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.Charles J. Dean
Paul Bryant Jr: His famous father casts a long shadow, one seemingly comfortable to the son
''The Birmingham News'', December 8, 2014 His father,

Bear Bryant Paul William "Bear" Bryant (September 11, 1913 – January 26, 1983) was an American college football player and coach. He is considered by many to be one of the greatest college football coaches of all time, and best known as the head coach of ...

, was an American football player and coach.Michael S. Serrill, John Helyar, Anthony Effinger
Alabama Football Dominance Powered by Greyhound Fortune
''Bloomberg Business'', November 25, 2013 Bryant graduated from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama with a degree in Commerce in 1966.The University of Alabama System: Board of Trustees: Paul W. Bryant Jr.
/ref>

Career

Bryant founded the People's Bank in the late 1960s, and later sold it. He also served as general manager of minor league baseball's

Birmingham Barons The Birmingham Barons are a Minor League Baseball team based in Birmingham, Alabama. The team, which plays in the Southern League, is the Double-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox and plays at Regions Field in downtown Birmingham. The current ...

. By 1977, he established GreeneTrack, dog racing track located in Greene County, Alabama, with A. Wayne May, a veterinarian, and Sam Phelps, a lawyer. He went on to establish more tracks in Texas (for example in La Marque, Texas), Idaho, and Iowa. By 1995, they were incorporated as GreenTrack, Inc. As of 2009, he owned 72% of GreenTrack. Bryant is also the President of Greene County Greyhound Park. He also serves as the President of Green Group, Inc. Bryant invests in "dog and horse racing, the insurance industry, cement making, catfish farming and banking." He is worth "hundreds of millions of dollars." In 1995, Bryant acquired Reynolds Ready Mix, a cement company later renamed Ready Mix USA. By 2011, he sold it to Cemex, a Mexican construction corporation, for US$350 million. In 1999, he acquired a stake in Harvest Select Catfish Inc., a company which raises catfish in Alabama and Mississippi. He was also the co-founder of Alabama Reassurance Co., later known as Alabama Life Reinsurance Co., a

reinsurance Reinsurance is insurance that an insurance company purchases from another insurance company to insulate itself (at least in part) from the risk of a major claims event. With reinsurance, the company passes on ("cedes") some part of its own insu ...

company. In 2005, Bryant founded the

Bryant Bank Bryant Bank is a community bank in the U.S. state of Alabama. History Bryant Bank was founded by Paul W. Bryant, Jr. in 2005.Michael S. Serrill, John Helyar, Anthony EffingerAlabama Football Dominance Powered by Greyhound Fortune ''Bloomberg Busi ...

. He serves as its chairman.Melissa Brown
Who makes up the University of Alabama Board of Trustees?
''The Birmingham News'', November 16, 2014 He co-authored two books about American football in 2013.

Philanthropy

Bryant served as the chairman of the Civil War Trust.Civil War Trust: Board of Trustees
/ref> He also served on the boards of trustees of the Alabama Heritage Foundation and the Museum of the Confederacy in

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

. He served on the board of trustees of the University of Alabama until September 2015 and previously served as its chairman. In March 2015, '' The Birmingham News'' revealed that many UA trustees worked or had relatives who worked for the Bryant Bank.John Archibald
Paul Bryant Jr.'s bank is the tie that binds UA trustees
''The Birmingham News'', March 27, 2015

Controversy

He has donated millions of dollars to the Alabama Crimson Tide football program. A CBS story from December 2014 reported that Bryant Jr. was partially responsible for shuttering the UAB Football program, reportedly over a long-standing grudge with Gene Bartow over a 1991 letter to the NCAA - and "out of fear it might one day challenge" the football program his father had built. For many years, Bryant has been accused of running the Alabama board of trustees like a family business, "holding secret meetings, shrugging off public records requests, ignoring or sidestepping the law." In 2001. a committee of trustees met in secret, just one day after a court barred Auburn's board of trustees from doing the same thing. As of 2015, seven trustees were executives or directors at Bryant Bank. These ties received national press attention when the board of trustees made the shocking decision to kill UAB football. Bryant Jr. also has clear ties to a federal

insurance fraud Insurance fraud is any act committed to defraud an insurance process. It occurs when a claimant attempts to obtain some benefit or advantage they are not entitled to, or when an insurer knowingly denies some benefit that is due. According to the ...

case that drew a 15-year prison sentence for Allen W. Stewart. Stewart was found guilty on all 135 counts of fraud. One of Bryant's companies, Alabama Reassurance or "Alabama Re", was implicated in at least nine counts of the Stewart indictment, relating to a "wire fraud scheme to deceive state insurance regulators involving reinsurance." According to the state Department of Insurance, Alabama Re had $240 million in admitted assets, a five person board headed by Bryant, and just two full-time employees.

Personal life

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

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

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bryant, Paul Jr. Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Businesspeople from Alabama American bankers American company founders Sportswriters from Alabama Philanthropists from Alabama Alabama Crimson Tide football