TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Six outstanding business and civic leaders will be inducted into the Alabama Business Hall of Fame on Thursday, Oct. 11.
The 28th annual event, organized by The University of Alabama’s Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration, will honor businessmen Rowland C. Cobb, former chairman and president of Cobb Theatres; Gen. Edward F. Friend Jr., founding partner of the law firm of Sirote and Permutt; James A. Head Sr., founder of Head Office Products; Wallace D. Malone Jr., chairman, CEO and president of SouthTrust Corp.; Edward Stanley Robbins, founder of National Floor Products Co.; and Robert Schoenhof Weil, chairman of the board of Weil Brothers – Cotton.
Founded in 1973 by the Board of Visitors of The University of Alabama’s business school, the Alabama Business Hall of Fame honors the accomplishments of the state’s most distinguished business leaders. This year’s inductees join more than 100 past honorees that include George Washington Carver, William Albert Bellingrath, Mildred Westervelt Warner and William H. Blount.
The keynote speaker for the event will be Leo F. Mullin, chairman and chief executive officer of Delta Air Lines. Mullin will address members of the business community and friends and families of the inductees at a 7:30 p.m. black tie dinner at the Bryant Conference Center in Tuscaloosa.
Delta is the third largest U.S. airline in operating revenue and carries more passengers than any airline in the world – 120 million in the last year alone. The airline’s innovative developments in the areas of technology and e-commerce have also been widely noted, prompting Forbes to name Mullin a member of the Year 2000 “e-Gang,” along with 11 other CEOs of highly respected companies such as General Electric,
Hewlett-Packard and Cisco Systems.
BusinessWeek in September 2000 placed Delta on its list of Top 50 Web Smart Companies. Delta was named the No. 1 airline based on the annual Wichita State University Airline Quality Rating study published in April 2001.
In addition, Forbes magazine ranked Delta No. 1 in five important customer service criteria for 2000.
Prior to joining Delta on Aug. 14, 1997, Mullin served as vice chairman of Unicom Corp. and its chief subsidiary, Commonwealth Edison, from 1995 to 1997. Before Unicom, Mullin was in key management positions at First Chicago, the country’s 10th largest commercial bank, for 15 years. From 1993 to 1995, he served as president and chief operating officer of the company.
Previous to joining First Chicago in January 1981, Mullin served for five years as senior vice president for strategic planning at Consolidated Rail Corp. (Conrail) in Philadelphia. Before joining Conrail, he spent nine years with McKinsey & Co., a management consulting firm, in Washington, D.C. During his last three years with the firm, he was a partner.
Mullin serves on the corporate boards of BellSouth Corp. and Johnson & Johnson. In addition, Mr. Mullin is a board member of the Air Transport Association and past chairman of the International Air Transport Association.
Mullin received a degree in engineering and applied physics from Harvard College, a degree in applied mathematics from The Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School.
SHORT BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF INDUCTEES
Rowland Chappell Cobb Jr. (1921 – 1997)
Rowland Chappell Cobb Jr., was the founder of Cobb Theatres, which set the industry standards for movie exhibitions in the South and across much of the nation.
When Cobb Theatres was sold in 1997 to Regal Cinemas, Cobb owned 643 screens and had plans to add up to 200 more screens within the following two years.
Cobb was born in Vernon, Ala. 1921. He received a history degree from The University of Alabama in 1942, the same year he entered the Navy. After the war, Cobb returned to Fayette where his mother owned two theatres. Cobb went to work for his mother in 1946 and later bought the two theatres, forming R.C. Cobb Inc.
From 1948 to 1965, Cobb built or purchased 19 theatres, both drive-in and indoor, in small Alabama towns. In the early 1960s, Cobb began building theatres in Atlanta, Birmingham, Tuscaloosa and Huntsville. He expanded and bought the theatre interests of N.H. Waters and R.M. Kennedy in Birmingham, a total of 11 locations, which increased the Cobb chain to 27 theatres.
