Leroy McAbee, Sr.

• October 5th, 2021

Leroy McAbee, a native of Henagar, Alabama, is the oldest son of Homer Roy and Sarah Mae McAbee.

He attended school in Sylvania, where he graduated in 1949. After graduation, he served with the Army Combat Engineers in Korea from 1950 to 1952. After his discharge, he worked on various construction projects across the country,  and eventually enrolled at The University of Alabama.

A year later he founded McAbee and Company, which began as a small mechanical contractor and engineering company. The company was incorporated in 1972 as McAbee Construction, Inc. Under McAbee’s leadership and with a team of dedicated employees, it has become one of the largest heavy industrial contractors in the Southeast. The company works in all types of manufacturing facilities performing piping, mechanical work, equipment erection, steel erection, concrete work, and other related jobs. McAbee’s firm has done construction work in all Southeastern states, various Midwestern states, and in New York and Washington. Industrial customers include those in power generation, chemical processes, pulp and paper, automotive, and many other manufacturing industries. Many clients are from the Fortune 500.

McAbee’s Fabrication Division, also located in Tuscaloosa, was formed as a small shop to service the construction division. It has grown into one of the largest fabrication shops in the Southeast, with more than 120,000 square feet of space, and has shipped its fabrication work into 35 states and 17 foreign countries. McAbee is certified by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and The National Board of Boiler and Pressure Vessel Inspectors. Each organization closely scrutinizes companies authorized to fabricate and install pressure piping and pressure vessels and to repair boilers both in the field and in the shop.

Some of the company’s work involves both construction and fabrication and one project was most interesting. In 1966, when the United States and Russian governments had a joint project converting Intercontinental Ballistic Missile fuels into useful component chemicals, McAbee was called onto build three to his sister Doris, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1962. modular units, each of which could process 3,000 metric tons of ICBM fuel annually. An additional challenge was that the units had to be shipped to Siberia by rail through undersized tunnels. McAbee and his engineers and fabricators got busy in Tuscaloosa, built the units, disassembled them, shipped them to Utah for testing, brought them back to Tuscaloosa, and shipped them to Russia. McAbee personnel later supervised the erection in Siberia.

During the mid-70s and 80s, the company was heavily involved in the installation of turbine generators in power plants. McAbee himself designed, engineered, and built a one-of-a-kind oil flushing system for the new turbines, a creation that saved enormous man-hours.

McAbee has been instrumental in promoting good working relationships between labor and management. He has represented both sides during labor negotiations to obtain better training programs, better employee benefits, quality workmanship from the craftsmen and to initiate other programs that promote a good union/management relationship. In addition, he helped organize and served as president of the Tuscaloosa Joint Apprentice Committee of the Plumbers and Steamfitters, an organization for training young people to become journeymen in the welding, pipefitting, heating, and air conditioning industry. McAbee formed his company based on these principles:

Safety is first.

Quality of work is second.

A fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay is third. Those principles were recognized in 1983 when McAbee Construction’s high standard of employment practices was awarded a certificate from the National Society of Professional Engineers.

McAbee acknowledges that his success and the guiding force in his life is his wife, Ruth. He has been married to the former Babe Ruth Barger, secretary/treasurer of the organization, for nearly 40 years. The couple lives in Tuscaloosa and has a son, two daughters, and six grandchildren. He also credits his brother Harold, superintendents, craftsmen, managers, engineers, and administrative personnel for his company’s success.

McAbee works closely with many organizations to promote West Alabama and bring industry and new business to the area. He was a member of the Select Committee to Study Public Education in Tuscaloosa charged with considering all aspects of public education in Tuscaloosa City and County School Systems and making recommendations for improvements.

He currently serves on the University of Alabama’s President’s Cabinet; the UA Capstone Engineering Society; the Board of Visitors of the Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration; the UA Alumni Association; is a National Council Representative, Black Warrior Council, Boy Scouts of America; Board of Directors, Park and Recreation Authority; Board of Directors, United Way of Tuscaloosa County; Board of Directors, DCH Foundation; National Society of Professional Engineers; Alabama Society of Professional Engineers; Advisory Board, Liberty Mutual Insurance Company; and Valley Head Chapter, Alabama Masonic Lodge.

He established the McAbee Foundation for the purpose of sponsoring scholarships for qualified students to attend the University of Alabama Engineering School.

He recently served as Chairman of the Public Library Oversight Committee which was created to develop a plan for facility improvement, repair, and expansion that would upgrade the current library to meet the same level as other libraries of its size and service responsibility. The committee findings were presented to the library funding agencies which resulted in the modernization program now in progress.

