He’s more of the Jimmy Stewart cowboy who’d quietly walk up to the bar and order a sarsaparilla, but if somebody was taking liberties with a young lady, he would politely ask him to leave the lady alone with an inflexion in his voice that said … or else!
It would be more true to life, however, to think of him as a city boy or rather a man with small-town values. Like so many admired citizens of the year, he was not a born Annistonian; he was born in a small Alabama town and moved here for professional reasons.
He is an executive who keeps himself intimately aware of details and costs, yet with a mind attuned to the larger picture. He is actively curious about everything on a ground level, and below, but he is forever looking up and beyond.
His politics are conservative, but not like those mindless candidates who come to our editorial board preening about being a proud Alabama conservative. We’ve asked them what it is they want to conserve … and they don’t know.
Our citizen of the year is different. He knows precisely what it is he wants to conserve, its value in dollar and spiritual terms. He worries when he sees something is broken that needs to be conserved and he goes about planning how to fix it. When he undertakes such a task, he is doggedly persistent in seeing it through to completion.
It is these qualities that numerous civic boards have wanted for leadership posts. For the same reasons, governmental bodies have called on him to guide important projects. He has answered these calls because he loves Anniston. He loves downtown Anniston. He lives downtown. If you can’t find him at his office, he’s probably at The Peerless, where Kristy Farmer could charge him rent he’s there so much, but she values him not just as a guest but for who he is and what he represents.
Our citizen of the year deserves a moment in the spotlight, though he does not seek it. He is the man who is managing the building of the city’s new judicial center, the man who is bringing to life the center point of city life — the Watermark Tower.
He is the director of the Anniston Water Works, Jim Miller.