In 1971, the corporation built the first four-screen theatre in the U.S. In 1978, it opened the largest eight-screen facility in the nation. A decade ago, Cobb built the Sawgrass 18, which became the largest theatre east of the Rocky Mountains. And six years ago, the Hollywood 20 became the largest theatre in Florida.
In 1997, when Cobb Theatres was sold, it was the largest theatre company in the state of Florida with more than 500 screens, and the 10th largest theatre company in the United States with a total of 643 screens throughout the Southeast.
Cobb was a member of the board of stewards at Canterbury Methodist Church and Fayette Methodist Church. In Fayette, he was a member of the Rotary Club, the Exchange Club, chairman of the Industrial Board. As chairman he was instrumental in bringing several manufacturing plants to the city. In recognition, he was named Man of the Year in 1952. He also served on the Alabama Film Commission and was a past president of the National Association of Theatre Owners.
He has been a benefactor to the Fayette Boy Scouts, the Alabama Eye Foundation, and the Jimmy Hale Mission. He has used his theatres to collect tons of canned goods annually for distribution to the Red Cross and the United Way.
GENERAL EDWARD M. FRIEND JR. (1912-1995)
Gen. Edward M. Friend Jr. was a founding partner in the law firm of Sirote and Permutt, one of the state’s largest law firms.
General Friend was born in Birmingham May 1, 1912. He attended The University of Alabama where he graduated in 1933, receiving a commission as a second lieutenant in the infantry reserve. He earned his law degree at Alabama in 1935 and returned to Birmingham to practice law.
In 1941, he went on active military duty, launching an exemplary military career. In 1943 he was ordered to North Africa to participate in the invasion of Sicily with the Second Army commanded by General Omar Bradley. General Friend returned to the United States later that year, but left shortly thereafter for England to prepare for the Normandy invasion.
General Friend landed at Utah Beach on June 7, and his unit, the Seventh Corps, participated in the capture of Cherbourg, the breakthrough at St. Lo, the Battle of the Bulge and finally, the invasion of Germany where his unit met the Russians near Leipzieg.
General Friend earned a number of military decorations during the war. He received the Legion of Merit with Cluster, the Croix de Guerre with Palm, the European Campaign Ribbon with seven battle stars and the bronze arrowhead for the landing in Normandy, and the Outstanding Civilian Service Medal.
Following his World War II service, General Friend resumed his law practice. In 1945 he joined Morris Sirote, Jimmy Permutt and Karl Friedman to found Sirote and Permutt.
He was named Outstanding Alumnus at the School of Law at The University of Alabama, which, along with Birmingham-Southern College, awarded him an honorary doctor of laws degree. He was named Lawyer of the Year, served as President of the Birmingham Bar Association, and as President of The University of Alabama Law School Foundation. He founded the Legal Aid Society in Birmingham.
He served as chairman of the President’s Cabinet of The University of Alabama, and served on the boards of the Children’s Hospital, the Greater Birmingham Foundation, the Red Cross, the Birmingham Metropolitan Area Chamber of Commerce, the Lakeshore Foundation, Jewish Family Services and many other organizations.
He was honored as Birmingham’s Man of the Year in 1983, named Outstanding Civic Leader by the Fund-Raising Executives, inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor, and received the Brotherhood Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews.
Upon his death in 1995, a number of resolutions were adopted recognizing his many contributions to his community. A resolution adopted by the City Council of Birmingham recognized his outstanding generosity. A resolution by The Executive Committee and Advisory Board of the Birmingham Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America recognized his heroism.
JAMES A. HEAD SR. (1904 -)
James A. Head Sr. is founder of Head’s Office Products, a long-time Birmingham business.
Head was born in Tiffin, Ohio. His father died in 1913, and his mother, a native Southerner, took the family back to Birmingham. Head attended Barker Elementary School, and later Paul Hayne School, dropping out of high school after one year.
As a teenager, Head mowed lawns and delivered newspapers around a large section of Birmingham. He eventually found an opportunity that defined his lifetime career – he became a salesman of office systems, specifically reinforced tab folders, for Library Bureau. In 1926, Head opened his own business in downtown Birmingham.
