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Photo Gallery Alabama Leaders
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 Governor Bob Riley
John is pictured here with Governor Bob Riley and his son, Rob Riley at the
Governor’s Ball in 2007. Governor Riley has served as a mentor and friend to
John for many years. When John ran for SGA President at The University of
Alabama, Bob Riley called him once a week to ask what he could do to help
with the campaign. And, when John and Cindy needed somewhere to live in
For more information on Governor Riley, visit
www.governor.alabama.gov. |
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 Senator Jeff
Sessions and Senator Trent Lott
In 2008, John helped organize the 3rd annual Lincoln-Reagan
dinner which honored U. S.
Senator Jeff Sessions. This dinner served to recognize the achievements and
strong conservative leadership of Senator Sessions. Senator Trent Lott
served as the key-note speaker for the event. This event raised over $40,000
for the Tuscaloosa County Republican Party.
For more information on Senator Sessions, visit
Sessions.senate.gov. |
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 Senator Richard
Shelby
John, Brooks, and Allie Grace are pictured here with Senator Richard Shelby
during a visit to Washington, D.C. in July 2008.
Senator Shelby was kind enough to make time to visit with them during
his busy schedule. John admires Senator
Shelby’s strong conservative leadership and his dedication to the state of
Alabama. Senator Shelby
was the honoree as John planned and directed the first Tuscaloosa County
Republican Party Lincoln-Reagan Dinner in September 2006.
For more information on Senator Shelby, visit
Shelby.senate.gov. |
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 Coach Nick Saban
John is pictured here with Coach Nick Saban in The Zone at Bryant-Denny
Stadium in 2007. Coach and Mrs. Saban donated $14,000 to Tuscaloosa Schools
to be used for school supplies. The $14,000 donation was part of almost
$300,000 distributed by the Sabans to over 50 charities that year. Coach and
Mrs. Saban are passionate about improving the lives of children, and John
considered it an honor to be a part of that day. |
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 Justice Oscar W. Adams, Jr.In 1980, Oscar W. Adams, Jr. was appointed to the Alabama Supreme Court by Governor Fob James. In 1982, and again in 1988, he successfully ran for the position and became the first African American in the history of Alabama to be appointed and elected to a statewide constitutional office. John is pictured here with Justice Adams at a Leadership Tuscaloosa Graduation luncheon in the mid 1990s. |
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 John with former Governor Brewer (D), AL
One of John’s all-time favorites,
Governor Albert Preston Brewer
was a leader ahead of his time. He did so much for education,
education funding, and tax reform in the late 1960s and 1970s.
Governor Brewer’s last campaign in 1978 was John’s first gubernatorial
campaign as a volunteer and, as a 14 year old, John even coaxed future
Governor Fob James into autographing one of Governor Brewer’s campaign signs
when James visited Cleburne County High School during the fall 1978
campaign.
Brewer’s efforts now, as a retired law professor at the Cumberland School of
Law in |
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 Coach Paul W. “Bear” Bryant
Coach Paul William “Bear” Bryant is perhaps John’s most revered hero. Growing up in rural Alabama, John was a die-hard fan of Coach Bryant and the Crimson Tide. Coach Bryant had already been a legend for more than twenty years when John entered the University in the fall of 1982, in what would be Coach Bryant’s last season. His 323 victories in only 38 years of coaching and his 232 victories at the Capstone in only 25 seasons clearly mark him as the greatest college football coach of all time. To learn more about Coach Bryant and his life and legacy, visit the Paul W. Bryant Museum on the campus of the University of Alabama, or click here. |
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 Congressman Carl ElliottJohn is pictured here with former Alabama Congressman Carl Elliott, seated, and prominent Huntsville attorney Julian Butler at a dinner honoring Elliott at the University of Alabama in 1993. Carl A.Elliott was born in Franklin County Alabama on December 20, 1913. He graduated from Vina High School in 1930 and he attended the University of Alabama and was elected president of the Student Government Association in 1935 as a law student. In 1948, Elliott was elected to the United States House of Representatives. In his ensuing years of service, until 1965, Elliott championed efforts on behalf of equal rights for minorities and the poor. These courageous struggles for the passage of legislation eventually cost him his career. His crowning legislative action was to author and sponsor the National Defense Education Act that allowed young people who could not afford to go to college to have access to federal funds that would allow them to attend. Elliott challenged the Wallace “machine” in 1964 and lost his Congressional seat after sixteen years in the 8/7 election and was defeated by Lurleen Wallace in the race for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in 1966. In 1990, Elliott was honored by the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation as the first recipient of the John F. Kennedy Profiles in Courage Award. He died in Jasper, Alabama on January 9, 1999. He was 85 years old. To learn more about Congressman Elliott, read his 1992 autobiography, The Cost of Courage: The Journey of an American Congressman. |
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 John and Senator Jeremiah