He was recognized as “Volunteer of the Year” in 1981 by the Park and Recreation Authority and was honored with the “Patron of the Arts” award in 1984 for his strong support of the Tuscaloosa Arts Council.

In 1986, he was named “Citizen of the Year” in Tuscaloosa.

He was selected as a “Distinguished Engineering Fellow” by UA College of Engineering in 1988, an honor bestowed upon individuals for the recognition they have brought to the University through their accomplishments and support. In February of 2003, he was inducted into the State of Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame for significant contributions to the advancement of engineering and technology and inspiring others to pursue challenging careers in all engineering fields.

In January of 1989, he was given the “Silver Beaver” award for his volunteer support to the Boy Scouts of America which is the highest volunteer honor awarded by this organization, and in 1992, the Black Warrior Council of the Boy Scouts of America named its new headquarters the Leroy McAbee Scout Service Center in his honor.

In May of 1991, he was presented the “Liberty Bell Award” by the Tuscaloosa County Bar Association for his promotion of a better understanding of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and a better appreciation of the Rules of Law.

In July of 1998, the Park and Recreation Authority recognized his service to the local community by naming the recreation center located at the Veteran’s Hospital the Leroy McAbee Sr. Activity Center.

He was honored by the Alexis de Tocqueville Society for his contributions to the United, Way in January 2001.

In April of 2002, he was one of seven honorees inducted into the Tuscaloosa County Civic Hall of Fame.

Pettus Randall, III

• October 5th, 2021

The cornerstone of Randall Publishing is a recognition program for scholars, Who’s  Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges. But the publishing company founded in 1934 by H. Pettus Randall, Jr., is now one of the nation’s largest privately held trade magazine publishing enterprises, with more than 35 magazines, directories, periodicals, and Web sites and more than 500 employees. In 2000, Folio, the leading magazine for the publishing industry, ranked Randall Publishing as the sixth fastest-growing and the 22nd largest publishing company in the nation. Much of that growth came during the 27 years that Pettus H. Randall, III, who died of pancreatic cancer on September 7, 2002, was at the helm.

As the country struggled to pull itself out of the Great Depression, Henry Pettus Randall, Jr. was excelling in his undergraduate studies at The University of Alabama, attracting the attention of numerous honor societies. However, initiation fees and membership dues prevented him from joining the organizations that courted him. He vowed to never again let financial restrictions stand in the way of students being honored for academic achievement.

Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges is the product of his resolve. Along with Who’s Who Among Students in American Junior Colleges, which was added in 1969, the Who’s Who books have become one of the most prestigious award programs in academia and are now in place at more than 2,000 universities, colleges, and junior colleges in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Following the visionary tradition of Henry Pettus Randall, Jr., Pettus Randall III took the Who’s Who program to the next level by founding the Award Company of America. The Award Company of America distributes the centerpieces of any awards program: plaques, trophies, ribbons, specialized cards, and other promotional and ad specialty items. The division prospered, with gross revenue exceeding more than $4 million by1984. After the death of his father in 197 6, Pettus assumed control of the company and merged Randall Publishing Company and the Award Company of America.

The company entered the magazine publishing world. Randall strategically chose magazines covering industries at the heart of our economy: trucking, construction, and industrial.

In 1986, Randall acquired Overdrive magazine, the oldest and most respected magazine for independent truckers. Based on its success with Overdrive, Randall expanded its presence within the trucking industry, adding Truckers News, the industry-leading news and lifestyle publication; CCJ, which offers business solutions for fleet owners and managers, and eTrucker.com, the most comprehensive source for trucking information and services on the Internet. Today, Randall’s Trucking Media Group also produces nationally broadcast radio programs, numerous seminars, and other special events, as well as a major trade show, the Great American Trucking Show.

In 1987, Randall decided to take on the construction industry. The company created and introduced TOP BID, now known as the “bible” of off-highway and equipment auctions.

That was followed by the launch of Equipment World magazine, the leading construction-equipment publication in both circulation and influence. Published monthly, Equipment World serves the business and fleet management needs of more than 87,000 contractors throughout North America. The Construction Media Group also conducts targeted research on equipment trends, forecasts, and reader opinions and produces equipment world.com, a Web site featuring news, service, equipment information, and business tools for contractors, dealers, and manufacturers worldwide.

In 1999, Randall turned its publishing skills to another highly active part of the nation’s economy: the industrial world. The Industrial Media Group was born through the acquisition of Modem Woodworking, a leading magazine for woodworking technicians. The same year, Randall bought Pumps & Systems magazine; its trade show, PumpUsers Expo; and its website, pump-zone.com, all concentrating on users and manufacturers of industrial pumps.