The company added product lines, progressing to selling methods of record protection, and then to dictation machines, copiers and other equipment.
Head Office Products continued to grow and flourish, adding new products and offering new ideas. In fact, Head estimates that his company has equipped 80 percent of the libraries in Alabama. The Alabama Library Association has recognized him for his work in helping communities around the state garner local support for constructing community libraries, especially in the 1970s as libraries began to be considered essential to the community.
In 1996, “at the tender middle age of 92,” as Head puts it, he decided to retire. Head sold his company to Scholar Craft Products Inc., a Birmingham business.
He has served as president of the Birmingham Rotary Club, president of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, general chairman of the United Appeal and Red Cross, as a member of the Alabama Advisory Committee to the Civil Rights Committee, and as a member of the Samford University Board of Trustees. He has been recognized for his work with a variety of awards, including his selection as Birmingham’s “Man of the Year” in 1949. In 1988, he was honored with a dinner given by Friends of the Birmingham Public Library.
But he lists his service on the state chapter of the National Association of Christians and Jews and the battle against intolerance as “the most important thing I have ever done.” He served the association for 60 years, 20 of those as chairman emeritus.
Heads remains active with his friends from the Birmingham Rotary Club and enjoys the company of his four children, 11 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren, three of who have just graduated from college.
WALLACE D. MALONE JR. (1936- )
Wallace D. Malone Jr. is chairman and chief executive officer of SouthTrust Corp., which has grown into one of the nation’s premier financial organizations.
His family entered banking over 100 years ago in Dothan, Ala. The family bank, the First National Bank of Dothan, was chartered in 1900 by Malone’s grandfather. That same bank is one of two forerunners of SouthTrust, now a $64 billion bank holding company – the largest financial organization in the Alabama with the largest market value of any Alabama corporation.
Malone was born August 3, 1936, in Dothan, the son of Wallace D. Malone Sr. and Alice Mae Dee Malone. He graduated from high school in 1954 and enrolled at Alabama Polytechnic Institute (now Auburn University). After one year, Malone transferred to The University of Alabama where he received his bachelor’s degree in business in 1957. Upon graduation, he worked for a small bank in Enterprise, Ala., for about a year. In 1958 he left Enterprise to pursue an M.B.A. degree at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, and he earned that degree a year later. In June of 1959, he returned to Alabama and joined his father in the family bank. When his father died in 1968, Wallace D. Malone Jr. was named chairman and chief executive officer of the First National Bank of Dothan.
In 1996, The Birmingham News named Malone “CEO of the Year” and described him as “relentless, shrewd and fiercely competitive.”
The last three decades have witnessed dramatic changes in the banking industry. In 1972, the first holding company was introduced into Alabama, which Malone and a number of banks opposed. One of Malone’s allies was Guy H. Caffey Jr., president of Birmingham Trust National Bank. When the Federal Reserve Board approved the formation of holding companies in Alabama that year, Malone and Caffey decided to organize SouthTrust. By the end of 1972, SouthTrust had acquired a bank in Mobile and a bank in Huntsville. SouthTrust had less than $600 million in assets at that time. In January of 1981, Guy Caffey retired and Malone was named chairman and CEO. SouthTrust’s total assets by then were $1.8 billion.
Malone has built SouthTrust into a Fortune 500 company, with more than 680 banking offices in nine Southern states. With more than $47 billion in assets, SouthTrust is ranked among the top 20 banks in the country. The company has more than 12,500 employees, of whom a considerable number are shareholders.
A key strategy that initially set SouthTrust apart was the decision to enter only high-growth markets, in the belief that internal growth, not continuous acquisitions, was the best way to produce long-term, top-notch performance. Malone has been careful not to acquire banks that cannot match the company’s growth rate. And he has been careful not to acquire banks that dilute stockholder value. Malone has seen SouthTrust’s loan business significantly increase. In the beginning, the bank had slightly more than $200 million in total loans, of which only $40 million were commercial loans. SouthTrust now has more than $32 billion in loans, with more than $22 billion in commercial loans.
