(car engine starting) (garage door whirring) - This is what you know would call the mall here and you notice the Washington Monument there, which is 555 feet tall.

Washington was a very wealthy man and he would loan money to keep the government operating and then when the government got enough money to pay him back and he had a little surveyor's book that he kept a record of it.

So he really is the father of our country.

He even financed it to be (indistinct) (trumpet blows) - They gravitated toward him because of the way he treated other people.

- He could enter a room and make everybody his friend.

- He treated all those people with respect.

- I think the man woke up every morning thinking to himself, what am I gonna do for my constituents today?

What am I gonna do for Alabama today and what am I gonna do for the nation today?

(dramatic music) (phone ringing) - Yes.

Oh yes, I'll be glad to talk to him.

Hello, Al how are you doing?

All right.

Well, I'd be glad to help on it.

I sure will.

Go right ahead.

(upbeat music) - You know, a great deal of the goals and the work Tom Bevill did in Congress reflected his early life.

From Townley, Alabama, small coal mining community.

His parents, Herman and Fanny had a little country store.

They lived behind it.

It was their livelihood, it was their business, it was their view on life.

- His father was a coal miner who came out of mines.

You wouldn't believe where he came out 'cause the coal mines, they didn't have protection like they do now.

It was just a dark hole.

My sister and I both been out there and seen it where he came out of.

I wouldn't go down in there for anything.

So that's his background.

His father was a coal miner.

And he came out in the open and he said I'm not going back down in that hole anymore and he opened the country store.

And dad worked in the store and that's what he came from.

- But I remember that just the two of us in the store there one morning, one Sunday morning and this fellow came in and he said talking to my daddy, he says Herman says, I just got up my family and I, we don't have a vital food in the house this morning.

We've gotta have something to eat.

And he said, I don't know when I could pay it.

As a matter of fact, I don't know whether I can ever pay you and my dad didn't say anything.

He just went over and cut off a big hunk of white meat, 80 cents a pound white meat and a big Niccolo for bread.

But I never will forget the expression on that man's face.

He was humiliated, he was a working man, he was a good man and this was typical.

- [Narrator] Growing up in the early twenties, Tom and his family lived through the great depression.

His father's kindness, despite desperate times helped shape his view on life in many ways.

- Coal minors would come in and many of these miners toward the end of the month had no money and Herman Bevill believed they should still eat.

- Tom saw this and at the same time, what was going on was the new deal, FDR's New Deal.

- FDRs New Deal was based upon the idea that the great depression was caused by under consumption that too many Americans couldn't afford to participate in this new consumer society.

- So the two goals were to get money into people's hands so that they could buy the new consumer products but also provide the infrastructure so that they could actually use them.

The TVA and the rural electrification corporation are two great examples of this not only did they hire people, provide them with good paying jobs and income but it also brought the electricity that was going to allow them to use these new consumer products like radios and washers.

- And you know we had a Speaker of the House from Jasper Alabama, Bill Bankhead and William Bankhead supported the New Deal.

And all of a sudden the people around Northern Alabama supported it because it meant jobs.

It meant programs to take care of people when they needed it most and it meant bringing tax dollars back to the state.

- [Narrator] Even as a young man, Tom became acutely aware of what was happening around him.

He paid attention to how the government provided help during this difficult season of life for many Americans.

- And Mr. Bevill realized, the new deal may be gone but it's time for another deal.

And he was gonna make sure he was part of bringing meaningful programs, not just the money but meaningful programs to help people improve their jobs, improve their education, improve their health and improve their outlook on America.

- [Narrator] His desire to better equip himself for the future led him to the University of Alabama where he met his wife.

(soft music playing) - Mom and dad met at the University of Alabama.

They were in class together in the School of Commerce and dad was believe it or not, he would say believe it or not, he was kind of a shy guy, shy and quiet.

We never believed that.

- And to him that was such a great gift to go to a university.

He got self-respect, he got ideas and he got himself the dream woman of his life, Lou Beets.

