Frank H. Bromberg Jr.’s great-grandfather Frederick Bromberg, a Prussian immigrant, set sail from Germany in 1832. He was bound for the New World, and four years later he would Bromberg and Company in Mobile.
The name “Bromberg” would become synonymous with fine jewelry and become one of the oldest and most successful businesses in Alabama’s history, as well as the largest supplier of fine crystal, china, and sterling flatware in the Southeast. Bromberg’s ranks 45th on a list of the 102 oldest U.S. companies and is the second oldest retailer in the nation. Bromberg’s is even older than Birmingham, the city the company now calls home.
Born in Birmingham on November 15, 1931, the only child of Frank Bromberg, Sr. and Annie Maud Wilkinson, Frank Hardy Bromberg, Jr. was destined to one day head Bromberg and Co. But before he could take his place as head of the jewelling giant, Bromberg would have to make his own place in the family business by proving his worth to his father’s generation.
As a child, Bromberg spent many winters in Florida with his grandparents because of his health. The climate of the area was better for his breathing problem, a minor aliment Bromberg would outgrow by his mid-teens.
After graduating summa cum laude from the Capstone in the College of Commerce and Business Administration in 1954, Bromberg and his wife Leila Clayton Bromberg, moved to Bew York so that he could enter the master’s program in retailing at New York University. It was there that the couple’s first child, one of four children, was born.
Upon completion of NYU’s master’s program, Bromberg returned home to Birmingham, ready to work and get his career going. But less than a month later he was back in New York. Duty called, and Bromberg was shipped overseas so he could run the Post Exchange at Dreux Air Force Base in post-WWII recovering France. His family went with him. Two years later, they were back in Birmingham, this time to stay.
Finally back home, Bromberg began his ascent up the Bromberg and Co. chain. He began in sales in 1957 and took on the role of assistant treasurer a year later. It was also during this period that Bromberg and Co. was facing financial problems, in that it wasn’t making enough money for all three Bromberg families to make a good living. Bromberg pushed the family to open branch stores, the first in Mountain Brook in 1959. There are now five stores in the Birmingham area and Montgomery.
In 1960, Bromberg became the company’s vice-president, a position he occupied for nearly 25 years. In 1984, Bromberg became president of the company.
He has also served as president of several professional organizations, such as the Jewelers of America, the American Gem Society, the Retail Jewelers Research Group, and the Alabama Jewelers Association, and has served as director of the Jewelers Vigilance Committee.
A major reason for the longevity and success of Bromberg and Co. are the rules within the family that govern how and when a family member may enter the family business and rules that provide for how the business should be run. If a person wants into the family’s business, he/she must have a college degree, and each of the three Bromberg families is allowed only three spots to fill when the next generation comes of age.
This system, Bromberg believes, encourages hard work and prepares upcoming generations to manage the family business.
Frank Bromberg, Jr. was instrumental in the family business’s bold move to branch out and open more stores in the late 1950s. His foresight has proven invaluable to the company.
With as much as Bromberg has on his plate, he still finds time to remain involved with several civic and community organizations. He served as president of the Kiwanis Club of Birmingham from 1969-70, during which time the Birmingham club was chosen as the outstanding large club in the world by Kiwanis International.
Bromberg is also past president of the Sales and Marketing Executives of Birmingham, and like the Kiwanis Club of Birmingham during the years of his presidency, Sales and Marketing Executives International chose the Birmingham club as the outstanding club of any size worldwide, 1966-67.
Bromberg was elected vice-president of the Birmingham Area Chamber of Commerce in 1974, an organization he has been a member of since he stepped back onto American soil from France in 1957.
Bromberg’s ties to The University of Alabama are many. Three generations of Brombergs have graduated from the school, and his wife’s great-grandfather served as president from 1886-1889. Bromberg is and has served as a member of countless university organizations.
Among the more notable, Bromberg has served as president of the National Alumni Organization, 1975-76, chairman of the President’s Cabinet, 1973-75, chairman and founder of the Culverhouse Executives Society, 1976-present, a member of the Culverhouse Board of Visitors, and a member of the University’s Board of Trustees, 1983-2000.
Bromberg’s ability to anticipate the financial benefits of adding more stores is part o the reason his family’s business is around today. Bromberg’s has remained in the family for over 167 years, and it appears that is the way it will remain.