Stockholders have also done enormously well at SouthTrust. Stockholder equity in the beginning was less than $30 million, compared with $3.8 billion today. The bank’s net income was around $5 million in 1972, and it has compounded at an average rate of 19 percent per year in the 29 years since then. Today SouthTrust is earning at the rate of more than $500 million annually. Net income in 2001 will exceed the total assets of the initial organization.
Malone is a strong believer in the “SouthTrust culture” and in taking care of employees. Under his guidance, the company has developed one of the industry’s premier profit sharing plans.
Malone either serves or has served on a number of boards over the years, including Troy State University, Samford University, Baptist Health System of Birmingham, the Eye Foundation Hospital, the University of Alabama Health Services Foundation, UAB Health System, Business Council of Alabama, Alabama Healthcare Council, Economic Development Partnership of Alabama, Salvation Army Advisory Board, Public Affairs Research Council, Birmingham Area Chamber of Commerce, the Alabama-Florida Boy Scout Council, the Greater Alabama Boy Scout Council, the Federal Reserve Branch of Birmingham, and the United Way. He is a member of the Rotary Club of Birmingham, the President’s Cabinet of The University of Alabama, the Culverhouse College of Commerce Board of Visitors, the Newcomen Society of North America, the Birmingham Business Leadership Group, and the Quarterback Club of Birmingham.
EDWARD STANLEY ROBBINS (1908 -)
E. Stanley Robbins is one of the state’s most successful inventors, manufacturers and businessmen, and he has built National Floor Products into one of the largest employers in the Shoals area of North Alabama.
Robbins was born August 19, 1908, in Flomaton.
At age 3, he was stricken with polio that left his left leg paralyzed. But thanks to the efforts of his mother and six months of treatment, he managed to overcome the illness and walk. While living in Evergreen, where he graduated from high school, he lost his father in a sawmill accident, which left his mother to raise Robbins and his three siblings.
Robbins eventually moved to Ohio to take job painting a house, but he soon went to work in a plant that manufactured materials used for repairing tires. Robbins put his ingenuity to work and found a number of ways to modernize the plant. In 1930 he returned to Alabama, and bought a bankrupt manufacturing plant in Tuscumbia. Using the knowledge obtained in Dayton, he built an inner tube and tire repair facility that eventually employed more than 1,200 people. The plant was destroyed by fire in 1939, but Robbins had it rebuilt in time to supply tubes and retread rubber to the military during World War II.
The new plant was, at the time, the most modern facility of its kind in the world. During the war, the plant was converted from producing natural crude rubber to producing a synthetic rubber, and became the leading producer of synthetic rubber during the war. Robbins is responsible for the research and development of synthetic rubber that is still used today to make inner tubes.
After the war Robbins turned his attention to vinyl. He built one of the world’s most modern vinyl plants, Robbins Flooring. He also designed the equipment that produced the first solid vinyl flooring. He is acknowledged as a pioneer in the industry. He was instrumental in developing high quality vinyl, solid vinyl flooring, and was the first manufacturer to produce pure vinyl flooring.
During World War II, Robbins sold Robbins Tire and Rubber plant but remained with the company to run the operation. He left in 1956, and, in 1957, turned all of his efforts toward bringing National Floor Products on-line. He developed and designed the equipment for one of the most modern resilient flooring plants in the world, which at one time employed more than 500 people. In 1994, NAFCO was sold to the Canadian firm, Domco Industries, and today is a subsidiary of Domco Tarkett.
In 1989, at age 81, Robbins founded a new company, Robbins Industries. The company has numerous patents for kitchenware designs, and includes the subsidiary, KitchenArt, which designs and markets innovative kitchenware.
In 1974, he was named Muscle Shoals Citizen of the Year, the area’s highest recognition.
He helped organize and served on the board of directors of Sheffield Federal Savings and Loan Association. He also served on the board of State National Bank (now Compass Bank) and on the board of First Federal Savings and Loan Association in Florence.
He also served as a member and chairman of the Atlanta Federal Reserve Board, Birmingham Branch.