- Mom wore a bright red coat to class one day and that caught dad's eye and he gradually moved up from the back row to the front to be next to her and they met that way.

- [Narrator] Tom married his college sweetheart, the former Lou Beets of Margaret, Alabama.

- I spoke to the West Alabama Chamber of Commerce Breakfast this morning and I told him I always feel right at home on this campus but the most important thing that this university did for me, I found my wife here.

- What I remember is the wedding and the wedding was held in our living room in front of the fireplace and presided over by the Methodist preacher of our little church.

And I remember there was some misunderstanding about whether a marriage license issued in Jefferson county where they had bought their marriage license was good in St. Clair County where they were getting married.

And so you know we didn't have phones, cell phones and quick communication.

So somebody jumped in the car and went county Saint and ask them and came back and they said, yes, you can get married.

I remember the wedding and I remember just being amazed at Tom Bevill because there he was, he graduated, he had been commissioned a second Lieutenant in the U.S army and there he was and I'm telling you just as a kid, I remember how absolutely stunning he was in his unit.

- [Narrator] Tom Bevill joined the ROTC program at the university.

Shortly after marrying his college sweetheart, the war intervened and Tom went off to World War Two.

(dramatic orchestral music) In 1940, the Japanese empire signed a pact with Germany and moved to establish the Southeast Asian empire.

However, the United States Navy's Pacific fleet stood in the way of the invasion taking the United States by surprise.

The Japanese deployed 360 aircraft to bomb the U.S Naval base on Pearl Harbor claiming the lives of over 2000 American troops.

The United States of America entered the war.

(airplane engine roaring) During world war II, more than 400,000 Americans lost their lives.

- He went into Normandy and had responsibility for caring for prisoners of war.

Even later on, veterans they didn't talk about the war.

They didn't talk about what they did in the war.

- Whatever darkness he saw or experienced, he kept that to himself.

He didn't share that with us.

- D-day is really considered the turning point of the war.

on June 6th, 1944, the United States and the allies invaded continental Europe in France.

The allies had been planning to open a second front in Europe for over a year and put tremendous pressure on Nazi, Germany.

And really is the beginning of the end of the war in Europe.

(gunshot fires) D-Day is going to be very costly in human lives but it is essential to bring about the end of the war.

It will be something that the men who participate will never forget.

(airplane engine whirring) - There were a number of his colleagues later in the house who were in that as fighter pilots, as parachutists, as every other kind of service people.

And, you know having all those service people then go to Congress was a blessing.

But Tom Bevill understood the role of the United States in defeating Hitler.

(upbeat music) - He was very proud of being a member of the military.

- He stayed in the reserve and he was a Lieutenant Colonel when he got out.

Military background was big in developing him, discipline.

- Mom went to Miami and worked for the Department of Censorship and was a code girl 'cause she had that language.

- She was a woman far beyond her times.

Maybe somebody today would call her a feminist but she never saw herself as a feminist.

She saw herself as a person who could contribute to the war efforts, reading letters, finding if there were spy things in them.

- [Narrator] On September 2nd, 1945, after six years and some 75 million casualties, the United States and their allies had defeated the Germans.

- The war itself changed a whole generation of men particularly southerners.

And when they returned home, they weren't satisfied with the status quo and they were determined to change the focus of politics towards individuals and the lives of the people in their communities and Tom Bevill was precisely that man.

- After the war, they had the GI Bill which enabled him the opportunity to go to law school.

He thought he would be a CPA and he knew that to be a CPA, you needed a little bit of knowledge about the law.

So he thought he would use the GI Bill and go to law school and for maybe a year.

But once he got in there, he really loved the law and so he finished law school.

- And when he graduated from law school, he opened a practice in Jasper.

- And he was the kind of lawyer who took your case and worked until he got it sold.

He prided himself on being able to talk, communicate, express somebody's problem to a judge and jury.

- [Narrator] Tom Bevill practiced law in Jasper for 18 years and was licensed to practice before the Alabama Supreme court, the United States district court and the United States Supreme Court.