Remaining true to its commitment to provide its customers world-class service and world-class products, Randall developed Northbrook Publishing in 1996. Located in New Berlin, Wis., Northbrook specializes in the creation and production of corporate magazines. It serves several Fortune 500 companies, many of which advertise in Randall’s publications.

Caterpillar, Sherwin-Williams, Peterbilt, and Ken worth are just a few of the companies that take advantage of Northbrook’s publishing expertise. Equipment Data Associates, acquired in 1998, is the premier national supplier of UCC-based marketing services. EDA provides semimonthly leads, mailing lists, market-share statistics, and equipment-population estimates to the construction equipment, machine tool, farm equipment, lift truck, on-highway truck/trailer, printing, and woodworking industries. EDA works closely with Randall’s research group, providing circulation feed and supplying customers with the latest buying trends in their target audience and/or for their specific product.

Pettus Randall III earned his bachelor’s degree in history and English in 1997 and his J.D. degree from the UA School of Law in 1971. He also attended the New York University Graduate School of Business. Randall and his widow, Dr. Cathy Randall, have long been involved in support of education. Cathy Randall has served as director of the Computer-Based Honors Program at UA and also directed the University Honors Program. She now serves as chairman of the company. Daughter Jaynie is a graduate of Princeton University and the Harvard Graduate School of Business who attends Yale Law School; Kate is a Vanderbilt graduate who earned a master’s degree as a Rotary International Scholar at the University of Cambridge, England; and Pettus IV is the student body president at Princeton.

Randall was a member of dozens of civic. fraternal and religious organizations, including the Tuscaloosa Jaycees, Kiwanis Club of Greater Tuscaloosa, the American Legion, Alumni Association, board of directors of the Tuscaloosa Association of Retarded Children.

Greater Tuscaloosa Chamber of Commerce. Tuscaloosa Arts and Humanities Council, Christian Businessmen’s Club, Tuscaloosa Mental Health Association, the Elks, Masons and Shrine, and the Boys Club of Tuscaloosa.

He was an active member of Christ Episcopal Church.

He served as a delegate to the Democratic Convention in 1968 and was a member of the Alabama Democratic Executive Committee.

Staying true to its mission, goals, and beliefs, Randall Publishing Co. continues to grow in both profits and product offerings. The same entrepreneurial spirit that led one man to found Randall Publishing Co. continues to drive the company today.

James B. Boone, Jr.

• October 5th, 2021

James B. Boone, Jr., grew up in Tuscaloosa during interesting and tumultuous times, both in the newspaper business and in the civic life of the South. His father, Buford Boone, the courageous publisher of The Tuscaloosa News and winner of a Pulitzer Prize for distinguished editorial writing, made impassioned pleas for justice and reason during the first attempt to integrate The University of Alabama.

As chairman of the board, and majority stockholder of Boone Newspapers, Inc., James B. Boone, Jr.’s company owns and manages newspapers and shopping guides in 35 communities in Alabama, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia. He has adhered to values set down by his father. His newspapers are recognized as among the best edited and managed in the industry.

Born in Macon, Georgia, to Buford and Frances Herin Boone, Boone got his early education in Tuscaloosa and attended The University of Alabama’s school of commerce and business administration, graduating in 1958. His newspaper training began early, as he worked at the Tuscaloosa News while a high school and college student.

On graduation from UA, Boone was employed and guided by the legendary Carmage Walls, a leading newspaper group publisher of his era and a long-time friend and associate of Boone’s father. With Walls, he served at newspapers in Georgia, Texas, and Virginia, including seven years as editor and publisher of The Suffolk (Virginia) News-Herald.

Boone returned to Tuscaloosa in 1968, succeeding his father and purchasing controlling interest from his parents in Tuscaloosa Newspapers Inc., publisher of The Tuscaloosa News under lease from Public Welfare Foundation. He began acquiring newspapers in 1970. He cancelled the Tuscaloosa News lease in 1981 and the foundation sold The News several years later to its present owner, the New York Times Company.

“We seek to produce the highest-quality product that the economics of the community served can support,” Boone has said. “And then, by ingenuity and imagination, we strive for a higher quality in an effort to serve and build that community.”

Included are numerous newspaper organizations. He is past president of Tuscaloosa organizations like the Chamber of Commerce, the DCH Regional Medical Center Foundation, the Tuscaloosa Academy Board of Trustees, the United Way, the YMCA, the Park and Recreation Authority Board and the Journalism Foundation of the Alabama Press Association. Boone served two communities as United Way drive chairman and served on the Vestry of Christ Episcopal Church.

He retired this year from the board of Regions Financial Corporation, where he was chairman of the corporate governance committee, and he is a member of the board of directors of Regions Bank – Tuscaloosa, and also serves on the board of directors of Randall Publishing Company.

