Paul W. Bryant, Jr.

Paul William Bryant, Jr., (born c. 1945) is an American banker, investor and philanthropist from Alabama.

Early life and family background

Paul William Bryant, Jr., was born circa 1945.^[1] His father, Bear Bryant, was an American football player and coach.^[1][2]

Bryant graduated from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama with a degree in Commerce in 1966.^[3]

Career

Bryant founded the People's Bank in the late 1960s,^[1] and later sold it.^[2] He also served as general manager of minor league baseball's Birmingham Barons. By 1977, he established GreeneTrack, dog racing track located in Greene County, Alabama,^[1] with A. Wayne May, a veterinarian, and Sam Phelps, a lawyer.^[2] He went on to establish more tracks in Texas (for example in La Marque, Texas), Idaho, and Iowa.^[1][2] By 1995, they were incorporated as GreenTrack, Inc..^[4] As of 2009, he owned 72% of GreenTrack.^[2] Bryant is also the President of Greene County Greyhound Park.^[5] He also serves as the President of Green Group, Inc..^[6]

Bryant invests in "dog and horse racing, the insurance industry, cement making, catfish farming and banking."^[1] He is worth "hundreds of millions of dollars."^[1] In 1995, Bryant acquired Reynolds Ready Mix, a cement company later renamed Ready Mix USA.^[2] By 2011, he sold it to Cemex, a Mexican construction corporation, for US$350 million.^[2] In 1999, he acquired a stake in Harvest Select Catfish Inc., a company which raises catfish in Alabama and Mississippi.^[2] He was also the co-founder of Alabama Reassurance Co., later known as Alabama Life Reinsurance Co., a reinsurance company.^[2]

In 2005, Bryant founded the Bryant Bank.^[2] He serves as its Chairman.^[6]

He co-authored two books about American football in 2013.

Philanthropy

Bryant served as the Chairman of the Civil War Trust.^[3][7] He also served on the Boards of Trustees of the Alabama Heritage Foundation and the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia.^[7]

He serves on the Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama,^[3][6] having previously served as its Chairman.^[2] In March 2015, The Birmingham News revealed that many UA trustees worked or had relatives who worked for the Bryant Bank.^[8]

He has donated millions of dollars to the Alabama Crimson Tide football program.^[9] A CBS story from December 2014 reported that Bryant Jr. is thought to be partially responsible for shuttering the UAB Football program, reportedly over a long-standing grudge with Gene Bartow over a 1991 letter to the NCAA.^[10]

Personal life

He is married, and has three daughters.^[1] He was described by The Birmingham News as "among the most private of men, largely a mystery to many."^[1]

Bibliography

• When Winning Was Everything: Alabama Football Players in World War II (with Delbert Reed, Paul W. Bryant Museum, 2013).
• University of Alabama: The Complete History of Crimson Tide Football (with Joe Namath, Nick Saban, Bill Battle, Gene Stallings, Ozzie Newsome, John Hannah, Murray Legg, Van Tiffin, Kermit Kendrick, John Mangum, Phillip Doyle, Bill Oliver, Shaun Alexander, Harry Gilmer, Cecil Ingram, Don Salls, Skybox Press, 2013).

References