Charles Adair

• September 28th, 2021

Charles “Eddie” Adair is a Partner in Cordova Ventures, a venture capital management company headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

He began his business career as a staff accountant at Haskins & Sells, which became Deloitte & Touche. In 1973, after becoming a CPA the year before, he joined Durr-Fillauer Medical Inc. as Controller. Durr-Fillauer was a NASDAQ listed company that distributed pharmaceuticals and medical supplies to hospitals, physicians, drug stores, and other healthcare providers. His career there spanned 20 years, becoming President and COO in 1981, and serving on its board of directors. By the time the company was acquired in 1992, it had approximately $1 billion in revenues and 1,300 employees in sixteen states. He joined Cordova Ventures in 1993.

For the past 20 years, he has served on numerous public boards across the country. Currently, Adair is a member of the Board of Directors for three publicly-held companies: Tech Data Corporation, Torchmark Corporation, and Rayonier Advanced Materials. Tech Data, a Fortune 50 company, is a $34.0 billion worldwide distributor of hardware, mobility, software, and peripher­als. Torchmark is a $3.5 billion financial services company specializing in life and supplemental healthcare insurance, and Rayonier is a $1.0 billion manufacturer of cellulose chemicals.

He serves as the Chairman of the Nominating and Governance Committee and Lead Director at Tech Data and the Chairman of the Governance and Nominating Committee at Torchmark. Previous roles at other companies include Chair of Audit and Compensation committees.

In July, he was named to the 2017 National Association of Corporate Directors Directorship 100 in recognition for his leadership while promoting the highest standards of corporate governance. In 2015 he was named Outstanding Public Company Director in Tampa Bay, Florida.

He was previously on the Board of Performance Food Group until its sale to Blackstone Group in 2008. He was also on the Board of PSS World Medical, Inc. until its sale to McKesson Corporation in 2013.

After enrolling at Vanderbilt University in the fall of 1965, he soon transferred to The University of Alabama where he graduated in 1970 with a Bachelor of Science in Accounting. He completed the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School in 1981.

Adair has been an active civic and community leader, particularly in efforts to improve lives through health care.

He currently serves as a board member for the UAB Health System and UAB Health Services Foundation in Birmingham. He previously served on the board of the Montgomery Area Red Cross, the Montgomery Small Business Incubator, the United Way, Leadership Montgomery, the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce, and others.

Adair is a member of the First United Methodist Church where he served on the Board of Trustees, Administrative Board, and the Finance Committee.

Adair has been married to his wife Ginny for 47 years. They have two children Charlie and Emily, and five grandchildren. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, he has called Montgomery home since 1973.

Winton Malcolm “Red” Blount

• September 24th, 2021

The story of the life of Winton Malcom Blount, Jr. Chairman of the Board and CEO of Blount, Inc., Montgomery, Alabama, is the story of a man dreaming about what could be and working hard to turn his dreams into realities. It is the story of a man who contributes to others, and to society as a whole, through his individual and corporate efforts.

Born February 1, 1921, in Union Springs, Ala­bama, Winton Malcolm Blount was the oldest of the two sons of Clara Belle (Chalker) and Wynton M. Blount. “Red;’ as he was nicknamed, was educated in the Union Springs Public Schools before entering the University of Alabama in 1939. In early 1942, he joined the Army Air Force and served as a B-29 pilot until his discharge in 1945.

When he and his brother Houston (who had served in the Navy Air Corps) returned to Union Springs, they found that their father’s sand and gravel business had deteriorated after his death in 1944. Having grown up in the entrepreneurial tradition, they set about to rebuild the business. With modest funds, they purchased some Army surplus equipment in Atlanta for use in the sand and gravel business. The direction of their business changed a few weeks later when “Red” returned from a trip to Atlanta with four surplus, but brand-new, D-7 Caterpillar tractors and scrapers. When Houston asked what they were going to do with “that stuff;’ “Red” replied, ‘We’re going in the contracting business:’

Their first contracts were for building fishponds around Union Springs. In the summer of 1946, they won a contract for grading and base sub-contract work on several Alabama Highway Department jobs. Although they didn’t know much about building highways, “Red” Blount has since said, they knew how to work. Through the late 40s, they continued to build roads (and bridges) in Alabama and Mississippi.