He has won a number of awards, including the Julia and Henry Tutwiler award from UA, where he also has been inducted into the Communications Hall of Fame. The West Alabama Chamber of Commerce has inducted him into the Civic Hall of Fame and he was awarded the Casey Award from the University of Minnesota for newspaper industry leadership.

The assistance he has provided UA is without parallel. He serves on the President’s Cabinet and the National Advisory Board and was a member of the steering committee for the Campaign for Alabama. He is a member of the Board of Visitors for both the College of Communication and Information Sciences and the Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration. Funding full-tuition scholarships for deserving college students has been a prime interest for him, and he has provided a number each year for the last 25 years. In recognition of his wise counsel and unstinting service, The University of Alabama presented him with the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters.

Boone’s business philosophy is as principled as it is simple. He writes: “Our aim, when our product is compared to another’s in a comparable market, is to be judged superior. The communities we serve deserve no less, and doing so is vital to the future of that community and our company.”

He recently was honored by the Alabama Press Association with a Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes outstanding service and accomplishments spanning a career in journalism in Alabama. Boone is married to Carolyn Farrior Boone. He has two sons, Kenneth S. Boone and J. Buford Boone III, and three daughters, Martha B. Cobbold, Caroline F. Boone and Catherine G. Boone.

Col. W. Tandy Barrett

• October 4th, 2021

Some people are born leaders. Col. William Tandy Barrett was one of those. He was a military leader, a leader in the laundry business, and a civic leader.

Barrett was born in Russellville, Alabama, in 1901 and moved to Tuscaloosa in 1915. During his high school years, he was an all-around athlete and as a senior, he was captain of the football team. He graduated from Tuscaloosa High School in 1919 and entered The University of Alabama to study business management.

He worked his way through college, graduating in I 924. Many years later he said, “Nobody knew me or saw me much. I held two jobs. I ran to work and I ran to class. I had to work for a living, and I found out then I could do it.” He often singled out Dean Lee Bidgood and Dr. H. H. Chapman, professor of business statistics, as men who made a difference in his life. In gratitude, he later established the Colonel W. Tandy Barrett Scholarship in the College of Commerce and Business Administration.

Colonel Barrett enlisted in the Alabama National Guard in 1923 at the age of 23. He received his commission in 1924 while training as a cadet in The University of Alabama ROTC program and advanced to the grade of captain by 1929, when he assumed command of Company D. He commanded the company for over 11 years, including its call to active duty in 1940. He was then assigned to the staff of the 3rd Battalion, 167th Infantry, in 1941; was selected as part of the cadre for the formation of the 84th Infantry Division in 1942, and then became commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 333rd Infantry Regiment. He was involved in the unit’s training and led it into action in Normandy and into the German heartland, where his battalion engaged the enemy from October 1944 to January

1945 including the Battle of the Bulge. Upon his return to Tuscaloosa, he rejoined the Alabama National Guard as executive officer of the !6th Infantry regiment. In 1950 he was promoted to colonel and transferred to the U.S. Army Reserve where he was assigned to the command and general staff college program from which he retired in 1960. In 1965, Colonel Barrett was presented the Gold Medal of Merit by the Veterans of Foreign Wars. In 1983, Colonel Barrett was presented the Alabama Distinguished Service Medal, the highest honor the State Military Department awards.

Before World War II, Barrett worked for Perry Creamery. In 1946, upon his return to Tuscaloosa, he and his good friend Ernest “Rainy” Collins converted the Northington General Hospital laundry into a commercial operation. The business grew into West Alabama’s largest laundry with eight outlets in Tuscaloosa and Northport. He was dedicated to his profession and served as a board member of the American Institute of Laundering, president of the Alabama Institute of Laundry and Dry Cleaning, and vice president of the Southern Laundry Association. He was a director of the Tuscaloosa Chamber of Commerce and president for two terms. He received the rare honor of being named the chamber’s Member of the Year in two consecutive years, 1977 and 1978. Colonel Barrett was chairman of the Tuscaloosa County Industrial Development Authority from 1974 to 1978 and also served as president of the Industrial Development Board of the city of Tuscaloosa. He was a member of the Tuscaloosa Housing Authority Board. He was past president of the Tuscaloosa Exchange Club, director emeritus of City National Bank of Tuscaloosa, and director of Central Bank of Tuscaloosa. He was a Mason, a Shriner, and a member of First Presbyterian Church. Barrett also served on the boards of various clubs and philanthropic organizations.

In addition to his civic activities, Colonel Barrett was an avid sportsman and served as secretary/treasurer of the Dollarhide Hunting and Fishing Club for 40 years. Colonel Barrett, who was married to the former Mattie Winn Nicholson of Centreville, passed away in 1992 at age 91.