- I don't know at what point he just, you know, the thought bubble said, I'm gonna run, he got so involved in Jasper.

He was building his law practice and he joined the Lions Club and got involved in all these different groups.

And he would become president of that group and this group, chairman of the Board of Walker Junior College.

He kinda climbed up whatever ladder he was on.

- And everybody put him on all these committees and whatever in Jasper then somebody said well, you hot around for office you know.

- After college, after law school, he had a practice and decided that he should run for the legislature, he'd be able to help people more.

So he did that, served for eight years in Montgomery.

- Then he became a floor leader for the house and was there about eight years and then he ran for Congress.

- [Narrator] In 1966, the current Congressman James Martin retired opening a door for Tom Bevill to run for his open seat.

- He won that primary and then the election moving from Montgomery to Washington.

- [Narrator] Soon after Tom and his family left Montgomery, Alabama and headed north to one of the most important political capitals in the world, Washington DC.

- We worked so hard.

I mean, in the campaigns that was all of us all the time.

So we had just come through an election night, we had had breakfast with all the campaign volunteers around the ping pong table and dad said we were gonna be moving to Washington.

- And of course we were kind of upset about that 'cause we're leaving our friends, I was 14.

- The three of us did not handle that gracefully (laughing) while you were upset about it and I said, if I had known that I wouldn't have worked so hard to campaign for you.

We drove up.

It was the blizzard of 66 that we moved to Washington.

And I thought that's just the way it was gonna be.

I thought it just snowed like that all the time in winter.

- In hindsight, it was a great thing and great experience.

We got to do all kinds of things in Washington DC that we never got to do living in Jasper.

- So we moved up there and it was like a very different world.

- You know a part of being a politician is getting elected to office and sometimes it's not easy.

For Tom Bevill, it was easy because he did his campaigning throughout two years of service.

He'd come down to Alabama maybe every other weekend, he'd spend a lot of time here.

He'd spent time on the phone with people.

He was in constant communication and that was one of his goals to make Alabama's district that he represented the most well-informed district of any district in Congress.

He brought something different to the Congressional Delegation of Alabama.

What he brought was a genteel and experienced legislator.

- Tom was the first congressional candidate in Alabama history to receive 100,000 votes.

- [Narrator] In fact, Tom would go on to win 68 to 98.4% of the vote in the elections that followed.

In nearly half of his elections, he was unopposed.

- It was quite remarkable considering that Alabama's politics were changing in that time moving from the Democratic party to the Republican party.

- There wouldn't be any rural communities if we didn't have rural health.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] That's why Tom Bevill is fighting so hard to keep our rural hospitals open because he knows having a doctor nearby isn't a luxury.

In rural Alabama, it's the difference between life and death.

- We now, for the first time in history have a medical facility within 30 minutes of every citizen of my congressional district.

- [Narrator] Tom Bevill for Congress, building a better Alabama.

- When he first went to Washington and he looked around the statues and the rotunda and it's just, the Capitol building is all inspiring.

It's the history there and everything, the greatness and he looked around and thought, how did a country boy like me end up here?

- Good morning, good morning.

- Good morning, how are you?

- Fine.

- I better run with my schedule what you gave.

- It's fine.

- [Narrator] DC was the perfect place for Tom to demonstrate his political prowess.

Everywhere he went, he made a new friend or colleague.

His popularity enabled him to become one of the best coalition builders on Capitol hill.

- He had a relationship with the elevator operator.

He knew everybody.

- [Narrator] Tom and his family got settled in Washington DC and as a new Congressional wife, Lou stepped up in extraordinary ways.

- Mom was a true partner to dad.

She was someone he could confide and he could share things with her and she was very intelligent.

- Lou Beets was a woman of her own ability which she shared generously with Tom to extend his ability to represent her constituents too.

She was very active in the congressional spouses club, going to lectures, going to receptions, going to embassies, going to where the action was and she'd never just come home and say, oh Tom, I had a nice lecture today.

She would take shorthand notes, type them up and say, Tom, this is what happened today and I think you need to know this because of this reason.

