Reginald "Reggie" Hamner is a native of Northport, AL. He was valedictorian of the 1957 Class of Tuscaloosa County High School, and obtained both an undergraduate degree and law degree from the University of Alabama. He began his legal career in Montgomery as a law clerk at the Supreme Court of Alabama in 1965.

Following his clerkship, he served on active duty as a Judge Advocate in the U.S. Air Force. He remained in the active reserves, retiring as a Colonel after 30 years of service in 1995. Upon his release from active duty, he returned to Montgomery, where he resides today.

He was elected as secretary and executive director of the Alabama State Bar on June 1, 1969, and retired in 1994. Serving in the American Bar Association’s governing House of Delegates for 10 years, he was a charter member of the ABA Standing Committee of Bar Activities and Services and the first bar executive to serve on the ABA Standing Committee on Continuing Legal Education, which launched the first offerings of continuing legal education by satellite.

After his service with the Alabama State Bar, he was selected to be the Court Project Coordinator representing the U.S. District Court during the construction of the annex to the Frank M. Johnson, Jr. Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse. He later served the same role in the restoration and renovation of the Frank M. Johnson, Jr. Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse.

He continues to serve on the court’s History Committee and recently completed 12 years as a trustee of the Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Historical Society. He serves on the Alabama State Bar Lawyers Hall of Fame Selection Committee.

Always committed to a better Alabama for its citizens, Hamner [also] served 11 years as a director of the Alabama Humanities Foundation, first elected in 2004. After his elected terms expired, he was appointed as one of the Governor’s appointees.

Excerpted from the Alabama Humanities Foundation.