by WKRG Staff/The Associated Press
Published: Mon, June 15, 2009 - 2:58 pm CST
Last Updated: Tue, June 16, 2009 - 11:03 am CST
Leroy Hill, founder of Mobile-based Leroy Hill Coffee Company, Inc., has died. A company spokesperson says Hill passed away Friday at Mobile Infirmary Hospital after a brief illness. He was 76-years-old.
Hill started out as a Maxwell House salesman for the Belford Company in 1953. He was transferred from Savannah, Georgia to Mobile three years later where he started a branch of the Belford Company. When Mr. Belford died in 1968, Hill purchased the Mobile branch and renamed it. Leroy Hill Coffee Company now has 22 locations in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi.
"He had a never-ending desire to provide his customers with the
best quality and service in the industry," his family said in a
prepared statement.
Former Mobile Mayor Mike Dow said charitable causes could always
count on Hill.
Former state Sen. Garry Tanner of Grand Bay said Hill used to
come into his Crispy Chick restaurant in Grand Bay three or four
times a week for "farmer talk over coffee." Tanner said Hill may
have been a major executive, but he enjoyed talking about ranching
and growing corn.
Hill's career was not without controversy. In 1996, he was convicted of rigging bids to buy 80 acres of state land in Grand Bay. He was sentenced to 15 months in prison and ordered to pay more than $160,000.
He emerged from a federal prison camp in early 1999 and went back to work at his company.
His funeral is scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday at Radney Funeral Home in Mobile, followed by a graveside service at Mobile Memorial
Gardens.
Hill is survived by his wife, Debbie Hill; two sisters, Doris Gatlin and Dorthy Brooks Hicks, both of Mobile; sons Roy Wayne Hill of Puyallup, Wash., and Todd Hill and Brian Hill, both of Grand Bay; daughter Debra Stewart of Mobile; stepdaughter Brandy Ramsay of Grand Bay; and 13 grandchildren.
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