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Mr. Miller Sproull Jr.
Anniston, AL
President
Anniston Alabama Hardware Com.
4/11/2008
SPROULL
ANNISTON - A memorial service for Horace Miller Sproull, 87, of Anniston will be on Saturday, February 9th at 11 a.m. at the First Presbyterian Church, 1701 Henry Road, Anniston, with the Rev. David Rice officiating. The family will receive friends one hour prior to the service. Mr. Sproull died at his residence on Wednesday, January 30th following a lengthy illness.
Mr. Sproull, a native of Anniston, was born the son of Horace Miller Sproull Sr. and Sara Powers Sproull on April 29, 1920. His mother died five days after giving birth. In 1950, he became the third generation president of The Anniston Hardware Company and The Gadsden Hardware Company, family owned businesses founded by his grandfather James Creswell Sproull, Wade Cothran Sproull and J.A. Cheney in 1887. He was widely known as an astute businessman and civic leader.
He retired from the hardware business in 1976 when the business was sold to a local group of investors. As a young boy, he was a member of the Boy Scouts of America and earned the Eagle Scout badge. He attended Anniston public schools through the tenth grade. He graduated in 1937 from The Darlington School, Rome, Ga., a college preparatory school, and received his B.S. degree in Economics from Davidson College, Davidson, N.C., in 1941. While at Davidson, he was a member of the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity and the varsity tennis team. He joined the U.S. Navy in July of 1941 prior to Pearl Harbor.
Following his graduation from Midshipman School in 1942, he was assigned to the Pacific Theatre where he served during World War II, participating in six naval battles against Japan. He was honorably discharged as a Lt. Commander from the Navy in October 1946. Upon returning to Anniston he was made Vice President of The Anniston Hardware Company. In 1947, he married Barbara Crook Vaden and they had six children. He survived a tragedy in June, 1959 when he suffered second and third degree burns over 67 percent of his body during a mishap at a Father's Day get together with family and relatives at his home.
A lifelong member of The First Presbyterian Church, he was an Elder and a Deacon. He was a teacher of The Sam Russell Bible Class there for thirty years. In 1962, he helped raise money to build the educational building for the church. He also helped to found and was President of The Soup Bowl, a charitable organization feeding the hungry. In the midst of the Civil Rights Era he was instrumental in the formation of the biracial Anniston Human Relations Council, which President John F. Kennedy later touted "should serve as a guide and model for other communities throughout the United States."
During this period, he led the peaceful integration of the Liles Memorial Library, now the Anniston-Calhoun County Public Library, overcoming the violent efforts of those seeking to prohibit it. Mr. Sproull served as a director for thirty-five years of the First National Bank of Anniston, later becoming the Southern Bancorporation and then Southtrust Bank, now the Wachovia Bank. He founded the Anniston Federal Savings and Loan in 1953 with others and served as a director and Chairman of the Board. In 1953, he was elected president of The Anniston Country Club and served two terms.
In 1961, he was Chairman of the Calhoun County Committee for Law and Order. He was also Chairman of the Industrial Development Committee of the Chamber of Commerce and was instrumental in bringing new industry to Anniston and Calhoun County. In 1962, he was elected Finance Commissioner for the City of Anniston and served from 1962-1966. In 1963, he helped to found and build The Anniston Academy, a college preparatory school, and was elected Chairman of the Board in 1968. The school later was named The Donoho School for which he is a Director Emeritus. The school's gymnasium is named in his family's honor.
His leisure-time activities included being an avid reader, a scratch golfer, an expert hunter, a world traveler a
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