Robbins has also been a strong supporter of young people and education. He supported the Junior Achievement Program and served on the board of the Quad-Cities Junior Achievement and has been a board member of the Riverhill School. He is the primary benefactor of the YMCA of the Shoals, on whose board he served. The Florence branch of the YMCA is named the E. Stanley Robbins Branch.
ROBERT SCHOENHOF WEIL (1919- )
Robert Schoenhof Weil is chairman and chief executive officer of Weil Bros.- Cotton, the international cotton merchandising firm located in Montgomery.
He was born November 29, 1919, in Montgomery. Weil has risen through the ranks of his family-owned cotton firm to become one of the industry’s leading spokesmen.
He graduated from Culver Military Academy in 1936 and entered Dartmouth College, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1940. Upon his graduation from Dartmouth College, Weil applied and was accepted to Harvard Business School where he received his M.B.A. in 1942.
After receiving his M.B.A., Weil served four years in the Army as a second lieutenant in World War II.
Following his discharge 1946 he returned to Montgomery to join Weil Brothers, which had been founded by his grandfather in 1878. Continuing the family tradition, Weil and his older brother, Adolph “Bucks” I. Weil Jr., became directors and officers of the company. Following their father’s death in 1968, Bucks became chairman and Robert president of Weil Brothers – Cotton Inc. With the cotton industry valued at $4.5 billion, the brothers formed a holding company in 1980, Weil Enterprises and Investments Ltd.
Weil has been active in the cotton industry in a number of capacities. His first role in the industry came as President of the American Cotton Shippers Association from 1963-64. He then went on to serve as Director from 1962-65 and 1973-74. He was also on the Board of Managers for the New York Cotton Exchange, Director of the Atlantic Cotton Association and a National Cotton Council Delegate in 1963. Weil was also Director of the New Orleans Cotton Exchange, the 1977-78 Associate Director for the Liverpool Cotton Association, 1978 Delegate for the International Federation of Cotton and Allied Textile Industries. Weil continued his involvement with the cotton industry on a national level when he was named a 1963 delegate of the International Cotton Advisory Committee and the White House Conference on Export Trade Expansion.
Following his return to Montgomery in 1946, Weil became an active participant in civic and arts organizations. He became a member of the Jaycees and was named Montgomery Jaycees Outstanding Young Man of the Year in 1948. Among the organizations he has chaired is the Men of Montgomery industrial arm, and he organized and chaired the Montgomery Long Range Planning Council. In addition, he initiated a movement to include women and African-Americans in the organization, which then became known as the Committee of 100. Weil was also a board member of the Alabama State Chamber of Commerce.
Weil’s interest in charitable causes began in Montgomery as early as 1950 when he served as Vice President of the Community Chest. Since then he has been a board member of the local American Cancer Society and the Salvation Army.
He has also been active with the United Way in various capacities and was an original member of the Montgomery Area Community Foundation board and was the Montgomery chairman for the United Negro College Fund. He also served on the board of the Eye Foundation Hospital of Birmingham and chaired the advisory board of St. Margaret’s Hospital in Montgomery.
He has served as co-founder, president, board member and board member emeritus of the Montgomery Academy. Through his chairmanship of the Montgomery Long Range Planning Committee, he organized a Blue Ribbon Committee on Public Education. The committee completed a special study of the Montgomery Public School system, which made several far-reaching recommendations to the County Board of Education. His activities were acknowledged with his election to the Alabama Academy of Honor.
Weil has long been a lover of the arts and classical music. He served as the first chairman of the Montgomery Business Committee for the Arts and is currently on the Board of Overseers of the Hood Museum of Dartmouth College. Weil has been active in the reform Jewish faith as a leader in congregational affairs at Temple Beth Or, where he served as board member and president for two terms in the 1960s.
(Note to editors: Mullin will be available to talk with the media from 4 p.m. until 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 11, at NorthRiver Yacht Club. Short biographical sketches attached; for full program bios, contact Bill Gerdes at 205/348-8318.)
Contact
Bill Gerdes, UA Business Writer, 205/348-8318, bgerdes@cba.ua.edu