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.
