ABBEVILLE, Ala. — According to Forbes.com, Jimmy Rane is still Alabama’s richest resident, with a net worth of $700 million. Rane, a self-made millionaire, earned his fortune through his lumber company Great Southern Wood. The company, headquartered in his hometown of Abbeville, is the largest of its kind in the world. He has also become famous for his cowboy alter ego, the Yella Fella, who appears in his company’s commercials warding off bandits.
Rane founded Great Southern Wood Preserving in Abbeville 46 years ago when he started peddling treated lumber out of the back of a red, 1961 pickup truck. Over fifty years later, the company is the top player on the world stage.
“We’re in 27 U.S. states, every Caribbean country, every Central American country, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Uraguay, China, and Taiwan,” Rane had told Yellowhammer last year. “We’re competing on a world stage.”
The company employs roughly 1,000 people around the globe, but through it all, he has remained fiercely loyal to his rural Alabama hometown.
Rather than expanding Great Southern Wood’s Abbeville headquarters as the company grew, Rane instead chose to purchase and renovate buildings in other parts of town, like the old Standard Oil gas station, and turn them into usable office space. By doing that, the company’s exponential growth has had an even greater impact on the town.
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The size of Rane’s wealth is only rivaled by the size of his generosity. In addition to leading the efforts to preserve and sustain his hometown and improve his home state, Rane has also proven his commitment to giving the next generation of leaders the opportunity to succeed. The Jimmy Rane Foundation was founded in 2000 and since then has given out millions of dollars in college scholarships to over 300 deserving students.
Most recently, Rane donated $12 million to Auburn University to create a revolutionary culinary science center in his parents’ name. The new facility, which will be called the Tony and Libba Rane Culinary Science Center, was approved by the Auburn University Board of Trustees on April 7. The building will be a multi-use facility that will include a restaurant, practice kitchens, a beverage appreciation center, a spa, meeting and boardrooms, hotel rooms, and luxury apartments.
Alabama and Abbeville may not have any billionaires, but they sure do have Jimmy Rane.
