The name J. L. Bedsole appears on the IMAX Theater downtown. Who was he? Joseph Linyer Bedsole (1881-1975) was a Clarke County native who moved to Mobile in 1919 to operate a wholesale drug business. By the end of the decade, this enterprise had merged with McKesson and Robbins Drug Co., a firm with $75 million in sales. After moving to Mobile, Bedsole took an immediate interest in the city. He was elected president of the Mobile Chamber of Commerce and the Mobile Rotary Club. He helped organize the Community Chest, which today is the United Way of South Alabama. To diversify from the drug business, Bedsole founded Mobile Fixture and Equipment Company in 1927. The firm, now on Montlimar Drive, supplied restaurants, hotels and hospitals with everything from china to walk-in coolers. He also owned an interest in a hardwood sawmill. During the city's financial failings in the 1930s, Bedsole led a committee to find solutions. The city was about to default on bond repayments. But, Bedsole was able to work out a compromise. As a result, no bondholder lost any money. He was hailed for his expertise in bringing the city back to a sound financial basis. Bedsole, and his wife had one son, J. L. Bedsole Jr., born in 1921. Young Bedsole served as a pilot in World War II and would be recognized for his service with the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal and the Purple Heart Bernard Eichold, of the Mobile Drug Company, wrote Bedsole in December 1942: "We hope and pray for early victory and a just peace, so that all of us may resume our normal way of life, that all our boys - surely your son and my son - may soon be restored to their loved ones." Only one of those sons would return. In April 1944, J.L. Bedsole Jr. volunteered for a routine mission over Germany. The plane never came back. It was not until that July that a telegram arrived at the Bedsoles' door. Two years later, J.L. Bedsole Sr. and his wife bought Adm. Raphael Semmes' former home on Government Street. They restored it and donated it to First Baptist Church in memory of their son. In the late 1940s, Bedsole turned his attention to the Mobile Infirmary, which had greatly outgrown its 1910 structure. He served as chairman of the building committee, and in 1952 a new $4 million hospital was completed. Education was another interest. He assisted in raising $1.5 million to establish Mobile College - today's University of Mobile. The university's library was dedicated to him in 1971. In 1972, when efforts were being made to preserve the abandoned City Hospital on St. Anthony and Broad streets, Bedsole stepped forward. His $500,000 donation was the largest ever made to historic preservation in Mobile. It saved the handsome 1836 structure from destruction. J. L. Bedsole died in 1975 at the age of 94. To the very end, he had a keen interest in seeing this part of the state succeed. His foundation continues to do that today. In addition to funding the IMAX Theater, the Bedsole Foundation has given college scholarships and work-study stipends to hundreds of local residents. The recipients are encouraged to return to south Alabama and give back as J.L. Bedsole surely did. Image information: Main: J.L. Bedsole, left, and his son, Lt. J.L. Bedsole Jr. PHOTOS COURTESY J.L. BEDSOLE FOUNDATION Left: The former home of Adm. Raphael Semmes, next to First Baptist Church on Government Street, was restored in memory of Lt. Bedsole. S. Blake McNeely Collection, USA Archives Center and Right: City Hospital was restored thanks to Bedsole's $500,000 gift - the largest single donation to a restoration project in Mobile. USA ARCHIVES