Harbert Alexander left legacy of seeing the best in people on Jackson
Harbert Alexander, Sr., was known by a number of different things in Jackson.
Banker, historian, philanthropist, farmer, helper and leader are the words that have come up the most when friends have offered condolences to the family this past week.
Alexander died on April 24 at the age of 82.
“The good thing was that dad already had his celebration of life planned out for us, and we just had to set everything up that he told us he wanted,” said Alexander’s son, Harbert Jr. “And it’s been unreal the number of people who’ve reached out to either my mom or one of us kids – locally and really across the South.”
Alexander had worked his way up Union Planters Bank and was responsible for the bank locations in multiple states before stepping away from them and joining Bank of Jackson after Regions bought Union Planters.
“A lot of people think of dad as a successful banker, and he was, but he was successful at banking because he was a people person,” the younger Alexander said. “He loved people, meeting new people, getting to know them, catching up with friends.
“And because of that he was really good at making connections, which is a key to a successful bank. He was an optimist who chose to believe the best about people, and you could tell that watching him interact with people – whether it was the CEO of a business or the guy cutting grass outside that business.”
Alexander worked hard to make Jackson a place that the generation behind him would want to either stay in when it grew up or come back to after the younger people had moved away.
“And our family is a good example of that because all of dad’s kids either stayed here or left and came back,” Harbert Alexander, Jr. said. “We were all born at Jackson General, we go to church at First Presbyterian just down the street from it and we all live in that part of town.”
According to his son, Harbert Alexander, Sr., was a great father, who included his children in everything he did, which included his trips to learn as much as he could about the history of the local area.
“I remember going out to places like the banks of the Hatchie as a kid and walking around places where he was told settlements were, and we’d find old arrowheads and things like that,” Harbert Alexander, Jr. said. “And in a way that continued after I’d grown up.
“After we bought my house, dad was with me as we were tilling up the ground for a garden, we dug up an old bullet from the Civil War. He taught us, and when he spoke to groups about local history, he wanted us to learn that history is a lot of the time right under our noses and we don’t know it. I think a lot of people learned that lesson from him.”
Reach Brandon Shields at bjshields@jacksonsun.com. Follow him on Twitter @JSEditorBrandon or on Instagram at editorbrandon.
This article originally appeared on Jackson Sun: Harbert Alexander left legacy of seeing the best in people on Jackson