Fred Hahn

• October 4th, 2021

When Fred Hahn was growing up, he was known to have a pretty good fastball, a talent he parlayed into pocket money in semipro baseball until he threw his arm out by pitching three games in three days.

So Hahn turned his attention to business, and in so doing over the years created, expanded, and sold multiple companies throughout the Southeast, building a far-flung business empire that stretches from the Gulf Coast to central Kentucky.

Now, at age 80, Hahn focuses much of his time on First Baptist Church of Tuscaloosa, where he serves as deacon; the Helen Hahn Hospice House, named for his wife, and the Hahn-da-rosa, a sprawling, 1000-acre spread in Hale Country that has been recognized as a TREASURE Forest Award winner for southwest Alabama.

And like many successful businessmen, Hahn insists that most of the credit for his business success goes to his faith, his wife, his family, and friends.

“All the children and my wife have been very instrumental in the growth of the company,” Hahn said.

Hahn attended Mississippi College in Clinton and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1952. He spent his first 10 years after college working in sales and public relations with the Illinois Central Railroad.

Hahn then settled in Tuscaloosa in 1963 and started a small trucking company named Service Express, Inc. Hahn’s emphasis on the family’s involvement began there where his wife worked alongside him.

Always one to take advantage of an opportunity, in 1968, Hahn formed Tuscaloosa Warehouse, Inc. and followed that by taking over Indec, a waste handling company, in the early 1970s. His foresight, creativity, and concern for the environment helped him establish and reorganize several different types of waste disposal facilities for both hazardous and solid waste. About that same time, in 1970, Hahn became an agent for United Van Lines in Tuscaloosa and Birmingham and sold that company in 1977.

In 1979, he sold Indec to Waste Management, Inc., the leading firm in the field, and Hahn and sons Philip and Gregory formed Seapac, Inc. in Mobile. Seapac packages, re-packages, warehouses and distributes large shipments of chemicals overseas. The company includes a paper converting division. Philip Hahn developed and manages the packaging plants, and Gregg Hahn developed and manages the paper converting plants.

Throughout the 1990s, Seapac opened divisions in Baytown, Texas, Atlanta, Bastrop, La., Eddyville, Ky., and St. Mary’s, Ga.

With his sons operating and expanding Seapac, Hahn turned his efforts to Tuscaloosa Warehouse and Industrial Warehouse Services Trucking Company.

In 2005, Hahn’s companies employed about 450 people and today employ nearly 350.

Mississippi College, a Baptist University, has had a guiding influence on Hahn, and his alma mater and his church have a special place in his heart. “My church work and my faith are very strong with me,” Hahn said.

He is a member of the board of trustees at Mississippi College where he has been active on the university’s financial committee, a member of the DCH Foundation Board, and the Hospice of West Alabama. He is a member of the United Way’s Alexis de Tocqueville Society.

Hahn believes very strongly in the mission of Hospice and helped raise money for the facility named after his wife, a decision his sons and daughter made to honor their mother.

“He cares deeply about others and is always there to give of himself and his resources to those in need,” said Leroy McAbee, a Tuscaloosa businessman who nominated Hahn for the Alabama Business Hall of Fame.

Hahn has also been a member and officer of the Birmingham Traffic and Transportation Club, West Alabama Traffic and Transportation Club, Toastmasters Club, Alabama Industrial Association, The Boys Club of West Alabama, Boy Scouts of America, the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama, the Industrial Development Authority, the Business Council of Alabama, and the Tuscaloosa Country Club.

J. Barry Mason

• September 28th, 2021

Dr. J. Barry Mason, born in Memphis and raised in Louisiana, was the seventh dean of The University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration. His campus experience spanned more than 40 years, 22 of those as dean. In addition, he served as interim president of the University for a brief period. And he has played a major role in moving the state’s economy forward through his work in preventing the closure of the Rochester Carburetor plant and setting the foundation for the state’s thriving automobile manufacturing industry.

Dr. Mason earned his bachelor’s degree from Louisiana Tech University in 1963, He moved to The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, where he earned his master’s degree in 1964 and his Ph.D. 1967. His national recognition for scholarly achievement began in 197 6 when he was recognized as a Beta Gamma Scholar in the national competition. In 1980 he was recognized as one of l O outstanding scholars on campus. He received the Academy of Marketing Science Outstanding Educator of the Year and was designated a Distinguished Fellow for his contributions to marketing. He has been recognized as one of the top 100 marketing scholars in the past 20 years and is a fellow of the Southwestern Marketing Association and the Southern Marketing Association. He was president of both associations as well as the National Marketing Association.

Dr. Mason is the senior author of eight college textbooks, numerous monographs, and is the co-author of over l00 scholarly articles.

