C&BA Business Hall of Fame to Induct 5 New Members in UA Ceremony: CEO of Textron Keynote Speaker

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Five of the state’s leading business and civic leaders will be inducted into the Alabama Business Hall of Fame on Thursday, Oct. 16 at the Bryant Conference Center on The University of Alabama campus.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Hall of Fame sponsored by the board of visitors of the Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration. The five inductees exemplify hard work and determination as well as a commitment to excellence and the entrepreneurial spirit.

Inductees for 2003 are Frank H. Bromberg Jr., of Birmingham, president of Bromberg and Co.; Garry Neil Drummond Sr., of Birmingham, chairman and CEO of Drummond Co. Inc.; Leroy McAbee Sr., of Tuscaloosa, CEO of McAbee Construction Inc.; Roy J. Nichols of Huntsville, Chairman of Torch Concepts; and H. Pettus Randall III (deceased, Sept. 7, 2002), past chairman and CEO of Randall Publishing Co.

Past honorees, which now total more than 100, include George Washington Carver, Mildred Westervelt Warner and Albert Bellingrath.

The keynote speaker at this year’s program will be Lewis B. Campbell, chairman, president and CEO of Textron. Campbell will address the community and friends and family members of the inductees at the 7:30 p.m. black tie dinner.

Campbell joined Textron in September 1992 as executive vice president and COO. He has been instrumental in developing Textron’s strategic and operation focus and leading the company to achieve greater operating efficiencies.

Campbell joined Textron after nearly a quarter-decade with General Motors, where he held a number of positions, including general manufacturing manager, Rochester Products Division; manufacturing manager, Chevrolet-Pontiac, GM Canada group; and executive director, GM/UAW Quality Network. In 1988 he was named a vice president of General Motors as the general manager of the Flint Automotive Group, and in 1991 he was named general manager of GMC Truck.

Campbell received a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Duke University and attended the Advanced General Management Program sponsored by GM and the Harvard International School in Switzerland. He is no stranger to Tuscaloosa, as he lived here while employed with the Rochester Products Division.

Textron is a $12 billion multi-industry company with more than 51,000 employees in 40 countries. The corporation is known worldwide for their brands, which includes Bell Helicopter, Cessna Aircraft, Kautex, Lycoming, E-Z-Go, and Greenlee.

Frank H. Bromberg
(1931- )

The name Bromberg’s is synonymous with fine jewelry. It has become one of the oldest and most successful businesses in Alabama’s history, as well as the largest supplier of fine crystal and sterling flatware in the southeast. The company ranks 45th on a list of the 102 oldest U.S. companies, and it 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 Nov. 15, 1931, the only child of Frank Bromberg Sr. and Annie Maud Wilkinson, Frank Bromberg Jr. was destined to one day head the family business. But before he could take his place as head of Bromberg and Co., Bromberg would have to make his own place in the family business by proving himself to his father’s generation. He would accomplish all of that and more.

After graduating summa cum laude from The University of Alabama business school in 1954, Bromberg and his wife, Lella Clayton Bromberg, moved to New York so that he could enter the master’s program in retailing at New York University. Upon completion of the program, Bromberg returned home, but it wasn’t for long. Duty and country called, and Bromberg was shipped overseas so that he could run the Post Exchange at Dreux Air Force Base in post-WWII recovering France.

Two years later, Bromberg and his family returned to Birmingham, this time to stay. Finally back home, Bromberg began an ascent up the Bromberg and Co. chain that ended at the top. He began in sales in 1957 and took on the role of assistant treasurer a year later.

At that time, Bromberg’s wasn’t making enough money to allow three Bromberg families to earn a comfortable living. Bromberg pushed the family to open branch stores, the first of which was opened in Mountain Brook in 1959. In 1960, Bromberg became the company’s vice president, a position he occupied for 24 years. In 1984, he became president of the company.

Bromberg was instrumental in the family business’s move to open new stores in the late 1950s, despite the hardships the business faced at the time. His foresight has proven invaluable to the company.

Despite his heavy workload, Bromberg finds time to remain involved with several civic organizations. He served as president of the Kiwanis Club of Birmingham from 1969-70. He is and has been a member of countless University organizations.

Bromberg’s ability to anticipate the financial benefits of expansion in his family’s business is part of the reason Bromberg’s is still around today. The company has remained in the family for more than 167 years, and it appears that is the way it will remain.