Blount Brothers Corpo­ration was incorporated on September 13, 1949, and based in Tuskegee, Alabama, with “Red” Blount as president and chairman of the board. In that same year, the company won its first $1 million dollar con­tract, to build the super­structure for the First Avenue Viaduct in Birmingham. When the young men learned that their bid was $124,000 under the next lowest bid, they were horrified. Their friends told them they would “lose their shirts;’ but they didn’t. The job was completed several months ahead of schedule.

The incentive for fast and quality work on that first large job was a Thanksgiving turkey for each crew member of the team that fin­ished first. Incentives in Blount, Inc. today include bonus plans, a profit-sharing plan, and pension program, and complete benefit programs of all kinds.

Blount Brothers Corporation moved to Mont­gomery in 1950. In 1952, the Corporation won a contract to build part of a complex wind tunnel facility at Tullahoma, Tennessee. The successful completion of this challenging project helped shape the Blount business strategy of focusing on big, complicated, fixed-price construction projects-often first of a kind-where the profit margins reflected the risks.

In the late 40s, much to “Red” Blount’s regret, Houston Blount, currently chairman of the board of Vulcan Materials Co. in Birmingham, left the corporation to pursue his interest in the materials business. Houston Blount still has remained a member of the Blount board and “Red’s” valuable counselor.

“Red” Blount has always been a risk-taking, en­trepreneurial, creative type of manager who focuses on long-term benefits, not on short-term earnings. He has stressed that the success of a company depends on its people, on its strategy for growth, and on its modem management techniques.

Among the many complex projects that the company has completed throughout the world are an atomic energy installation at Oak Ridge, Tennessee-the first atomic plant ever built on a fixed-price basis; the nation’s first Intercontinental Missile Base for the Atlas; the launch complexes for the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space pro­grams; the Louisiana Superdome-the world’s largest indoor arena; and an academic center for King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

In 1969, when “Red” Blount became Postmaster General of the U.S., he placed his company stock in a blind trust and determined that the company should not bid on any government contract while he was a government official and for more than a year following his departure. This self-imposed restriction forced the interim management to expand more aggressively into industrial construc­tion and to acquire manufacturing companies for diversification. That diversification continued after “Red” Blount returned as chairman and CEO in 1974.

Today, the company (incorporated as Blount, Inc. in 1971) is an international manufacturing and construction corporation. The corporation and its subsidiaries employ approximately 8,100 people at offices, plants, and job sites throughout the U.S. and in several other countries.

Almost forty years ago, “Red” Blount wrote down precepts he believed necessary for the success of a company and of an individual. One of the precepts for individual success stated in The Blount Philosophy (a copy of which every new employee receives) is “participation in civic, cultural, religious, and political affairs of our country:’

The Blount Philosophy asks nothing of others that “Red” Blount has not done himself.

For example, a selected list of only his current activities in­cludes: President pro tempo re of the Board of Trus­tees of The University of Alabama; Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Rhodes College; a direc­tor of Alabama Shakespeare Festival and of Folger Shakespeare Library; Director and past Chairman of the National Business Committee for the Arts; a trustee of Alabama Trust Fund Board; a board member of Friends of American Art in Religion and the American Enterprise Institute. “Red” Blount has also been actively involved in politics as exemplified by his heading several campaigns in the South for Republican presidential candidates, and by his serving as a delegate to the 1988 Republican Convention in New Orleans.

