Brim
In 1934, Rod M. Brim had no choice but to go straight to work after graduating from high school in rural Georgia. America was in the midst of the Great Depression, and Brim had to help support his family.
He started as a clerk for an automotive parts company, Genuine Parts, in 1935.
For the next 35 years, Brim worked nearly seven days a week as an auto-parts executive.
In 1970, Brim retired to Tallahassee. Since then, FSU and the community have reaped the benefits of his generous financial and organizational support.
A school-of-hard-knocks graduate, a man who by self-determination rose to lead multi-million dollar companies, Brim is so modest as to credit a large part of his success to "luck."
"I was in the right place at the right time, though it was certainly also a matter of hard work," Brim recalls. "When my friends and I got out of school, our only thoughts were of finding a job."
When Brim started with Genuine Parts, the company had 35 employees, inventory was tracked on paper and the Depression had put millions out of work.
"It sounds trite now, but back then when you were hired, no one told you how much you got paid or what your work hours were," Brim recalls. "I didn't know what I was making until I got my first pay envelope at the end of the week. I got paid $15. It doesn't seem like much now, but I felt fortunate to be working."
When he left Genuine Parts in 1960, Brim joined an auto-engine-rebuilding company as co-president, a position created for him as the firm's president prepared to retire. Brim then led the effort to merge that company with Genuine Parts, which today is a publicly traded $7-billion-a-year business with 15,000 employees.
Brim's introduction to FSU sports came when football fans had little to brag about with dismal 0-11, or 1-10 seasons. A friend persuaded him to buy 50-yard-line season tickets for $100.
"Because we bought those tickets, my wife and I started going to games," he says. So we'd stay 'til halftime, pay our respects and then we'd go. "
Things turned a-round, says Brim, when Bobby Bowden took the reins of the team, and Bernie Sliger became FSU's president.
"He's really a remarkable man," Sliger says of Brim.
Brim has given FSU more than $1.3 million for athletic and academic purposes. In 1993, Brim endowed the Rod and Hope Brim Eminent Scholar Chair in Economics.
"No one asked him to do that," Sliger said with a laugh.
"But when he was trying to figure out who to give it to, I suggested he give it to economics because that's my field, And he did."
Money isn't the only thing Brim is generous with. He readily lends his
organizing experience and energy to civic groups and other organizations.