UA Special Collections Building to be Dedicated in Honor of Mary Harmon Bryant on Sept. 1

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Special Collections Building at The University of Alabama will be dedicated in honor of Mary Harmon Black Bryant, wife of legendary football coach Paul W. “Bear” Bryant, at a 10:30 a.m. ceremony on Saturday, Sept. 1.

The public is invited to the ceremony, which will be at the building, located on Hackberry Lane across from Gordon Palmer Hall on the UA campus.

The ceremony will include a short biographical sketch of Mrs. Bryant, presented by UA Trustee Emeritus John Caddell, followed by the dedication of the building. After the ceremony, tours of the building will be offered and will include special displays of Mrs. Bryant’s memorabilia, including formal gowns and other special garments.

Born in Troy on Sept. 1, 1915, Mary Harmon Black grew up in Birmingham and attended UA where she met Paul Bryant, then a UA football player. The couple graduated from the University in 1935 and married later than summer. The Bryants had two children, Mae Martin and Paul Jr. Mrs. Bryant was active in charity work throughout her life and was honored by the UA National Alumni Association as Alumna of the Year in 1983.

In a tribute published by The Tuscaloosa News following Mrs. Bryant’s death in 1984, she was remembered as a “strikingly handsome woman whose reticence served to complement her husband’s larger-than-life image” and whose “qualities were a tower of strength to her husband, her family, and those who knew her.”

The newly-named Mary Harmon Bryant Hall will continue to house special collections ranging from the geologic to the zoologic to the domestic. The first floor of the building holds the Alabama State Oil and Gas Board/Geological Survey of Alabama’s rock samples and drilling cores. The second floor houses the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library, containing research materials documenting the unique historical and cultural experiences of The University of Alabama and its people. On the third floor, the Alabama Museum of Natural History conserves a broad array of collections including paleontology, mammalogy, history, ethnology, ornithology, osteology, mineralogy, entomology and photography. The herbarium and the ichthyological, herpetological and mollusk collections of the UA department of biological sciences are located on the fourth floor.