By Anita Smith
On the 67th anniversary of his marriage to his beloved wife, Stan Mackin Sr. lay seriously ill in a hospital bed in an intensive care unit at UAB Highlands in Birmingham.
The retired banking executive had told the nurses who were taking care of him about his and his wife Mary Jo’s upcoming anniversary. When the anniversary day came around and Mary Jo arrived that morning to be at her husband’s bedside, a surprise greeted her. The nurses had made a creative arrangement of sponges in a water pitcher to serve as a bouquet of celebration. Their daughter, Leah Mackin Taylor, said that her mother was deeply touched, “absolutely delighted.”
Within a short time after the anniversary, the life of James Stanley “Stan” Mackin Sr. came to an end. He died on June 11, 2021, at age 88.
To daughter Leah, that bouquet of sponges is a symbol of the loving care that UAB Highlands nurses gave to her father. “Daddy had great nursing care the entire time he was at UAB Highlands,” she said. “The nurses were fabulous, simply incredible, not only to my father, but to all of us in the family. We will be forever grateful.”
To show their gratitude and appreciation for nurses, Leah and her brothers, Stan Mackin Jr. and Brian Mackin, are funding an endowed scholarship at the UAB School of Nursing—the Mary Jo and Stanley Mackin Sr. Endowed Scholarship in Nursing.
Leah, who is Director of Advancement for Indian Springs School, said she and her brothers hope this scholarship will benefit nursing students who will go on to serve their patients and their patients’ families in the same caring spirit that UAB Highlands nurses served Stan Mackin Sr. and his family.
Members of the Mackin family have deep Birmingham roots, including ties to UAB. Since 2005, Leah has been a member of the UAB School of Nursing Board of Visitors. Her brother Brian, currently Athletic Director of the University of North Carolina Greensboro, is former UAB Athletic Director, and, previously, while working toward a UAB degree he earned in 1983, he was a student athlete playing baseball for the UAB Blazers. The elder son in the Mackin family, Stan Jr., who is now retired, worked in the Birmingham area financial industry.
As for the late Stan Mackin Sr., he rose to be Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Regions Financial Corporation. It was he who led the expansion of Birmingham-based Regions Bank, culminating in Regions becoming the 25th largest banking institution in the nation. He was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor, the Alabama Business Hall of Fame, and the Birmingham Business Hall of Fame.
The matriarch of the Mackin family, Mary Jo Williams Mackin, has a long history of volunteer work. Today she looks back on her many fulfilling experiences as a longtime member of the Auxiliary at St. Vincent’s Birmingham, including serving two terms as the Auxiliary’s chairperson. She became a charter member of and served a term as chairperson of a foundation supporting St. Vincent’s. Too, she was a volunteer at Birmingham Botanical Gardens.
“My brothers and I want this endowed nursing scholarship that we are establishing at the UAB School of Nursing to serve as a tribute to our late father and to our mother,” said Leah. “Our parents held a deep love for one another, and they created a great sense of family love for all of us. My brothers and I have never doubted that from our father and from our mother we could always expect unconditional love.”