39 Facts About Fob James

Fob James entered the US Army and served two years as a lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers.

From 1958 to 1959, Fob James worked as a heavy construction engineer with Burford-Toothaker Tractor Company in Montgomery, Alabama.

In 1959, his second born, Gregory Fleming Fob James, was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis.

In 1961, Fob James decided that he could earn a living from the manufacture of plastic-coated barbells.

Fob James name was changed to "Diversified Products Corporation" after originally being called Health-Disc Inc In addition to physical fitness equipment, the company manufactured ballasts and counterweights for farms, industry and trucking.

Fob James served as the CEO of DP until 1977, when it was bought by the Liggett Group.

In 1981 Fob James established the Gregory Fleming Fob James Cystic Fibrosis Research Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, named in his honor.

Fob James played an integral role in the establishment of the center.

From 1972 to 1974, Fob James served as president of the Alabama Citizens for Transportation, a statewide committee that developed a twenty-year highway program.

Fob James had left the Democratic Party in the early 1970s but returned to the party before the election.

Fob James was reasonably successful in attaining his education reform package, improving the state's mental health system, rectifying some prison overcrowding problems and fortifying the once financially strapped Medicaid system.

Fob James chose to emphasize funding for k-12 education, over that for Alabama's colleges and universities, a highly contested action.

Fob James worked to acquire stiffer penalties for convicted drug traffickers.

Fob James was instrumental in improving state highways as a result of earmarking a substantial amount of money for such improvements from the state's oil windfall funds.

Fob James was unsuccessful in his attempts to: have a new state constitution drafted, levy a fuel tax, rectify the court-ordered desegregation of some of the state's post-secondary institutions, and secure passage of his bill to eliminate income tax deductions for Social Security payments.

Out of office Fob James began to yearn for a return to the governorship.

Fob James ran but was defeated in both the 1986 and 1990 Democratic primaries.

Fob James managed and partly owned Orange Beach Marina, served as the CEO of Coastal Erosion Control, a company that worked to prevent coastal erosion; and worked as the CEO of Escambia County Environmental Corporation, which develops landfills and waste incinerators.

Fob James governed as a staunch conservative during his second term, reflecting individualistic, states' rights convictions.

Fob James "seceded" from the National Governors Association, and was the only state governor to refuse to attend the organization's meetings.

Fob James appointed Beth Chapman to his cabinet; she was the first woman in Alabama's history to serve as Appointments Secretary.

Fob James put an end to the chain gang in June 1996, because of a lawsuit brought by a coalition of community human rights groups.

However, in one of his last official acts as governor, Fob James commuted the death sentence of Judith Ann Neelley to life in prison.

Fob James explained that, in his view, executing Neelley would not have been just.

Fob James's reason was that the Neeley case was the only time he had seen a judge overrule the jury's unanimous decision to impose life imprisonment by issuing a death penalty.

Fob James helped arrange a State of Alabama-paid voluntary return to the US of Lester Coleman, a former journalist accused by the federal government of committing perjury, who had been residing in Europe.

Joe Boohaker, Coleman's attorney, said that Fob James apparently knew Coleman from when the latter man had worked at a Birmingham, Alabama radio station.

Fob James defended embattled judge Roy Moore when Moore was ordered by a Montgomery circuit judge to remove his wooden representation of the Ten Commandments from his courtroom.

Fob James threatened to send in the National Guard to prevent the removal of the plaque with this display.

The Alabama legislature joined Fob James in passing an educational reform package known as the Fob James Educational Foundation Act.

Fob James refused to accept federal monies from the US Department of Education's Goals 2000 program because he believed that it would lead to increased federal involvement and control over the state's schools.

Fob James was frequently criticized for expressing too much of his religious beliefs in his governing.

At a 1995 Alabama State Board of Education meeting, Fob James criticized the teaching of evolution in textbooks by imitating a "slump-shouldered ape turning into an upright human".

Judge Moore appealed the decision, and Fob James supported his position.

Fob James verbally attacked DeMent's order as yet another illegitimate intrusion by federal courts into local affairs.

The judge's order was, in part, reversed shortly after Fob James left office, allowing students at their own choice to hold religious meetings on school grounds.

Fob James struggled through the bitter Republican primary runoff and defeated Blount, but had little money left to finance the general election campaign.

Fob James opposed the lottery and was soundly defeated by Siegelman in the 1998 general election.

Fob James returned to semi-retirement, saying he wanted to spend more time with his children and grandchildren.