He was awarded the John E. Burnum Distinguished Faculty Award for research, scholarship, and a profound dedication to the art of teaching. He also is a past winner of the Alabama National Alumni Association Outstanding Commitment to Teaching Award and recipient of the Western Electric (AT&T) Foundation Award, given annually by the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business for the nation’s best undergraduate innovation in business education and is also a recipient of the Leavey Award for Excellence in Private Enterprise Education, Freedom’s Foundation of Valley Forge, for “outstanding efforts to help young people better understand the function and benefits of private enterprise and free-market economics.”

His recognition by the University includes the Minnie C. Miles Endowed Excellence Award, the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award to recognize “the practical application of noble ideals based on excellence on character and service to humanity,” the E. Roger Sayers Award “in recognition of outstanding performance and dedication above and beyond normal duties,” and the Amelia Gayle Watson Distinctive Image Award “epitomizing a person of profound stature.”

He was recognized by the American Marketing Association for his efforts in turning around the 40,000 member national Association at a time it teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. He was also the recipient of the Wayne Lemberg Award in 1999 for “significant, sustained contributions to the American Marketing Association.”

Dr. Mason has been active in the Black Warrior Council of the Boy Scouts of America and is a past President of the West Alabama Chamber of Commerce. He was on the Board of Directors of the DCH Regional Healthcare Authority from 1986 to 2007 and served as Chairman of the Board of the Healthcare Authority for eight years. He serves on the DCH Healthcare Foundation Board of Directors and is a past Fellow. He also is Past President of Challenge 21, a local community initiative established to enhance a program of deliberative dialogue on issues crucial to the future of the Tuscaloosa County area, is past President of Junior Achievement, and a past member of the Board of the Jack Warner Foundation.

In 2006 he was selected as an inductee into the West Alabama Civic Hall of Fame and recognized as a Pillar of West Alabama by the West Alabama Community Foundation for sustained contributions to the betterment of the West Alabama area. In 2008 Dr. Mason was selected as the Tuscaloosa County Citizen of the Year by the Civitan Club.

He has been a member of the board of directors at Peoples Bank of Tuscaloosa, First National Bank of Amsouth Bank, Tuscaloosa, and Books-a-Million. Mason and his wife Linda have a daughter, Michele, and a son Michael (deceased).

Paul W. Bryant, Jr.

• September 28th, 2021

Paul W. Bryant, Jr. is the son of the late Paul W. Bryant and Mary Harmon Black Bryant. He was born in Birmingham while his father served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He spent his youth in Lexington, Kentucky; College Station, Texas; and Tuscaloosa, Alabama – the towns where his father coached. He earned his degree in finance from The University of Alabama in 1966. Selected for Beta Gamma Sigma, he received the Financial Executives Institute of America Award for the outstanding student in commerce and business administration as well as the Alabama Bankers Association Award for the outstanding student in banking and finance. He also was elected president of C&BA students.

Bryant established two dozen operating companies and over 50 real estate ventures and syndicates. Currently, Bryant is president of the privately held holding company, Greene Group, Inc. which has operated a multi-state business engaged in reinsurance, finance, leasing, par-mutual racing, casino management, cattle ranching, aquaculture, catfish processing and distribution, fuel distribution, outdoor recreation, wildlife management, and concrete/aggregate construction.

In 2005, Bryant founded Bryant Bank. From its body of 6.500 member banks, the American Bankers Association presented its Revitalizing Youth Community Award for outstanding community service efforts to Bryant Bank in 2012. Over 10 years, Bryant Bank has grown to over $1.5 billion in assets, becoming the largest family-owned bank in the state of Alabama.

Although Bryant never served in the military, he is a lifelong scholar of American military history and active in battlefield preservation. He is a founder of the Civil War Trust in Washington D.C. and personally underwrote the merger with the Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites that created the modern Civil War Trust. Acknowledged by the National Park Service and leading conservationists as the foremost American heritage land preservation organization, the Civil War Trust is known to be the largest and most effective non-profit devoted to the preservation of America’s battlegrounds. Bryant is Chairman Emeritus and the longest-serving member of the organization’s Board of Trustees. The trust has over 50,000 members and more than 250,000 supporters throughout the country. Collectively, it saved 41,000 acres of battlefield land in over 120 states during Bryant’s board tenure.

He established the General J.C.C. Sanders Memorial at The University of Alabama honoring alumni who served the Confederacy. He has also commissioned two books by Delbert Teed honoring Alabama alumni who served in World War II: When Winning Was Everything: Alabama Football Players in World War II and All of Us Fought the War.

For his philanthropic efforts, Bryant became the inaugural recipient of the Racing Commissioners Humanitarian of the Year Award by the organization of State and Canadian Racing Regulatory Commissions.

