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Business Hall of Fame

The Angelina County Business Hall of Fame program is designed to honor past prominent business leaders who have made extraordinary contributions to Lufkin/Angelina County and earned the respect of the local community.

To be considered as a Hall of Fame Laureate, an individual’s record of business achievement must demonstrate excellence in the following general categories: business excellence; entrepreneurial spirit; courageous thinking and action; inspiring leadership; community impact; positive role model; enduring accomplishments; and local influence. Hall of Fame Laureates are individuals whose work moved the Lufkin/Angelina County community in a better, stronger direction. This honor is given posthumously.

No more than five individuals will be inducted annually. Nominations will remain on file for five years. The Selection Committee will be most concerned with “why this person should be honored as a member of the Angelina County Business Hall of Fame.”

Current Members of the Angelina County Business Hall of Fame

Class of 2011
		Dr. A. M. Denman 1856-1908 — A progressive civic-minded physician and surgeon, Dr. Alexander Madison Denman, with Judge E. J. Mantooth, brought Lufkin�s first telephone in 1898, first X-ray machine and first hospital and surgery suite in 1905. He was Lufkin Mayor 1903-1905.
		Judge E.J. Mantooth. 1852-1944 — Member of Lufkin�s first City Council, Mayor 1895-1897 & 1901-1903, Judge Edwin James Mantooth helped bring phone service to Lufkin with Dr. A. M. Denman, served as county attorney, president of Lufkin National Bank, Director of Texas Power & Light, Lufkin Ice Company and Angelina Hotel Company.
		J.S. Moore 1849-1928 — From a start as mule teaming for the railroads, into a dynamic highway construction business and later commercial construction, John Salisbury Moore was an Angelina County pioneer who founded Moore Bros. and whose roots have helped build Angelina County for five generations.
Class of 2010
		B.E. Atkinson 1903-1992 — Mr Atkinson began his candy company out of his car, and in 1940, the family-operated plant opened on Frank Avenue. Atkinson Candy Company is now known throughout the world for its peanut butter bars, coconut slices, and of course, Chick-O-Sticks.
		Simon Henderson Jr. 1904-1992 — Mr Henderson worked alongside his father, Simon Henderson Sr., at Angelina County Lumber Company and Lufkin Foundry and Machine Company, the forerunner of Lufkin Industries. In 1949, he became the champion of Memorial Medical Center-Lufkin. The Henderson Foundation, established in his and his wife’s names, has contributed to the hospital’s growth over the past several decades.
		Jack McMullen 1920-1983 — Jack McMullen served as vice-president and general manager of the Angelina and Neches River Railroad and helped create the Texas Forestry Museum.
Class of 2009
		Walter C. Trout 1874-1947 — Trout moved to Lufkin from Wisconsin and began selling sawmill equipment. When sawmills began to decline, Trout invented the first enclosed gear oil well pumping unit in 1922 and turned a small foundry into Lufkin Industries, Inc., which is today a worldwide producer of oil field equipment.
		Ernest L. Kurth 1885-1960 — In the 1930s, Kurth, son of an East Texas sawmill owner, became the impetus for the creation of the Southland Paper Mills, Inc., the first mill to produce newsprint from southern pine fiber. The mill provided a new era of jobs and growth for East Texas and Angelina County.
		Arthur Temple, Jr 1920-2006 — Temple built upon the assets of Southern Pine Lumber Company, founded by his grandfather T.L.L. Temple, to create one of America’s leading forest products companies providing widespread jobs and growth for East Texas, including Angelina County.