As stated earlier, he served as Postmaster General of the United States and also as a member of President Nixon’s cabinet. He is credited with “taking politics out of the postal service” because of his strong “lobbying” for the legislation that created the U. S. Postal Service, a non-political organization of which he was chairman of the board in 1970-71. In 1972, “Red” Blount ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the U. S. Senate. He considers his defeat the best thing that could have happened to him because he wouldn’t have been happy in the senate. “I’m not a compromiser; I’m a manager. I like to accomplish things:’

“Red” Blount has become a staunch advocate of corporate as well as individual support of the arts.

The Blount Collection of American Art is one of the most extensive and highest quality cor­porate collections in the world. The paintings in the collection (all of which he has personally selected) are periodically rotated on the walls of the corporate offices and are made available to the public through tours and loans to museums throughout the world.

“Red” Blount built and gave to the State the $21.5 million dollar Carolyn Blount Theatre, home of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival com­plex and the 200 acres (called the Wynton M. Blount Cultural Park) on which it and the new Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts are built. A gift to the museum of $500,000 from the Blount Foundation and 41 paintings (valued at $15 mil­lion) from the Blount Collection of American Art accompanied the gift of the land on which it is built.

It is impossible to list all the awards and hon­ors given to Winton Malcolm “Red” Blount. Suffice it to say, this native Alabamian who thinks big, builds bigger, and gets things done, stands tall in many peoples’ eyes. He is a great American.

Sources of bibliographic information: Blount, Inc. publications: ‘The Blount Story: American Enterprise at Its Best;’ address given by Winton M. Blount, to the Newcomen Society in North Ameri­ca, Birmingham, Oct. 10, 1979; Greater Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce, Catalyst, 1986; The Montgomery Advertiser and The Alabama Journal, Dec. 27, 1987; The New York Times, May 10, 1981; “Winton “Red” Blount,” Arts & Antiques, May, 1986.

Frank Park Samford, Jr.

• September 22nd, 2021

Frank Park Samford, Hr., the man credited with transforming Birmingham-based Liberty National Life Insurance Company into one of the na­tion’s leading financial services conglomerates, “was a man of many talents – and he invested them passionately into his life and the lives of others.”

Born on January 29, 1921, he was the son of Frank Park and Hattie Mae (Noland) Samford. His father was one of the founders of Liberty National. His grandfather was an Alabama Court of Appeals judge. His great grandfather was an Alabama governor.

Frank Park Samford, Jr., could have chosen to rest on the laurels of his forefathers. Instead, he chose to blaze a trail of his own with the torch of excellence passed to him.

He received his early education in Montgomery and then in Birmingham, where he was an out­standing student at Ramsey High School. At Alabama Polytechnic Institute (now Auburn Uni­versity) he achieved the highest grades of any freshman student in the school’s business admin­istration program. He later transferred to Yale University where he received recognition as a leader before graduating in 1942. After serving for three years as a United States Naval Officer on a destroyer in both theaters of World War II, he entered The University of Alabama School of Law. He graduated at the top of his class (only one B” kept him from a straight “A” average).

In 1947, the young law school graduate began his meteoric career with Liberty National Insurance Company as a securities analyst. Eventually, he would work in practically every division in the home office. By 1950, he had been elected to the company’s board of directors. He became president in 1960.

He succeeded his father as chief executive officer in 1967 and as chairman of the board in 1973. In these positions, he was able to see his vision of trans­forming Liberty National Life Insurance Company into a diversified insurance and financial services company become a reality.

In 1979, Frank Samford, Jr. led in the formation of the parent company, Torchmark, which acquired life and health insurance companies and which di­versified into such businesses as investment management. He subsequently served as presi­dent, chief executive officer, and chairman of the board of Torchmark. And through his wisdom, vision, and efforts, he saw Torchmark grow to become one of the nation’s largest stock insurance and financial institutions, with over $3.4 billion in assets.

The innovative leadership of Frank P. Samford, Jr. brought many accolades. In 1984, he received the Gold Award from the Wall Street Transcript as the outstanding chief executive officer in the life insurance industry. Twice before he had received the Silver Award as the runner-up. Other recognitions of his leadership were his induction into the Alabama Academy of Honor and his selection to be honored at the Alabama Meeting of the Newcomen Society of the United States – a non-profit membership corporation whose members are the corporate and industrial elite across the nation and abroad and whose purpose is to study the history of business and its effects on the contributions to the further­ing of mankind.