- She would take newspapers and she'd clipped things that she thought he needed to see and he wouldn't have to go through the newspapers.

Anytime she could help him or always be with him if he needed her to go with him to events, she was always available.

- When he couldn't be somewhere, she was there.

(soft music playing) - And same time she was able to do what she wanted to do.

She had her friend that she played piano with in Washington and they gave her silos to concerts together to piano.

(piano music playing) I think that was her thing.

She was able to have something that was hers that was amusing.

- I sensed early on that she you know is musical 'cause my mother played the piano and so Lou would also got into playing the piano and she would play Clair de Lune, Rhapsody in Blue and all of those things that impressed me a lot.

- She was a concert pianist.

Hillary wanted Mrs. Bevill to play Christmas music at the White House for one of the parties and she did and she was thrilled to do that.

- After Lou finished her time playing, we went to the small dining room and had tea and cookies that were special at the White House.

- We've had friends who served in Congress whose wives to this day talk about the Bevills and particularly about Lou Bevill and what she did to help them find their way.

A lot of these young members, young spouses and they come from these far flung places in the country.

And then all of a sudden they find themselves living in Washington, DC and you know to have a Tom and Lou Bevill who were so stable, so kind just to be there to say, I'm gonna show you the ropes and how it works and just to embrace them.

So those were the kind of people that they were empowering, embracing, just always giving of themselves.

- Politicians today have the image of just being a politician.

Tom Bevill had the image of just being a regular guy who wanted to help people.

- Hey Ms. Brown?

Tom fine, how you doing?

- Congressman Bevill was a people person, he loved people.

And one thing about it when some of my constituents have problems, for instance that dealing with on the federal level, social security or whatever that issue might be, military or whatever, you know, I could pick up the phone or I get them to call him and he responded.

- Have you heard anything on your social security disability.

When I mailed you a letter yesterday on it and I just didn't have an opportunity to call you until today and so I just wanted to be sure that you were aware that your disability benefits on social security and have been approved.

- Congressman Bevill realized probably because of his days in the State legislature before he got elected to Congress, that there was one committee in Congress that could make a big difference back in his district and in his state and that was the Appropriations Committee.

- So Congressman Tom Bevill was the chairman of one of the house appropriations committees.

So there was at the time I believe 13 of these committees, they funded all of government.

So the defense department, the department of the interior, the energy department, the Army Corps of Engineers.

All of these things were covered by these committees.

So he served for many years as the chairman of the energy and water committee.

(people chattering) As a member of Congress and also as the chairman of an appropriations committee, energy and water, he was a pretty powerful member of Congress but he was certainly not the only member of Congress.

There are many others.

So he was among what I would call the Titans of the appropriations committee.

- Joel Arvin from Tennessee chaired it but he was getting ready to retire.

He retired and there's a long process but Mr. Bevill really was new on the appropriations and he got to be a subcommittee chairman and other people had waited 10 years on the committee to be one and he got to be one.

There's this thing called the Bevill luck that we talked about and it wasn't luck at all.

It was strategized.

- The chair recognizes the gentleman from Alabama.

- Mr. Chairman at the outset like to mention a couple of matters here that are of course, very critical to this subcommittee.

- So you think about Jamie Whitten from Mississippi, Bennett Johnston from Louisiana, Robert Byrd from West Virginia.

These were very powerful Titans of appropriations from other states and Tom Bevill was right there with them.

And in the nicest of ways, when these are people trying to get projects funding for West Virginia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tom Bevill was going to bat for Alabama.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Motivated to continue his service to his state, Tom Bevill began to focus his efforts on several new projects.

One of which was a highway system that spans 203 miles connecting cities between Alabama, parts of Mississippi and all the way to Memphis, Tennessee.

- The official name was the Birmingham to Memphis super highway and he insisted from the beginning that it be built to the standards of an interstate.

(car engine roaring) What role does that play a road between those two cities now much more than that because it then linked Northwest Alabama which had been left out of the interstate system.

