Though the image of businesspeople can suffer tarnish at the holidays, it s important to remember Kris Kringle won that trial against Macy s, moneylender Scrooge changed his evil ways, and in It s a Wonderful Life, the symbol of charity and decency played by small-town banker Jimmy Stewart defeated greed and rancor, by virtue of his relationships becoming the richest man in town.
James Benjamin Flemming, Jr., known as Jim, died Thursday Dec. 31, 2020 at DCH Regional Medical Center, after a lifetime successfully blending business and civic engagement, seeing professional and charitable work as inextricably intertwined. He was definitely more George Bailey than Old Man Potter, laughed Mark Sullivan, who succeeded Flemming as president and CEO of Bank of Tuscaloosa.