Harry B. Brock Jr.

Harry B. Brock Jr. was born on March 31, 1925, in Fort Payne, Alabama.[1][2] He grew up in Gadsden, Alabama.[2] He graduated from the Tennessee Military Institute and served in the U.S. Navy Submarine Service during the Second World War from 1944 to 1946.[1][2] He then graduated from the University of Alabama with a Bachelor of Science degree in Commerce and Business Administration in 1949.[1][2] In 1964, he earned a certificate from the American Institute of Banking.[2]

Back in Gadsden, Brock first worked as a truck driver for the Brook-Martin Oil Company.[2] He later worked as a car salesman with John Thomas Motors of Gadsden.[2] In 1964, he co-founded the Central Bank and Trust Company (later known as Compass Bank, eventually BBVA Compass).[1][3][4] In 1968, together with other investors, he gained voting control of the State National Bank of Alabama. In 1981, he merged the two banks.[1][2] By 1987, Central Bancshares of the South was the first bank in Alabama to own a bank in another state.[1] He retired from the Board of Directors in 1991.[1][4]

He served on the Board of Directors of Marathon Industries and the Daniel International Corporation (now merged with the Fluor Corporation).[2]

He served on the Board of the Alabama Alliance of Business and Industry.[2] He was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor in 1983 and the Alabama Business Hall of Fame in 1993.[1][2][3] He also became an honoree of the Birmingham Business Hall of Fame in 1999.[5]

Brock sat on the Board of Trustees of Samford University, where the Brock School of Business is named in his honor.[1][3][4] He has also served on the President's Cabinet at his alma mater, the University of Alabama.[1] He has served on the board of the Southern Research Institute and the Gorgas Scholarship Foundation.[1][2] He has also volunteered for Kiwanis.[1]

He married Jane in 1949, shortly after he graduated from college.[1][2] They have three children, Stanley M. Brock; Barrett Brock MacKay; and Harry B. Brock III.[2] Brock died on July 29, 2015.[6]