It linked it to another big city and it took as an access point, a roadway that people could get to all along those counties.

- Mr. Chairman, the bill before us provides the appropriations and the amount of $20.9 billion for the year of the fiscal year 1991 on energy and water resource projects.

- Tom Bevill proved an exceptional politician using his position in Congress to bring home over 70 major projects to Alabama and earning him the title king of pork.

- And he would support these projects that people had elsewhere in the country but he made sure that Alabama was not being bypassed.

- [Narrator] In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson waged a war against poverty and initiated a new free vocational training program aimed at educating young men and women ages 16 to 24 who are struggling to find employment due to limited occupational skills and accomplishments.

Tom Bevill would adopt the program for Alabama.

- One thing for sure, whatever he did, he did it for the people.

Dove Cole was one of those projects where the government said, look, we're gonna give those young people an opportunity who have fallen short of education and opportunity and we're gonna train them and then we're gonna put them out there in the workforce.

- This was an example of Mr. Bevill.

He didn't wanna hear it was gonna be hard.

He didn't wanna hear why we couldn't do it.

He wanted it done.

- Job Cole not only took dropouts but they also took pass new graduates and it was unique at our campus because of the fact that it was on the college campus.

So a number of the young people there were able to get their GEDs plus get a two year degree from the college itself.

They had all kinds of trades, mechanic, carpentry, electrical, (indistinct), they had nursing.

So they had a number of trays up there at the school because of the fact that they were located on a tech campus.

I just don't know how the campus or the program would have survived without his support and without his help.

- Mr. Bevill was right and as a result, people got elevated in their lines.

- Whenever he saw a need and in this state, he was the cheerleader and the guy who led the fight to make sure that those things happen for the people.

- Mr. Secretary, this morning you made a statement there that I wish you'd expand on because I don't believe I followed you correctly.

You said the tax cut or in substance, the tax cut in 1981, stimulated the economy and without it, the debts would have been larger.

Did I understand that right?

(indistinct chattering) - We would not have had the incentives for further investment, for further spending on the product consumers.

- One of the unrecognized skills of Tom Bevill was his ability to strategize.

He had a goal and that goal was out there but he had to get a strategy, employ a strategy to get to it and he was good at that.

He played by the rules and he used those rules to get his goals.

- Tom Bevill was focused on economic development in Alabama particularly in helping local, rural working people be able to create a good life for themselves and their families.

- [Narrator] And one way that Mr. Bevill accomplished this was by funding an initiative designed to advance Alabama in the world of technology.

All the while improving economic growth.

This initiative was called the Alabama Technology Network.

- It was harder to be in the textile industry in the United States because labor was much cheaper in China, other parts of the world, that kind of thing.

So I think he realized that we had to embrace new technologies and make our companies as efficient and competitive as they could be to really come to grips and not just talk about global economics but a small town in Jacksonville, Alabama had to be involved in that global worlds.

So I think Bevill and his staff along with the university officials realized that was the way to do it.

- [Narrator] Tom felt that the more developed Alabama became in the world of technology and research, the more prepared his state would be in the global market.

- He was intensely focused on economic and community development particularly in smaller areas.

- And then for the general science and research, we have recommended $1 billion and of course, we are not keeping up with the rest of the industrialized world in science and research.

And I think we've got to do more and I assure every one of you is gonna agree with that.

- We realized that we needed to develop a chain if you will of technologies vendors so that small companies and companies that didn't have a lot of exposure to advanced technology and international global business could take a look at the stuff.

- I recommend this bill, it's a good bill.

I recommend it to you for your adoption and I hope that you will support it.

- [Narrator] He had a unique ability of partnering with other members of Congress on these projects no matter what their political affiliation was, a practice referred to as reaching across the aisle.

- This particular bill on appropriations for energy and water once was called the All-American bill.

Appropriately would be called the All-American bill because it touches every one of us in some faces - He could enter a room and make everybody his friend.

It didn't really matter what party you in, what color your skin was, what your status in life was.

- Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of HR, 2427.