Garry Neil Drummond Sr.
(1938 – )

Garry Neil Drummond Sr. is chairman and CEO of Drummond Co., which was founded by his father, Heman Drummond, in 1935. Drummond Co., in almost 68 years of operation, has become one of the leading coal producing companies in the nation.

Drummond Co. employs more than 3,300 people around the world and has annual revenues of more than $800 million, placing the company in the top 500 of the Forbes list of largest private companies.

The company’s holdings include large coal mines in Alabama, Wyoming and Columbia, South America; a worldwide coal sales organization, ABC Coke, the largest merchant foundry coke producer in the United States, and a real estate division with major community developments in Alabama, Florida and California. The company headquarters is located in Jasper, with some executive and staff offices in Birmingham.

Garry Neil Drummond, one of five sons, has been actively involved in the company since his graduation from The University of Alabama in 1961, where he earned a civil engineering degree. He and his brothers have built the company into a major economic force.

The 1960s were a period of growth for the Drummond Co., which leased new reserves, developed new mines, and acquired larger and most efficient equipment. By the late 1960s the company had coal sales approaching $8 million.
Coal industry observers say the company’s big break came in 1969 and 1970 when Garry Neil Drummond, who had then been with the company eight years, negotiated a contract with Ataka & Co. of Tokyo, a Japanese company, to deliver $100 million in coal over the next 10 years. The Japanese company needed a metallurgical quality coal that was found in the eastern half of the Warrior Basin, Drummond Company’s backyard. That was the firm’s first export sale, but it opened the way for what became a major part of the business and Drummond, after becoming CEO in 1973, has negotiated many more ventures with the Japanese steel industry.

The company expanded rapidly during the 1970s to meet the Japanese demand and to compete for additional business worldwide. A major step in the growth of the company was the merger with Alabama By-Products Corp., which was incorporated in 1920. The ABC coke plant at Tarrant is the largest single producer of foundry coke in the United States. Drummond Co. acquired majority control of ABC’s voting stock in 1977, and eight years later completed acquisition of all ABC stock through a tender offer. By the end of 1985, ABC was merged with Drummond, and continues to operate as a division of Drummond while maintaining its nationally recognized name.

It was also in 1985 that Drummond ventured into real estate development in Florida and California, developing office and business parks, residential communities and golf courses.

Larry Neil Drummond has been chief executive officer of Drummond Co. Inc., since 1973. The four other brothers also have been involved continuously in company operations. E. A. “Larry” Drummond is president of the company, Segal E. Drummond is executive vice-president and assistant to the chief executive officer, Donald D. Drummond is president of the Drummond Coal Division, and John H. Drummond is vice-president/asset management.

Among his many honors, Garry Neil Drummond was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Science from The University of Alabama, and was the UA College of Engineering Distinguished Lecturer for 1987-88 and outstanding Fellow in 1987. He received the Keith-Woodman Award in 1987 and was inducted into the Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame.
He served on The University of Alabama Board of Trustees from 1983 through 2001, during which time he served three years as President Pro Tempore.

He is actively involved in state, national and international organizations within the coal industry and has served on the boards of numerous local and state organizations dedicated to charitable causes and economic development.
Drummond is the father of four sons and one daughter. He lives in the Birmingham area with his wife, the former Peggy Snoddy. Mr. Drummond’s father was inducted into the Alabama Business Hall of Fame in 1990.

Leroy McAbee
(1931- )

Leroy McAbee is the oldest son of Homer Ray and Sarah Mae McAbee. He attended school in Sylvania, and graduated in 1949. After graduating, he served with the Army Combat Engineers in Korea, 1950-52.

After he was discharged, he worked on construction projects across the country, and eventually enrolled at The University of Alabama, where he earned a degree in mechanical engineering in 1962. A year later he founded McAbee and Co., which he began as a small mechanical contractor and engineering company. It was incorporated in 1972, and became McAbee Construction.

The company is one of the largest heavy industrial contractors in the Southeast and has had contracts throughout the country, working in all types of manufacturing facilities performing piping, mechanical work, equipment erection, steel erection, and concrete work. For industrial customers, many of which are Fortune 500s, McAbee Construction does work with power generation, chemical processes, pulp and paper, and in the automotive and manufacturing industries.

McAbee’s Fabrication Division, located in Tuscaloosa, is one of the largest of its kind in the Southeast, utilizing more than 120,000 square feet of workspace and shipping its fabrication work to 35 states and 17 countries.

