On this day in Alabama history: Banker Harry Brock Jr. was born
Financier Harry M. Brock Jr. led the creation of Central Bank and Trust Company in Birmingham in 1964 that is now BBVA Compass. Brock was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor and the Alabama Business Hall of Fame, and the Samford University business school is named in his honor. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, courtesy of the Birmingham Public Library Archives)
March 31, 1925
Harry Brock Jr. was born on this day in Fort Payne. After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Brock graduated from the University of Alabama. After college he left Alabama for Rochester, New York, but returned in 1955 and took a management trainee position with Exchange Security Bank in Birmingham. He left the bank as a vice president and in 1964 founded, along with Schuyler Baker and Hugh Daniel, the Central Bank and Trust Company. Brock was the bank’s CEO. Central changed its name to Compass Bank in 1987 after moving into the Texas bank market. Brock retired from Central in 1991 and died in 2015. Compass Bank’s parent company, Compass Bancshares Inc., was acquired by Spain’s Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria in 2007 and the bank’s name was changed to BBVA Compass Bank.
Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama and Bhamwiki.
For more on Alabama’s bicentennial, go to Alabama 200.
