A Living Tribute

UAB Women & Infants Center Receives Support from Hill Crest Foundation

Price Hightower

“Price Hightower was one of the finest individuals I have ever known,” says Charles Terry, chairman of the Hill Crest Foundation. “His integrity, sound judgment, and compassion for others endeared him to all who knew him. His death left a huge vacancy in the lives of his family and friends.”

Mr. Hightower, a Hill Crest Foundation board member and beloved business and family man was tragically killed in a traffic accident in 2009. He has been memorialized by the foundation through a gift to UAB. The organization has generously contributed $750,000 to name the women’s perioperative services (post-anesthesia recovery) area in the new UAB Women & Infants Center in his honor.

“I was deeply touched by the Hill Crest Foundation’s generous commitment,” says Shirley Salloway Kahn, Ph.D., UAB vice president for development, alumni, and external relations. “The foundation has certainly been a generous supporter of UAB and many other wonderful organizations in Birmingham. Its contribution to the Women & Infants Center at UAB will certainly be a wonderful tribute to Mr. Hightower.”

A Birmingham native, Price Hightower was a highly respected businessman and community leader. After serving in the U.S. Army’s intelligence branch in Germany as a young man, he graduated from Birmingham-Southern College. Afterward, he joined his father-in-law’s automoblie dealership, Steel City Oldsmobile, and later became sole owner in 1980. Under his leadership, the company received national recognition for its sales volume, customer care, profitability, and community service. He became president of the Birmingham Automobile Dealers Association as well as the Auto Dealers Association of Alabama. At the height of his career, he was awarded the prestigious Quality Dealer Award for the state of Alabama by Time magazine. He also served on the General Motors President’s Council.

In addition to his business activities, Mr. Hightower devoted a great deal of time to civic and church endeavors. He was an active member of the Kiwanis Club of Birmingham and served as president of the Birmingham Better Business Bureau, where he was inducted into the bureau’s hall of fame. He was a regular volunteer for the Meals on Wheels program and was a charter member of UAB’s Golden One Hundred Club. He spent a number of years as a trustee of the Hill Crest Foundation. An active member of Canterbury United Methodist Church for many years, Mr. Hightower served as a Sunday school teacher, chairman of the administrative board, and chairman of the Canterbury 2000 Building Project.

Mr. Terry adds that the Hill Crest Foundation’s gift in memory of Price Hightower is particularly appropriate. “A number of worthy projects were considered, but the UAB Women & Infants Center was chosen because of Price’s unusual devotion to his own family, and also his desire to reach out and help others who were not as fortunate as himself.”

A dedicated family man, Mr. Hightower and his wife, Anne, shared 47 happy years of marriage together and had two children and four grandchildren in whose lives the couple remained very involved. “I am certain that Price would have been both pleased and deeply humbled by the honor of having the Women’s Perioperative Services suite named for him,” Mrs. Hightower says. “He would have felt deep satisfaction in knowing that this unit will minister to the health and well-being of countless families in our area for years to come.”

Maintaining the Momentum / Winter/Spring 2010