.

While the beginning and middle of McMillian’s career was in the tech and telecommunications sectors, the latter portion was in biotechnology, an area in which he had developed a passion for. In 1993, he was introduced by a mutual friend to Jim Hudson, who ran Huntsville-based Research Genetics. Following his retirement from ADTRAN in 2001, he and Hudson founded the non-profit HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology in 2005 to bring together experts in genetics, education, and entrepreneurship to accelerate innovation in the field. The Institute opened its doors in 2008 and quickly got to work.

By July 2017, its economic impact stood at $1.8 billion. The team of scientists in its genomic medicine division has discovered genes responsible for breast cancer and ALS, otherwise known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, and have given answers to those with undiagnosed or misdiagnosed diseases. Researchers in its genome sequencing center are busy analyzing the genetics of our food crops to discover insights that may make them more productive or resilient to drought.

Furthermore, HudsonAlpha has an extraordinary outreach and education arm that, among many different initiatives, brings genomics into the classroom to inspire future innovators or offering free genetic testing for cancer risk to North Alabama residents. All told, over 5.5 million people have been positively impacted by the Institute’s efforts.

McMillian was a generous philanthropist and lived out his commitment to improving the human condition through the support of educational, scientific, and other charitable causes.

In 2014, he was recognized by the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama with its lifetime achievement award for his career-long commitment to innovation and work to advance the state of Alabama.

Along with his degree from Georgia Tech, he graduated from Presbyterian College with a bachelor’s degree in business administration.

McMillian passed away in December 2018. He is survived by Helen, his wife of 64 years, daughters Barbara, Emily, and Sue, five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.