2005 Inductees

 

Albert P. Brewer (1935-  )

Governor Albert Preston Brewer, originally from Bethel Springs, Tennessee, moved with his family to Decatur, Alabama in 1935.  Educated in the public schools, he earned both an undergraduate and a law degree from the University of Alabama.  In 1952 he returned to Decatur to begin his law practice. (more)

Ronald B. Casey (1951-2000)

Ron Casey could talk the talk.  In person and in print.  His words came together in thousands of articles and in thousands of ways not merely to inform Alabamians, but to better Alabama.  As a foundry worker’s son, he grew up in Midfield, literally beneath the smoke of nearby steel mills. Some say that is why spotting a smokescreen was second nature to him. (more)

Thomas E. Corts (1941- )

When the organizers of Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform needed a leader, only one person would do and that person had no time to do it, but he did it anyway.  Dr. Thomas E. Corts, President of Samford University, already had delivered a memorable address before civic leaders in Birmingham.  With biblical mien, he cried out “How long, Alabama? O how long?”  That voice and that speech called for a new constitution that in his words “empowers instead of prohibits, that offers vision instead of reaction, that promotes results instead of inefficiency and that fosters community rather than division." (more)

Jack Edwards (1928- )

When Jack Edwards was elected to Congress as a Republican in 1964, it was a novelty in Alabama, but not in his family.  His great, great grandfather had been the last Republican congressman some sixty years before Jack’s election.  Edwards would spend the next twenty years in Congress where he became a leader, meeting regularly with Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan.  But one should never attempt to explain Jack Edwards by party affiliation, loyal though he is.  Edwards initially decided to run for congress at the request of his Sunday school class, not at the behest of some conservative coalition forming in the South.  One of his most enjoyed and admired friends in Washington was Nelson Rockefeller.  In real life, Jack Edwards was and is as independent and progressive as his “grandpa” who swam against the then Democratic tide at the beginning of the last century. (more)

Wayne Flynt (1940 - )

Wayne Flynt, a self-proclaimed hell raising, bible preaching, history teacher, grows roses and plays with his grandkids.  Known for speaking his mind and challenging those in positions of power to use theirs, he not only serves as Alabama’s unofficial conscience, he also has contributed eleven painstakingly researched books that help tell the story of our state.  Flynt’s integrity requires him to tell this story honestly, even when it is not popular to do so. (more)

H. Bailey Thomson (1949-2003)

Bailey Thomson planted a bundle of loblolly pines around his family's farm in Pickens County the year he was ten.    His 4-H teacher had donated them with careful instructions.  True to his nature, Thomson, deliberately placed each seedling into a hole as directed, and covered the roots with a bit of red earth.  Such care and dedication was his North Star as he earned three degrees from the University of Alabama and became a journalist, a scholar, a teacher, and a loyal friend to all who labored in the vineyards of truth and honor with him. (more)