As mentioned as a new member of this subcommittee, I would like to thank chairman Bevill and ranking member, John Myers, for their leadership and direction.

- Most basic walks of life to great international presidents and that kind of thing.

Bevill could reach out to everyone and when he left the room, everyone in the room felt like their friends had just left.

He was the master of partnership.

- Tom Bevill's 30 year career really helped to remake Alabama in the post civil rights struggle of Europe.

- Throughout the 14 counties that Mr. Bevill represented, people thought that that he was their guy up in Washington.

Presidents would refer to them as Mr. Chairman, colleagues says Mr. Bevill, in Alabama, Tom.

- [Announcer] When he's not at home, Tom's in Washington working to make your voice heard in the nations capitol.

- [Narrator] In 1977, Tom Bevill became chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development.

- And this is one of the most powerful committee chairmanships in the Congress.

From this position, he was able to wield tremendous power and a much greater power than the average Congressman and this earned him the nickname Alabama's third Senator.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] And with that power, he presented to Congress a bill that would be one of his biggest undertakings linking the maritime commercial and public navigation over a 234 mile manmade U.S waterway.

This project was the Tenn-Tom Waterway.

(dramatic orchestral music) (water flowing) - You know, some people hear the Tenn-Tom Waterway and they think it was Tenn Tom Bevill waterway and it wasn't, he wasn't the Tom.

It was the Tombigbee river, Tennessee river and the Tombigbee river.

Our ancestors 200 some years ago envisioned linking this, making a waterway down there to parallel the Mississippi river.

Mr. Bevill saw it as something that was great and it wasn't because it was in his district.

It was because it served a need for the Southeast.

- [Narrator] The Tenn-Tom runs from the Tennessee river to the junction of the black warrior Tombigbee river system, near Demopolis, Alabama.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Engineers literally creating their own river, an effort to put more traffic on the water.

- We're talking about cutting the cost of transportation down as much as 75% by using waterway-- - [Narrator] The project took 12 years to complete and is the largest project the Army Corps of Engineers ever attempted.

A major concern was the amount of wildlife habitat that would be disrupted by a project of this magnitude.

- What made the Tenn-Tom such a major project was it was the first waterway project, environmental project built under the new Environmental Protection Act.

As a result, it was subject to a lot of lawsuits from people who just didn't want any digging on the ground.

- [Narrator] And the requirement for many skeptics was to replace the lost wildlife habitat, no preparation for relocating and restoring the lost habitat had ever been made until Tom Bevill.

- It was a struggle and it was a struggle that took every ounce of ingenuity of courage and just plain old guts to get finished.

- [Narrator] Tom saw the importance of replenishing the habitat for wildlife acquiring thousands of acres of land and planting over one million trees.

This endeavor would offset the land needed to construct the waterway but there were still skeptics.

- Work on a Tennessee Tombigbee waterway was completed two years ahead of schedule but it's not living up to its projected economic impact.

- [Announcer] The 14 year project can make a difference for those in the right places.

With it for example, barges here in Guntersville are almost 900 miles closer to port.

- All of those associated with the Tennessee Tombigbee waterway say that it is still in its infancy, that it has nowhere come close to reaching its potential but it will and the entire area would enjoy the economic benefits.

(upbeat music) - Alabama's blessed with waterways but Tom Bevill was instrumental in making sure that those waterways were navigable.

- The Tenn-Tom represented an opportunity to open our waterways to the nation and really to the world.

Of all the people who were involved in it, of all the people he believed in it, saw its potential and then worked hard throughout his time in office to make it a reality, it was Congressman Bevill.

- [Narrator] At a cost of $2 billion, the Tennessee Tombigbee waterway officially opened in 1985.

Many criticized this new waterway as a complete waste of federal funds with Tom Bevill as its architect.

And for the first few years after its completion, such criticism appeared to be valid.

- It's a story of both good news and bad news on Alabama waterways.

Over all the system isn't-- - It was making a man-made canal linking the two waterways.

Some people wanted to stop it year completion.