Frank Park Samford, Jr.’s pursuit of excellence for himself and others led him to the forefront in the insurance industry. But he also gave his time and talents to serve in the community and in the state.

For example, he served on the boards of BellSouth Corporation, South Central Bell, Golden Enterprises, The Southern Company, Birmingham Trust National Bank, Saunders Leasing Systems, Alabama Great Southern Railway, and the Birming­ham Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

He was a chairman and president of the Jefferson County United Appeal, of the Jefferson County Heart Fund Drive, and a member of the City of Birmingham Parks and Recreation Board.

He served on the boards of educational insti­tutions, such as Auburn University, the Univer­sity of Montevallo, and the Indian Springs School. He worked with the Alabama Association of Independent Colleges. He was a charter member of the board of directors of the Kidney Foundation of Alabama and a member of the Board of South­ern Research Institute. He was a member of the Rotary Club and the Independent Presbyterian Church in Birmingham.

Frank Park Samford, Jr., was, in the words of former Governor of Alabama George C. Wallace, “one of the most productive citizens in our state.”

This highly successful executive and productive citizen was what one might call a Renaissance man – that is, a complex personality who contributed and participated successfully in many facets of human life.

He has been described as a man “ahead of his time.” In the 1970’s he was one of the few CEOs who wore a beard. Often, he rode a bicycle to and from work when a car was considered the normal mode of transportation.

An avid jogger, he placed emphasis on physical fitness and was instrumental in establishing a track and exercise center in the headquarters building of Liberty National. He loved the adventure of sailing and flying, but he also enjoyed an intense game of chess. He quoted poetry from memory – and even named his sailboat the “Rubaiyat.”

Although his professional and civic endeavors took a great deal of his time, his family was always the central force of his life. In 1942, he married Virginia Suydam whom he had known since the ninth grade. They had four children: Frank III, Laura, John, and Mae.

Frank Samford, Jr. was a private man, known closely by few. But there was something about him – actually, everything about him – that quietly commanded respect, admiration, and loyalty from all those with whom he came in contact.

He died on December 6, 1986, in Hilton Head, South Carolina. Just as he ha through Birmingham, he had carried the torch of excellence on every other day of his life. He was a rare combination of dreamer and realist. He reached for the stars with his feet planted firmly on the ground.

William Albert Bellingrath

• September 22nd, 2021

Shortly after the tum of the century, William Albert Bellingrath moved to Montgomery, Alabama, where he began to earn his reputation as a pioneer in the Coca-Cola bottling industry and as a leader in the civic and social welfare of Montgomery and the State of Alabama.

Born in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 30, 1868, he was the sixth child and fourth son of Leonard and Catherine Jean (McMillan) Bellingrath. In 1882, the family moved to Castleberry, Alabama, where the young Will lived until he sought a livelihood in the retail grocery business in Anniston. By 1901, the young man had become manager of the commis­saries of the Woodstock Coal and Iron Company.

In this position, he noticed a growing demand among the workers for a new beverage and he developed a keen in­terest in the future of Coca-Cola.

The young Coca-Cola Company of At­lanta, owned by Asa G. Candler, had esta­blished a policy of leaving the bottling and distribution of Coca-Cola to local companies under a franchise. Recognizing the possibilities in the field, William A. Bell­ingrath and his brother, Walter D. Bell­ingrath, turned their eyes to Montgomery where the Coca-Cola franchise had been granted to Rainey and Cole in 1902. By 1903, the brothers were able – based on their honesty and the faith of a friend – to obtain a loan from the First National Bank of Montgomery in order to complete the $5,000 purchase of the Montgomery fran­chise. (William Bellingrath later became a director of the bank and helped establish its importance in the economic life of Montgomery.)