A. Denton, Jr. (R), ALWhen John discusses his heroes, one that comes up regularly is former U.S. Senator Jeremiah Denton who truly is a real American hero. Denton, a retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral, spent seven and a half years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam and after returning home became the first Republican to win statewide office in Alabama since Reconstruction. During John’s first internship in Washington in the summer of 1983, the two had a very interesting discussion and somewhat frank conversation about Alabama’s future and Denton’s career. At the end of their discussion the junior Senator from Alabama signed John’s copy of When Hell Was In Session, Denton’s autobiography, with this inscription, “To John Merrill, whose respect and admiration are both appreciated and returned to a splendid young American.” Denton is also featured in the self-titled biography, Jeremiah Denton and the NBC made for television movie, When Hell Was In Session. To learn more about Senator Denton click here. |
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 Claude Harris (D), AL In the summer of 1986, John made a new friend in retired Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court Judge Claude Harris. Claude had been a former Assistant District Attorney and Circuit Judge before he decided to run for the United States House of Representatives to replace Congressman Richard Shelby, who was running for the Senate. Judge Harris took John under his wing and taught him a little about campaigning and helping understand and how to identify and meet people’s needs. John worked shift changes with Judge Harris at Jim Walter Mines numbers 3, 4, and 7, and the morning and evening shifts at Uniroyal-Goodrich. John always enjoyed working the morning shift changes the most because Judge Harris would often take him to breakfast at the Waysider Restaurant afterwards. In this photograph, John, then Assistant Director of the Tuscaloosa County Industrial Development Authority is featured with several members of a contingent from West Alabama. This group went to Washington, D. C. in 1991 to meet with Congressman Claude Harris about economic development and transportation issues. Congressman Harris retired from the House in 1993 and returned to Tuscaloosa. He was subsequently appointed to become the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama by President Bill Clinton in late 1993. He served in that capacity in Birmingham until his untimely death from cancer on October 2, 1994. |
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 John with Senator Howell Heflin (D), AL
John’s second congressional internship in the summer of 1984 was with former United States Senator and retired Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Howell T. Heflin (D) AL. Heflin was Alabama’s senior Senator from 1979 to 1997 and served our state as Chief Justice for the Alabama Supreme Court from 1971 to 1977. He is recognized as a legal authority and was often called Judge by many of his Senate colleagues. Senator Heflin served on Ethics and Judiciary and the controversial Iran-Contra committee. Learn more about this Alabama legend in his new book, A Judge in the Senate or click here. |
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 Bill Nichols (D), AL and JohnIt was Congressman Bill Nichols who offered John his first internship in Washington, D. C. during the summer of 1983. While working in Nichols’s office, John developed a deeper sense respect and admiration for the senior member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Congressman Nichols was a football letterman and captain of the team at Auburn University, a decorated World War II Veteran, long time member of the Auburn University Board of Trustees, and Alabama state house veteran of both legislative bodies. Nichols served Alabama in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1967 until his death in December of 1988. He was a member of the House Armed Services Committee and co-authored the Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act of 1986, which is considered the most significant defense legislation since the National Security Act of 1947. He is one of John’s most admired leaders of all time. |
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 Pelham
Jones MerrillOne of John’s relatives and most admired heroes, Judge Pelham J. Merrill, served in the Alabama legislature for three terms (twice as Speaker Pro Tempore) and sat on the State Supreme Court from 1953 – 1976, where he also served as senior justice. Today, Judge Merrill is still considered one of the most conservative justices to ever have served on the Alabama Supreme Court. Due to his high admiration for Judge Merrill, John named his son, Pelham Brooks, after the distinguished Alabama public servant. Merrill served as a model Christian political leader. During his service of Supreme Court justice, Merrill taught Sunday school at First Baptist Church in Montgomery. In September of 1998 the front grounds at the University of Alabama School of Law were named in honor of Judge Merrill. More information can be found about Justice Pelham Merrill in The Heritage of Cleburne County, Alabama, The Story of Alabama, and in the Alabama Public Television Documentary on Judge Pelham J. Merrill. |
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 John
and Cindy with Governor George WallaceThis photo was taken on May 17, 1985, as John and Cindy were heading back home to Tuscaloosa from their honeymoon in Gulf Shores. George Corley Wallace is considered by many to be the most successful politician in Alabama’s history, and to learn more about his life and political career, click here or read the biography, Wallace by Bill Jones, or watch the American Experience production of "George Wallace: Settin' the Woods on Fire" on PBS. |
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Friends of John H. Merrill - P. O. Box 2117 Tuscaloosa, Al 35403 Copyright ® 2009-2010 - All Rights Reserved Revised : June 03, 2010 |