Services for prominent Selma businessman to be held Friday

Published 12:04 am Thursday, May 21, 2009

Services for a lifelong Selma resident and prominent local family businessman will be held Friday.

Roger Ford Fuller, the owner and CEO of Fuller Building Supply Inc., died Tuesday. He was 69.

Fuller established the building supply company in 1970, and “by the grace of God, it is still a strong business,” said his son, Boyd Fuller, the company’s secretary.

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Services will be held at 2:30 p.m. Friday at First Baptist Church with the Rev. Michael Brooks and Dr. Kenny Hatcher officiating and Lawrence Brown-Service Funeral Home directing. Burial will follow at Pisgah Baptist Cemetery. Visitation will be from noon-2 p.m. Friday at the church.

“He was born and raised in Selma,” Boyd Fuller said. “When he returned from Auburn University, he row-cropped with his father, Ford Fuller, for several years. Then my grandfather told him, ‘You had better go find a job.’”

So, Roger Fuller began his business career driving a truck for T&T Building Supply for $50 a week. When he got the chance, he became the company’s manager.

“In 1970, he was able to buy Nettles Lumber Co.,” said Bruce Fuller, Roger Fuller’s son and company president. “Next Feb. 7, it will be 40 years of business.”

Boyd and Bruce Fuller said their father’s generosity and equal treatment for every customer are reasons he will be remembered.

“He treated the guy with paint on his shoes the same as a guy with alligator shoes,” Boyd Fuller said. “He thought the same about everyone he met.”

Bruce Fuller said, “He served people at face value and was involved in the community. … The Selma people have been generous to him, and he wanted to invest in the community.”

Roger Fuller was on boards at Meadowview Christian School, Marion Bank and Trust and the advisory board at Marion Military Institute. He was chairman of the deacons at Pine Flat Baptist Church.

In addition to his love for his family, Roger Fuller owned a cattle farm and enjoyed farming. His passions included quail hunting and entertaining guests at the hunting lodge.

“Every year, he would take a trip out west to go bird hunting for duck or pheasant or quail,” Bruce Fuller said.

Survivors also include his wife Linda Hale Fuller; daughter, Gina Hopkins (Houston), grandchildren, Braxton Fuller, Jessica Fuller, Riley Hopkins, Sawyer Hopkins, Lucy Hopkins, McKinley Fuller, Davis Fuller, sister, Jane Harrison and his Aunt Jean Bledsoe.