MONTGOMERY, Alabama - The Alabama Academy of Honor has added three men who achieved success in law, state government and business.
The academy held a ceremony Monday at the state Capitol to honor Birmingham attorney Fournier "Boots" Gale III, former House Speaker Seth Hammett of Andalusia, and Protective Life Insurance Co. CEO John D. Johns of Birmingham.
The Legislature created the academy in 1965 to recognize Alabamians for their outstanding accomplishments and services. Membership is limited to 100 living Alabamians plus all living governors.
Gale is a founding partner of the Maynard Cooper and Gale law firm, one of Alabama's largest law firms, and is now general counsel for Regions Financial. He is also a former president of the Alabama State Bar.
Catherine J. Randall, Chair of the Alabama Academy of Honor, and the Inductees of the Alabama Academy of Honor, Class of 2013, in the Old House Chamber at the Capitol in Montgomery on Monday Oct. 21, 2013. They are, from right, John D. Johns, Fournier"Boots" Gale III and Seth Hammett. (Governor's Office, Jamie Martin)
In addition to serving 12 years as speaker, Hammett has been a bank president, a two-year college president, and director of the state's industrial recruitment agency. He is now vice president of business development at PowerSouth Energy Cooperative. He entered Auburn University in 1964, served in the Air Force ROTC and received his Air Force Commission in 1968. He later was a pilot in Auburn's aviation school. He was president of Lurleen B. Wallace Community College from 1991 to 2002. He also served in Gov. Robert Bentley's cabinet as director of the Alabama Development Office. His support of aviation and airports advanced economic development in the area.
Like Gale, Johns was a founding partner of the Maynard Cooper and Gale law. He later became an executive at Sonat and has been president and chief executive officer of Birmingham-based Protective Life for the last 11 years.
Johns, a Harvard law school graduate, drew laughs from the audience when he said it was nice to be recognized because he had lived in the shadow of his wife, Nancy Dunlap, dean of the School of Medicine at the University of Virginia. -Office of the Alabama Governor