The good deeds of Joe Bancroft — and the Abdalla family that followed him as leaders of a major McComb industry — will continue with a $1.5 million contribution from the foundation bearing his name to help renovate a floor at Mississippi’s only children’s hospital.
This act of benevolence by the Joseph C. Bancroft Charitable and Educational Fund will enable the facility to transform the fourth floor of the Blair B. Batson Tower. It will be named the Croft Medical Surgical Unit, serving patients with infectious diseases and respiratory concerns, according to a press release by Children’s Hospital of Mississippi.
Children’s of Mississippi is the pediatric arm of the University of Mississippi Medical Center. It includes the Batson Tower and the Kathy and Joe Sanderson Tower (from the family that owned poultry processor Sanderson Farms), which form the children’s hospital, according to UMMC.
“The Bancroft Fund, which gave $1 million in 2016 to create the Bob Bird Waiting Area inside the Sanderson Tower, has been a supporter of pediatric care at UMMC for decades,” said Dr. Mary Taylor, who is Susan B. Thames Chair and a professor of pediatrics. “Their gifts have been a beacon of hope for our patients, families and providers.”
The Bancroft Fund also donated $2.5 million in 2009 to renovate UMMC’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, doubling its capacity.
Said Tom Abdalla, an officer of Croft Metals Inc. of McComb: “We are honored to be able to support the important work being done to enhance the facilities at our state’s only children’s hospital and to make a positive impact in the community.”
Tom Abdalla and his father — my McComb schools classmate from grades 1-12, Jerry Abdalla — have been the executive leaders of window and doormaker Croft Metals since Joe Bancroft’s death in 1996. Their positive impact has been widespread across this state, but particularly in McComb and Pike County, where the firm’s manufacturing plants are located; in Jackson benefiting the state’s medical needs; and at the University of Mississippi’s Croft Institute for International Studies in Oxford.
Joe Bancroft was born into a Russian-Jewish family in London in November of 1900. He migrated to this country at 19 years old with less than $2 in his pockets. A hard-driving entrepreneurial spirit pushed Bancroft, whose first job in America was as a pianist, to start a fledgling metals company in Jamestown, N.Y.
He moved it to McComb in 1952 under the auspices of the state’s Balance Agriculture With Industry program led by Gov. Hugh L. White, a McComb native.
The company flourished and became one of the nation’s leading manufacturers of metal doors and windows, while maintaining one of Southwest Mississippi’s largest employment rolls at three manufacturing sites.
Croft Metals in 1997 contributed $60 million to Ole Miss to create the Croft Institute for International Studies, at the time the largest private donation to higher education in the state’s history, “bringing together outstanding students from Mississippi and other parts of the United States to immerse themselves in intensive study of the languages, cultures, and economies of the world,” the Institute says.
The program accepts 70 students into the international studies major each fall. Successful applicants typically have a composite ACT score of at least 29 (or 1250 on the math and critical reading portions of the SAT) and an unweighted high school GPA of 3.50 or higher. They have also demonstrated interest in international affairs and foreign languages.
Bancroft’s and the company’s benevolence in the state’s southwest corner continues well beyond the workplace through the funding of multiple organizations and community events, and the sponsoring of youth athletic teams of all ages. Joe’d remain proud.
Mac Gordon, a native of McComb, is a retired newspaperman. He can be reached at macmarygordon@gmail.com.
