Former State Representative and State Senator William L. “Bill” Roberts III of Mobile, a leader in Alabama’s elder care field, died on Tuesday. He was 85.
Roberts was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives in 1970. He served on the House Health and Conservation Committees.
In his first year, he was chief sponsor of the Alabama Air Pollution Control Act and the Alabama Water Pollution Control Act, work that earned him the Governor’s Conservation Award in 1972.
He was also chief sponsor of the Tuberculosis Reorganization Treatment Act and was awarded the Heacock Medal by the Alabama Tuberculosis Association. He was among the Mobile legislators who secured the initial $10 million in funding for the University of South Alabama Medical School.
Roberts was later elected to the Alabama Senate representing District 35, in the southernmost part of Mobile County, where he served as chairman of the Local Government Committee.
He introduced a Mayor-Council bill for the City of Mobile; it did not pass at the time but was later taken up and enacted under State Sen. Ann Bedsole.
His public service extended well beyond the Legislature.
He served on the Alabama Revolution Bicentennial Commission in 1976, the Alabama Commission on Aging, and the Alabama Commission on Higher Education from 1988 to 1997. He also chaired the Mobile County Foundation for Public Higher Education.
Roberts graduated from Auburn University in 1965 with a B.S. in business administration and did postgraduate work in history and political science at the University of South Alabama.
He was administrator of Cogburn Nursing and Convalescent Center in Mobile from 1965 to 1970 and president of Cogburn Health and Rehabilitation Services, Inc., a family business founded in 1939, from 1970 until its sale.
He also served as president of Southeastern Lodging, Inc., from 1986 to 1997.
Announcement of services will be made soon.
Jim ‘Zig’ Zeigler writes about the colorful and positive in Alabama — her people, places, events, groups and prominent deaths. You can reach him for comments at [email protected].