McAbee founded his business on three concepts: safety is first, quality of work is second, and a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay. These were recognized in 1983 when McAbee Construction was awarded a certificate from the National Society of Professional Engineers.

McAbee works closely with many organizations and groups to bring new industry and business to West Alabama. His efforts have made a real difference in the type of new businesses that the area can attract.

McAbee currently serves on The University of Alabama’s President’s Cabinet and the Board of Visitors of the C&BA. He has also established the McAbee Foundation for the purpose of providing scholarships to qualified students to attend the University’s engineering school.

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

In February of 2003, McAbee was inducted into the State of Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame for significant contributions to the advancement of engineering and technology and for being an inspiration to those wishing to enter the field of engineering.

Roy J. Nichols
(1938- )

In 1976, along with lifelong friend Chris Horgen, Roy J. Nichols founded Nichols Research, which would become one of the nation’s most prominent research and development organizations. The effect the company will have on Huntsville, the state and the nation will be long lasting.

Nichols Research specializes in sensor, missile and information systems. Under Nichols’ and Horgen’s tutelage, the company has grown to more than 40 locations throughout the U.S. that employ more than 3,000 workers, and generating revenues in upwards of 400 million dollars.

In 1999, Nichols Research merged with Computer Sciences Corp., an information technology company out of California. Soon after the merge Nichols decided to start something new. He founded Torch Concepts, and he is now chairman of the board.

Torch uses advanced pattern-recognition technology developed for the Department of Defense, which allows it to automatically find, retrieve, organize and deliver content relevant to each user’s individual needs.

Nichols was born in Chicago, and he and his family moved around, finally settling in Detroit. After completing high school, he entered The University of Michigan, where he earned both his undergraduate and graduate degrees in aeronautical and astronautical engineering.

After he, his wife and their three daughters moved to California, Nichols took a job with McDonnell Douglas, heading the discrimination and data processing department. His work with the aerospace giant led him to Hunstville in 1973, where he became chief engineer and met Horgen. Three years later the pair formed Nichols Research.

A decade later, in 1986, the company had grown from the two of them working for themselves and each other to employing more than 500 employees with eight offices.

Nichols has almost 40 years of experience in defense technologies, including systems engineering, optical and radar sensors, discrimination and countermeasures, and advanced simulation. The company has been recognized by the military for exceptional service to the nation, for such work as their part in developing the Patriot and Hawk systems for the armed forces.

In 1988, Nichols was named Manager of the Year by the Hunstville Chapter of the National Management Association. He received the Community Service Award in 1998 from the National Space Club, and in the same year was awarded the Distinguished Service Award from the Chamber of Commerce of Huntsville/Madison County.

H. Pettus Randall III
(1945-2002)

Randall Publishing Co. was started by H. Pettus Randall Jr., and H. Pettus Randall III made the company what it is today through his far-reaching vision and foresight.

The company is one of the largest privately held trade magazine publishing enterprises in the country, producing more than 35 magazines, directories, periodicals, and Web sites, and employing more than 500 people. In 2000, Folio, the premier magazine for the publishing industry, ranked Randall Publishing as the sixth fastest growing and the 22nd largest U.S. publishing company.

Much of that growth came in the 27 years Randall, who died of pancreatic cancer on Sep. 7, 2002, headed the company.

The foundation of the company is the publication Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges. An addition was added in 1969 that also covered junior colleges, and the Who’s Who books have become some of the most prestigious to be found in more than 2,000 university and college libraries across the country, The books include students from all 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia.

After his father’s death in 1976, Randall merged his company with Award Company of America, and the company entered the magazine world. Randall chose magazines covering industries at the center of the American economy: construction, industrial and trucking.

In 1986, Randall acquired Overdrive, the oldest and most respected independent trucker magazine in the nation. The magazine’s expanded coverage of, and presence in, the trucking industry made it a favorite for truck drivers and those who support them.

Randall’s next move was to add a construction industry publication to Randall Publishing’s growing list of periodicals. Since then, TOP BID has become known as the “Bible” of off-highway and equipment auctions.

Randall earned his bachelor’s degree in history and English from UA in 1967, and received his J.D. degree and finished law school there in 1971. He later attended the New York University Graduate School of Business. His widow, Dr. Cathy Randall, serves as director of the Computer Based Honors Program at UA and serves as chairman of Randall Publishing.

Randall was a member of many civic, fraternal and religious organizations, such as the Tuscaloosa Jaycees and the Masons, and he was also an active member of Christ Episcopal Church.