It would've cost more to refill the land and to fix back to its natural condition thus the motive to stop it then to keep it going.

- [Announcer] The U.S army golden Knights precision parachute team opened the program by thrilling the audience with our precise landings directly in front of the speakers platform.

- [Narrator] But as predicted by Mr. Bevill, it would take a few years for the benefits of this massive investment to be felt.

- Bevill and his committee staff figured out a way to sell this thing in Congress.

Well, he took so many different groups down there that he built another coalition to keep that project going and he didn't do it for credit.

He did it because it was a need that had to be served and it was a need that helped get that project built.

So Mr. Bevill was a practical person.

Mr. Bevill was a political person but he was also a people person.

- [Announcer] Captain Richard Drake of the Golden Knights carried the first vial of water to be poured into a holding tank for a symbolic mixing of inland waters from the 23 states which the Tenn-Tom now connects.

- [Narrator] One study found that the waterway contributed nearly $43 billion in direct and indirect economic benefits to the United States and has created more than 29,000 jobs.

- Here today, people from Paducah, Kentucky shake hands with people from Pickensville, Alabama.

People from Pickwick, Tennessee shake hands with folks from Pensacola, Florida and so too will Pittsburgh meet Panama city and Minneapolis meet Montgomery.

Let others know that what we celebrate today in Columbus, Mississippi can enrich the lives of people a thousand miles from here on the banks of other great rivers.

And in this respect, the promise of the Tennessee Tombigbee is only just beginning.

(upbeat music) - Bevill didn't look to solve today's problems.

He looked to solve a decade from nows problems to make it better.

- [Narrator] One major source of pride for Tom was the incredible and competent staff that helped him navigate his 30 years as a Congressman.

Tom and his team built such mutual trust and friendship that Tom considered them an extension of his own family.

- He had our backs, he cared about us.

He made us want to get in there every single day and to do whatever we could for him.

- Tom Bevill made certain to include Alabama's higher education in his infrastructure development students and faculty at Jacksonville state, Auburn, the University of Alabama, UA Birmingham, UA Huntsville, Tuskegee, University of South AL and many more are benefiting today from Tom Bevill's belief in Alabama's future.

In addition, a primary focus became ensuring that aspects of his state would be well preserved which led him to his next endeavor.

- The idea for the Little River Canyon was given to Congressman Bevill and his eyes lit up like a Christmas tree.

He just saw the potential of that.

- The location really should be something that the experts decide.

We went to the Commissioner of Natural Resources who is this guy who is sort of familiar with Congress and with Alabama named Jim Martin, what land needs to be preserved?

What land has the most amount of endangered species, what land is there and blue river canyon popped up.

(water flowing) - That was how it started was what can I do for the people in the Eastern part of the state to provide them with these recreational opportunities, a place to take their children to go hiking or to be on water, go picnicking.

So he started talking to people.

What were some of the significant places in the Eastern part of the state that would qualify as something that would be of national significance.

(dramatic orchestral music) - Nothing great is ever built because there's a 100% unity in agreement.

- [Narrator] And for the Little River Canyon project, Bevill and his team would be met with opposition.

- Now, the opposition was not all wrong, there are things that need to be protected.

Rights of people, rights of land owners need to be protected and Bevill said, well, let's get them protected.

- So we just hit it head on.

He took the criticism, he dealt with it head on.

- This took a full frontal assault.

And Mr. Bevill had that goal again and the strategies to get there.

We took a plane load of members of Congress from the interior appropriations and interior committee for authorization and Mr. Bevill showed them, this is what needs to be protected.

Here's this green pitcher plant that needs to be protected.

It's in danger and they looked at this and said, Tom you're right, this is great stuff.

So that was a big boost.

- [Narrator] Tom was a man who was not afraid of controversy and was known to seek out people who oppose him.

As plans for Little River Canyon were being finalized, he was met by a crowd of protestors.

- They had signs, they had everything.

And the staff said, well, let's get over here and get out of that way and Mr. Bevill said, let's go talk to the protesters.

