Tuscaloosa’s Hall Of Fame Welcomes Three Remarkable Inductees
Three well-known and influential members of the Tuscaloosa community are now officially in the Tuscaloosa County Civic Hall of Fame. D. Bradley Cork, Walter Nichols, and Sarah Patterson have each had multiple major impacts on the county. They were inducted into the hall's 25th class during Tuesday ceremonies.
D. Bradley Cork is President of Phifer, Inc. He was born in San Francisco but decided to return to Tuscaloosa when he was a child. He was educated in Tuscaloosa City Schools and graduated from The University of Alabama with a degree in finance.
After a brief career in banking, Cork joined the family business in 1974, Phifer Inc., and has served as company president since 2013. He has served on numerous boards and was a founding board member of the Bank of Tuscaloosa (Synovus).
In 2015, the United Way of West Alabama’s Alexis de Tocqueville Society selected Brad and Susan Cork as recipients of the Family of the Year honor. In 2023, Cork was recognized as a Pillar of the Community by the Community Foundation of West Alabama.
Walter Gary Nichols has more than 52 years of industrial experience and is a true example of working his way up the corporate ladder.
In 1967, Nichols moved to Tuscaloosa from Phenix City to attend the University of Alabama and made the community his home. He was hired to be a summer laborer at McAbee Construction while still a student at UA. He worked into a full-time position with the company when he graduated with a degree in mathematics and a minor in chemistry. Nichols worked his way up through the company, eventually being named President and COO of McAbee in 1998, a position he held until 2021, when he was named president emeritus.
He served as chairman of the board of Junior Achievement of Tuscaloosa County for more than 10 years and continues as a board member. In 2018, Nichols received Junior Achievement’s Bronze Leadership Award, which honors volunteer excellence in supporting and expanding student impact, increasing resources, and strengthening operational excellence and sustainability.
Sarah Patterson was hired by the late Paul W. Bryant to be the University of Alabama's gymnastics coach to bring a winning program to The Capstone, something she did along with her husband David.
During their tenure their 36-year tenure the University of Alabama gymnastics team won six NCAA championships and eight SEC titles. She won more than 1,000 meets and led her teams to an NCAA-best 22 top three finishes at the national championships. Patterson was the first coach in SEC history, regardless of sport, to win NCAA titles in four different decades, with championships in 1988, 1991, 1996, 2002, 2011, and 2012.
Patterson was named National Coach of the Year four times and SEC Coach of the Year four times. In 2003, she was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame. She also served as senior women’s administrator at Alabama from 1985 to 1996 and as associate athletics director for community and university relations from 1996 to 2014. Patterson completed stints on the SEC Executive Committee, the NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Committee and the NCAA Recruiting Committee during her career.
Patterson retired in 2014 and became actively involved in the community, especially with United Way. As the 2017 United Way of West Alabama fundraising campaign chair, the organization recorded a record-setting $2 million. At the request of Mayor Walt Maddox, she also serves on the Elevate Tuscaloosa board and spent eight years on the board of the Tuscaloosa Tourism and Sports Commission.
They will be added to the Hall of Fame Wall located at Government Plaza downtown.
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