Exercising extraordinary business abilities in times of economic stress, the Bellingraths were able to pay off their indebtedness within a few years and purchase the Mobile franchise. Walter D. Bellingrath assumed ownership of the Mobile operation. William A. Bellingrath remained in Montgomery where he devoted the rest of his life to the development of his business and the community.

Will Bellingrath became known as a pioneer in the Coca-Cola bottling industry be­cause of his farsightedness. He was among the first to use automobile trucks and to make store deliveries. He installed the first modern machinery in a bottling plant in the South. By 1926, he had made his bottling plant into a modern model plant. Always active in the Coca-Cola Bottlers’ Associa­tion, he served as its president in 1916.

Though he devoted much of his effort to the Coca-Cola business which first brought him real success, he extended his activities in the business world to many other businesses and industries which meant much to the de­velopment of his home city and the state.

This student of men and affairs, who lacked complete schooling in his early days, had a peculiar faculty of using his store of personally acquired knowledge to the fullest extent, not only for himself but also for others. He became known as a man who could be relied on for sound counsel and advice. His unerr­ing honesty, calm judgment, and far-sighted vision brought him to elected leadership in civic affairs.

For many years, he served as a director of the Montgomery Chamber of Commerce, and at the time of his death, was the only Montgornerian to have served four terms as presi­dent of this organization. Under his leader­ship, the Chamber was able to help implement the establishment of the tactical school at Max­well Field; to encourage the development of dairy and poultry production and of meat and processing plants; to facilitate the establishment of Kilby Prison and of manufacturing plants.

According to a close friend, Will Bellingrath rarely took credit for his achievements. But “the smokestacks of Montgomery, improved agricultural conditions of Central Alabama, growth of financial institutions in Mont­gomery, the development of better markets in Central Alabama, and many other pieces of evidence of progress (were) but measures of the activity and intelligent efforts of a splendid, forthright citizen who, though a civic leader, was always willing to give credit to others for achieve­ments that were largely results of his endeavors.”

William Bellingrath was also a quiet philan­thropist. He was generous to institutions and to local charities, but his individual charity ex­tended beyond the knowledge of even his inti­mate friends. On record are his and his wife’s (nee Mary Nesbitt Elmore of Montgomery, whom he married in 1906) contributions to Huntingdon College of Montgomery where a building bears the name Bellingrath Hall. A deacon and elder in the Presbyterian Church, he gave generously of his time and means to the church and to the Presbyterian Horne for Orphans at Talladega. He was a contributor to and a trustee of Agnes Scott College in Atlanta. But he also gave much to young people seeking an education – gifts which were heard of only when the recipients or his friends spoke of them.

At the time of his death on March 11, 1937, William A. Bellingrath was described as the “First Citizen of Montgomery … ” “a deacon and elder of the Presbyterian Church … who walked daily in the faith of a living God … ” a man who “walked unafraid through a long and useful life.”

And sixteen years after his death when the Montgomery Coca-Cola Bottling Company celebrated its 50th anniversary, The Alabama Journal ran a special article about Will Bellingrath’s contributions to the economic, religious, cultural, and social life of the city. The article quoted the obituary from the March 12, 1937, Montgomery Advertiser:

“The city and county knew him as a leader in the field of industry and business, also a philanthropist and a Christian gentleman, always kind and considerate of his fellow man. Mr. Bellingrath’s altruism and generosity ex­tended to charitable organizations, his church, to worthy individuals, and to the development of the community.”

William Bellingrath is survived by three daughters, Mrs. Elmore Bellingrath Bartlett (Dr. Haywood), Mrs. Jean Bellingrath Lane (McMillan), and Mrs. Suzanne Bellingrath von Gal (George, Jr.).

In addition to his daughters, he is survived by ten grandchildren and 27 great-grandchildren. (The primary source of this biographical in­formation was an article in The Montgomery Advertiser, by Jesse B. Hearn, long-time asso­ciate of William A. Bellingrath, as reprinted in the Coca-Cola Bottler, in April 1937.)