[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 160 (Thursday, October 2, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Page S10482]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 TRIBUTE TO JAMES HERMAN FAULKNER, SR.

 Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, today I pay tribute to James 
Herman ``Jimmy'' Faulkner, Sr., a friend, who passed away last month. 
``Mr. jimmy'' to the scores who knew and admired him, was a great 
Alabamian who, during his life, served as a mayor, State senator, 
candidate for governor, newspaper publisher, businessman, and 
philanthropist.
  Born in Lamar County, AL, the son of a schoolteacher and a farmer, he 
lost his father at the age of 12. He attended college in Tennessee and 
the School of Journalism at the University of Missouri. At age 20, he 
purchased The Baldwin Times newspaper and moved to Baldwin County, AL, 
where he lived his life and became one of, if not the most, well known 
of its citizens.
  Mr. Jimmy served as the Mayor of Bay Minette, AL, from 1941 to 1943, 
when he was called to serve in World War II as a first lieutenant, 
pilot, and flight instructor. Following that service, he represented 
Baldwin County in the Alabama State Senate, where he became an advocate 
for education and the State's teachers.
  He served as Chairman of the Board of Directors for Alabama Christian 
College in Montgomery, and as a testament to his success in putting 
that institution in a position of financial stability and his personal 
generosity, it was renamed Faulkner University in his honor in 1985. 
Remarkably, because he was instrumental in bringing Faulkner State 
University, a community college, to Baldwin County, that State 
university is also named for him. Few persons, if any, have had both a 
private and State university named in their honor.
  Mr. Jimmy believed in Baldwin County. He brought business to the 
county. A friend of his, Scott Hunter, told me that Jimmy told him in 
1990 to buy all the real estate he could in Baldwin County because it 
would double in population by 2010. And it has. Jimmy was able to 
predict economic, demographic, and political changes with uncanny 
accuracy. He lived to know 14 Alabama governors and he wrote, ``We have 
had some good ones and some not so good. Because of my longevity, it 
has been my privilege, and usually my pleasure, to have known 
personally, and been on friendly terms, with every governor back to 
Bibb Graves.''
  During his lifetime, he served as president and founder of two 
insurance businesses, and owner and publisher of three newspapers in 
Baldwin County. He was the recipient of more than 35 awards including 8 
honorary doctorate degrees.
  Jimmy Faulkner was a great man, and a world traveler who visited over 
100 countries during his lifetime. He had a unique view of the entire 
world and the part of it he occupied, and he used that view and his 
knowledge to make Alabama and our Nation a better place. Those of us 
who knew him are all better for having shared his interesting life and 
benefitted from his brilliant mind.

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