Mr. Bryant was Chairman of the Crimson Tide Tradition Fund, the organization that preceded the Crimson Tide Foundation. Thereafter, he has been chairman of the Crimson Tide Foundation since its inception.

From 2000 to 2015, he was a member of the Board of Trustees of The University of Alabama System. During these years, he served three successive terms as President Pro Tempore. Throughout his time on the board, he was a member of the Physical Properties Committee including nine years as chairman, during which more than 360 physical properties projects were completed with a total value exceeding $2 billion. In addition, he chaired the committee that hired Dr. Robert Witt, past President of The University of Alabama and retired Chancellor of The University of Alabama System.

Bryant has been married for 50 years to UA classmate Cherry Handley Hicks Bryant. They have three daughters: Stella Gray Bryant Sykes, Mae Martin Bryant Murray, and Anna Laurie Bryant McKibbens, all graduates of The University of Alabama, and three grandchildren.

Beverly Phifer

• September 28th, 2021

Beverly Clarkson Phifer is the chief executive officer of Phifer Incorporated, a family-owned business founded in Tuscaloosa in 1952 by her father, Reese Phifer. Phifer Incorporated is an industry leader in the manufacture of wire and highly advanced synthetic fabrics used in insect screens, solar control fabrics, drawn wire, engineered products, and designed fabrics industries. Under Phifer’s leadership, the world’s largest producer of aluminum and fiberglass insect screening has capitalized on its wire drawing and textile weaving expertise.

Phifer has led the privately held company through many expansions. The scope of Phifer Incorporated has expanded from the original product – aluminum insect screening – into a multitude of wire, fiberglass, and specialty textile fabrics. Some of the precision woven products manufactured by Phifer Incorporated are actually called “Technical Textiles.”

The company’s primary manufacturing and corporate offices are located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Additional warehouse, production or subsidiary operations are in Fayette, Alabama, California, Italy, India, and Asia. Phifer Incorporated exports all products worldwide and has a full international sales and traffic staff.

Phifer Incorporated has been at the forefront of environmental stewardship and is a leader in the manufacture and sale of energy-saving sun control fabrics for both the residential and commercial markets. The company has no less than 20 branded products that offer a broad range of options to reduce solar heat gain, preserve interior surfaces and materials, improve the quality of home and work environments and protect natural resources by conserving energy. Phifer Incorporated has also introduced lines of sun control fabrics and designed fabrics for outdoor furniture that are 100 percent recyclable.

In 2002, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management nominated Phifer Incorporated for the Governor’s Conservation Achievement Award, and the Alabama Wildlife Federation selected the company as the Air Conservationist of the Year. Phifer Incorporated was the first manufacturer in the industry to achieve GREENGUARD  certification.

Phifer Incorporated employs approximately 1,200 people in Tuscaloosa. When jobs and business were being lost in the outdoor furniture and fabric industry due to a large part of the customer base moving their plants to China, Phifer made the decision for the company to manufacture a raw material in China and ship this raw material to Phifer Incorporated in Tuscaloosa. This gave the Tuscaloosa plant a competitive advantage and resulted in the continued growth and hiring at the Tuscaloosa plant.

Phifer’s interests include numerous worthy causes, such as the West Alabama Food Bank, the Salvation Army,

Temporary Emergency Services, the Soup Bowls, the Good Samaritan Clinic, the Red Cross, the West Alabama Promise Neighborhood, and Christ Episcopal Church’s Lazarus Ministry.

Phifer is a member of The University of Alabama President’s Cabinet, the Museum Board of Regents, the Denny Society, the Women of the Capstone, and the Board of Visitors for the Culverhouse College of Commerce.

Phifer has recently married Frank Wingard and they both continue to work in their respective family businesses and make their home in Tuscaloosa.

Robert Witt

• September 28th, 2021

Robert E. Witt recently retired as Chancellor of The University of Alabama System, a position he held since 2012. Before becoming chancellor, Dr. Witt led The University of Alabama through a nine-year period of growth that included a dramatic increase in student enrollment, an upward surge in student quality, and a building construction program that changed the face of the campus and its surroundings.

Witt holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from Bates College, an MBA from Dartmouth, and a Ph.D. in business administration from Penn State.

The Connecticut native came to The University of Alabama in 2003 following an eight-year tenure at the University of Texas-Arlington where he was responsible for a dramatic turnaround. Witt joined the business school faculty at the University of Texas, Austin in 1968 and rose through the ranks as chair and associate dean. He was named the Zale Corporation Centennial Progressor in Business in 1983. Two years later, he was named to the Mortimer Centennial Professorship in Business and that year became acting dean of business. In 1985, he was named dean, a position he would hold for nine years at a business school ranked by the Wall Street Journal as one of the top seven schools of business in the world.

