Pioneering Alabama businessman Jimmy Pursell passes away

Jimmy Pursell, known for his generous philanthropy and for building an East Alabama fertilizer company into a global industry leader, has died. He was 89.

Pursell passed away on Sunday, according to a message from Pursell Farms.

On behalf of his family, the East Alabama landmark he co-founded remarked, “Beloved family patriarch and Pursell Farms co-founder Jimmy Pursell, known to many as Mr. Jimmy, passed yesterday. He was dearly loved.”

Pursell’s life began on the land he and generations of his family would call home as the result of matchmaking by Sylacauga native and world-renown entertainer Jim Nabors.

It was Nabors who introduced Pursell to his future wife based on some events that happened in a high school football game between Sylacauga and Pursell’s Talladega team. Pursell broke his leg his senior year of high school while playing at Sylacauga. The next day, Nabors organized a group to visit Pursell in the hospital, and a life-long friendship resulted.

While the men were in college, Nabors invited Pursell to a friend’s house in Sylacauga to see an electric razor, a brand new invention at the time. It was there that Pursell saw the razor and his future wife, Chris, who was a member of the Parker family.

After marrying Chris, Pursell joined the family business under Howard Arrington Parker’s tutelage. Sylacauga Fertilizer Company had been founded in 1904 and was a successful business when Pursell took over in the 1960s. However, with a technological innovation discovered under Pursell’s leadership, the company became a giant in the fertilizer industry.

The company developed and patented the POLYON fertilizer technology used to manufacture a coating for application to any type of fertilizer product. The thicker the coating, the longer the product would last with Pursell’s company developing different grades for different uses. Certain grades were developed for agriculture, others for tasks as sensitive as fertilizing golf course greens. The release technology allowed it to last anywhere from six weeks to one-and-a-half years.

In a conversation with Yellowhammer News last year, Pursell’s son, David, described the impact the innovation had on the fertilizer industry and agriculture and gardening consumers who relied upon it.

“It was kind of like rocket fuel compared to kerosene,” said David Pursell. “We’re from Sylacauga, Alabama. I can’t overemphasize that more. We were competing against public companies that were operating in foreign countries and whatever, and we were just Sylacauga. We only had one plant and it was right here in downtown Sylacauga.”

The company eventually moved its headquarters from downtown Sylacauga to the family property outside of town and onto the land that is now Pursell Farms.

Jimmy Pursell and his family sold the fertilizer company in 2006 and then began to operate one of the nation’s premier golf and vacation destinations on their East Alabama property.

Visitors to Pursell Farms are greeted by a message from Psalm 111, which reads, “Great are the works of the Lord. He has made His wonders to be remembered.”

About Jimmy Pursell, his family wrote, “He left behind the most incredible legacy and he will be missed dearly by family, friends and his extended Pursell Farms family.”

Tim Howe is an owner of Yellowhammer Multimedia