And he went over, got to them and said, hello, I'm here Congressman Tom Bevill, what can I do to help and they unloaded on him.

But he listened.

That's the job of a Congressman not to do all the time but to listen before you do and he listened.

Mr. Bevill made every considered move possible to have something at the end.

It would be a sense of pride for Alabama.

- And truly Little River sold itself.

Beautiful, beautiful, unique canyon, pristine surroundings, significant flora, fauna and just a place that we can all be really proud is now on the national radar is something that is preserved for future generations.

- [Narrator] As Tom approached the end of his time as a Congressman, it became apparent just how much he had done for his state.

But the political climate was shifting in Washington, DC and Tom felt it was time for a change.

In 1997, Tom Bevill retired from Congress and he along with his wife Lou left Washington DC and went back to Jasper, Alabama.

- He went out totally at the top of his game.

You know, he had all of these things that he had done and they were in good hands.

- [Narrator] News of Mr. Bevills retirement created an opportunity for many Alabamians to see how much he had done for the state of Alabama.

- Well, you can look at the projects and some people would say, well, maybe his greatest legacy was all that he helped build.

I would say, especially in light of where we are today, our country is so polarized and so politically divided.

The Tom Bevills legacy was his goodness and his decency, in the example he set of working with people across the aisle, working with people that perhaps he didn't always see eye to eye with or agree with for the greater good.

- Mr. Chairman, it's never any pleasure in this body to serve in the minority.

More than half of this body never experienced that.

I hope someday you get the opportunity to experience that.

Been hoping that for 24 years but someday, maybe I'll be lucky, but on this committee, it's no subcommittee, it's no problem and the full committee has no problem.

Thanks to the chairmanship of Chairman Bevill.

It's never a problem being a minority for that I thank you.

- He is a tremendous personality but he was a real laid back type person.

He was really accessible to everybody.

- His personality was such that anything you did with him was gonna be a good time.

- For somebody like that who is so vibrant, he was still so capable, able to get things done, a leader, a true leader, somebody that people respected from both sides of the aisle, he was just who he was.

- He truly loved what he was doing and helping people didn't matter whether you were black or white, rich or poor, he was there.

- I can't begin to list the number of projects that Mr. Bevill had an influence on because it's really too long of a list.

- I didn't even realize it at the time what a role model he was for me.

And I learned so much from him, the way to treat people, how to form partnerships, how to get things done, how to work across the aisle, how to just hit controversies straight on and just deal with it.

And I learned those things from him.

- We're in his house, now I've made it into a law office.

He practiced here with me, practice law here with me between '98 and when he died so five and people came in and drugs just the same and they all felt comfortable talking to him.

He had a lot of empathy for people that didn't have much.

And I think that dad wanted to be remembered as somebody that tries to help people.

- You know, I just hope that down the road, that they're gonna be other people who come along and who learn from his example of servant leadership but not just that who learn from his example of seeing into the future and to think into the future about what really matters to people and what do we need to do for them today so that their lives can be better tomorrow.

And I think if nothing else, that was his real legacy is I'm doing today but what I'm doing is for tomorrow.

- [Announcer] Tonight the American Legion is honoring members of Congress and Tom is stopping by to see-- - He was a military hero, he was at D-day but he never wore his military service on his leave as though he did something more special thing to anyone else.

- He talked about other people's sacrifices instead of his own.

He just wasn't going to employ that as a way of trying to burnish his image as a politician.

He saw it as his role as a citizen.

- And I was home during World War II.

I was young.

I watched my brothers and my sister go off to the war.

I lost a brother in the war and I think of Tom as a genuine member of the greatest generation.

- It really wasn't until his funeral when I heard him eulogized as a servant later.

And it was just an aha moment for me that in all of those 11, 12 years that I worked for him that that was what I was witnessing and that was what I was learning was the value of servant leadership.

- His impact on this state will be felt for many generations.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Tom Bevill dedicated his life to making tremendous and selfless contributions to the state of Alabama while simultaneously showing all those who paid attention how to be a true servant leader.

(upbeat music)