August 2, 1892

Financial adviser Mervyn H. Sterne was born in Anniston. Sterne advised businesses and government entities for more than 50 years while encouraging them to pay their “civic rent.” He served in both world wars, raised funds for Jews after each, and was an active member on Birmingham’s Interracial Committee that desegregated elevators in the city’s office buildings. In the 1920s, Sterne led efforts to finance the state’s schools by promoting a property tax and using his company to bid on road construction bonds to ensure local governments received a fair price. Sterne was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor and the Alabama Business Hall of Fame.

Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.

Anniston native Mervyn H. Sterne (1892-1973) was a successful Birmingham banker and financier known for his civic and charitable work benefitting the citizens of Alabama. Sterne served in the U.S. Army during both World Wars, and later in life sat on a number of corporate boards and received such honors as Birmingham Man of the Year in 1948. (Mervyn Sterne portrait painted by Ronald Baynes in 1997, courtesy of the Mervyn H. Sterne Library through the Encyclopedia of Alabama)

For more on Alabama’s Bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.