In 1995, Witt went to UT-Arlington as interim president and was named permanent president in 1996.

As chancellor of The University of Alabama System, Witt was responsible for The University of Alabama, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, and The University of Alabama in Huntsville, as well as the UAB Health System. Collectively, the UA System has an economic impact of over $8 billion annually on the state of Alabama

Witt’s civic work has been equally impressive and significant. He served as chairman of the Council of Presidents of Alabama’s colleges and universities and was a member of the Governor’s College and Career Ready Task Force.

He is a member of the Alexis de Toqueville Executive Committee and is chairman of the United Way of Tuscaloosa 2016 Campaign.

He is a past chairman of the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama, a member of the Tuscaloosa County Industrial Development Board, and the Black Warrior Council of the Boy Scouts of America.

Witt has also been lauded for recognizing the role athletics can play in bringing visibility and prominence to a university. Under Witt’s leadership, the University hired football coach Nick Saban who was brought six national championships to Alabama in the past 13 years.

Witt is no stranger to hall of fame inductions. In 2015, he was inducted into the Tuscaloosa County Civic Hall of Fame, following his 2011 induction into the Alabama Academy of Honor which consists of 100 living Americans elected on the service to the state. Most recently, he was inducted into the National Collegiate Wheelchair Basketball Intercollegiate Division Hall of Fame for his support of adaptive athletic programs.

Dr. Witt and his wife, Sandee Kirby Witt, have 3 children and 5 grandchildren.

Bill Battle

• September 28th, 2021

William R. “Bill” Battle is Special Assistant to the University of Alabama President. In his current role, Battle assists University of Alabama President Stuart R. Bell in a variety of initiatives that benefit both the University and the Department of Athletics. He recently completed a four-year tenure as Director of Athletics at The University of Alabama.

A native of Birmingham, Alabama, Battle attended The University of Alabama on a football scholarship and enjoyed a successful playing career as a three-year starter at end for the Crimson Tide under legendary head coach Paul “Bear” Bryant from 1960-62. Battle was a member of Bryant’s first national championship team in 1961. He was named first-team tight end and second-team defensive end on The University of Alabama All-Decade Team of the 1960s, a decade in which the Crimson Tide won three national championships.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in biology and minor in psychology from The University of Alabama in 1963 and a master’s degree in education from The University of Oklahoma in 1964.

He coached at The University of Oklahoma, while working as a graduate assistant and worked as an assistant coach for the United States Military Academy while fulfilling a military commitment. He joined The University of Tennessee as head coach at the age of 28.

After seven years as coach at Tennessee, he left to launch and lead a number of companies that have helped universities license logos, slogans, and other intellectual property. One of those companies, Circle S Industries, grew from two companies earning $12 million in annual sales to 10 companies earning $60 million annually under Battle’s leadership.

However, the call of his alma mater proved strong and Battle joined The University of Alabama in 2013 to direct athletic operations. Battle’s vision for Crimson Tide Athletics impacted the department in numerous ways over his four-year term, particularly in recruiting top student-athletes and preparing them for life after graduation, revitalizing fundraising efforts, and leading efforts to redevelop stadiums, athletic facilities, and public plazas.

During Battle’s tenure, Alabama produced three NCAA team national championships; 11 SEC team championships; 17 NCAA individual champions; 40 Academic All-Americans; and 21 NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship awardees.

A 1981 inductee into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, Battle was inducted as the first member of the charter class of the National Collegiate Licensing Association Hall of Fame in 2000. He was the recipient of the 2005 Paul W. Bryant Alumni Athlete Award at The University of Alabama and was inducted into the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers’ Association Hall of Fame in 2008.

Furthermore, he has been honored and celebrated by the National Football Foundation, National Association of Collegiate Marketing Administrators, the Sporting Goods Industry Hall of Fame, and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame.

Battle serves as chairman of the board for The Collegiate Licensing Company, which he founded in 1981, and is now led by his son Pat. He has also served as chairman, among other roles, of Licensing Partners International and Circle S Holding Company.

In May of 2017, Battle received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from The University of Alabama and an Honorary Doctor of Law from Birmingham Southern College for his enormous impact on higher education in the state and nation.

He also serves on the boards of the Bryant-Jordan Student-Athlete Foundation, The University of Alabama A-Club Educational & Charitable Foundation, the Crimson Tide Foundation, and the National Football Foundation.

He and his wife Mary serve as part of UAB’s Stem Cell Institute Board and are active in their support of UAB’s Department of Rheumatology. In addition to their oldest son Pat, they have another son, Mike, and daughters, Shannon and Kayla.