Forbes business magazine recently reported Huntsville, Alabama, as the eighth leading location for business and careers. The responsibility for some of that lofty ranking can be attributed to W. L. “Will” Halsey Jr., chairman and treasurer of W. L. Halsey Grocery Company, Inc., of Huntsville, who has been in the grocery business most of his life and has watched as both his family business and the city of Huntsville has grown and prospered.
Halsey was born and raised in Huntsville, the son of William L. and Elizabeth Lowery Halsey. When he was 14, he won an essay contest that awarded him a scholarship to Gulf Coast Military Academy for three years, after which he attended The University of Alabama. When Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941, he finished his education and entered the Army three weeks after graduation, serving in the Engineer Amphibian Command until his discharge in 1946 at the rank of major.
Meanwhile, back at home, Huntsville was a sleepy little Southern town of about 14,000, surrounded by red dirt and cotton fields. The W.L. Halsey Grocery Company, started in 1879 by brothers William Leroy Halsey and Charles Henry Halsey, was now being run by Halsey’s father, William, and uncle, Charles. But a seed had been planted while Halsey was in the Army and Halsey had his eye on the institutional food business. In 1950 the company embarked on a path of expanding and modernizing as an institutional food service, serving hospitals, schools, nursing homes, restaurants, hotels and motels, clubs, camps, and airlines. Then, in 1955, Halsey became president and treasurer of the firm.
The transition to an institutional food service was not easy. The company was located in downtown Huntsville in a crowded, two-story building with 7,000 square feet on each floor. But the decision to change direction came at the time Huntsville was undergoing a revitalization and
an urban renewal program that required the removal of the railroad tracks that served the Halsey company and other companies in the area. With that in mind, Halsey located a 10-acre site in Madison 10 miles west and began building a 60,000-square foot warehouse and frozen food facility. In 1972, the warehouse was finished and Halsey Grocery Company moved to Madison. In 2000, this facility was expanded to 130,000 square feet which included a meat processing plant and a produce department. The Huntsville downtown building was converted to “Halsey Cash and Carry” and operates today as a branch of the Madison facility. Today, Halsey Grocery Company is bigger than ever. It serves more than 1,800 customers in five states with a full line of items.
Halsey has been very active in a number of national and local industry associations, serving as president of the Institutional Food Distributors of America, president of the Alabama Wholesale Grocer’s Association, and as a member of the board of governors of the National American Wholesale Grocers Association. He is a past vice president of the Continental Organization of Distributor Enterprises as well as the United States Wholesale Grocers Association.
Halsey Grocery Company was one of the five founders of the Continental Organization of Distributor Enterprises, a foodservice distributor marketing organization known today as EMCO. Members of the organization combined their annual volume, which allowed them to negotiate better prices and reduce costs.
He is a past director of First Alabama Bank, Huntsville, and First Alabama Bancshares, a former director of SCI Systems, Inc., and the University of Alabama at Huntsville. As Halsey Grocery Company grew over the years, so did Huntsville, home of NASA’s George C. Marshall Space Flight Center and Redstone Arsenal, the Army’s Missile Research Complex.
Through all the growth, Halsey has been a driving force in bringing new businesses and capital to the area. He was president of the Huntsville Chamber of Commerce in 1955 and chairman of the Huntsville Army Advisory Committee from 1967 to 1992. He also served on a committee set up by Werner von Braun, who pioneered the U.S. manned space flight program.
That led to the formation of the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and Halsey was part of the group that helped raise the money to start UAH. In May 1982, Halsey received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the university.
His civic work has earned him a number of honors, including his selection as Outstanding Young Man of the Year in Huntsville in 1955, and being chosen to receive the Outstanding Civilian Service Medal from the Redstone Arsenal on three separate occasions. He received the Chamber of Commerce Distinguished Award in 1989, the same year he received the American Defense Preparedness Association Distinguished Service Award. In 1990, he received the Susan B. Greene Distinguished Service Award from the North Alabama District Dietetic Association.
He is a past president of the Huntsville-Madison County Industrial Development Association, as well as the Huntsville-Madison County Chamber of Commerce. He has served as president of the Huntsville Rotary Club and the Huntsville Golf and Country Club. He is past chairman of the Huntsville city school board and served as vice-chairman of the Huntsville Industrial Development Board and as a trustee of the Huntsville Hospital Board. He is a member of the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center Advisory Committee.
He has been active in fundraising efforts on behalf of the American Red Cross, the YMCA, and the Boy Scouts of America, and chaired the fund-raising drive for Girl Scouts of America, and was a committee chairman for the Community Chest. He also was a key figure in the integration of the Huntsville schools and the water fountains and restrooms of the Madison County Courthouse, as well as in convincing nightclub owners in the city to serve black soldiers.
He is married to the former Miriam Barnes Brennan. He and his first wife, the late Jewel Fernandez, have three daughters, Cecilia, Laura, and Elizabeth. He also has two stepdaughters, Patricia Bidwell and Susan Rivis.
