Harold Abroms remembers his first gift to UAB, nearly 40 years ago. He and his colleagues, father and son Emil and Donald Hess, owners of the well-known Birmingham-based department store Parisian, donated $500,000 to create the endowed Hess-Abroms Honors Scholarships within the newly established University Honors Program.

At the time, the program was led by Ada White Long, a beloved creative writing teacher who fortuitously nominated the UAB-newcomer Abroms to chair the program’s advisory committee—a role he proudly served in for 30 years.

Over the next four decades, Abroms and his late wife Judy would serve in volunteer and advisory capacities throughout the university, as well as donate to scholarships, professorships, and some of UAB’s most impactful programs. The result is gifts that have influenced hundreds of lives on campus and in the community.

“Hal is one of the smartest, most thoughtful people I’ve ever worked with,” said Tom Brannan, senior vice president for Advancement and Strategic Initiatives at UAB. “He is driven by his passion for those things he cares about and is committed to making a difference. He and his wife Judy have had a huge positive impact on our community that will be felt by future generations.”

One of the most visible impacts is the Abroms-Engel Institute for the Visual Arts (AEIVA), which recently celebrated 10 successful years and is recognized for changing the landscape of contemporary art at UAB, in Birmingham, and across the Southeast.

“AEIVA is the only Birmingham institution solely dedicated to presenting museum-scale contemporary art exhibitions,” said John Fields, the Lydia Cheney and Jim Sokol Endowed Director of AEIVA. “Most metropolitan research universities have an art museum, so this was an opportunity at the time. AEIVA transformed the arts in Birmingham and at UAB.”

The Abromses and close friends Ruth and Marvin Engel were lead donors for the creation of the $12.5 million AEIVA. In its first 10 years, the galleries have had a strong history of exhibits by artists including Andy Warhol, Thornton Dial, Lonnie Holley, and many others.

Together, the Abromses and the Engels worked closely with many prominent Birmingham families to fund the project, as well as alongside world-renowned architect Randall Stout, to design the one-of-a-kind contemporary building.

While it was completed in 2014, Abroms said he only regrets that both Engels and Stout passed away before seeing the finished galleries.

Abroms’ most recent gift to UAB came in 2019, when he was 92 years old, with his family’s creation of the Abroms Endowed Professorship for the Department of Otolaryngology. This gift has enabled UAB to recruit nationally and internationally recognized clinicians and surgeons to form the UAB Voice Center. Abroms said the endowed professorship is to honor William R. Carroll, M.D., a now-retired UAB physician who saved his life following complications from an esophagus procedure.

“We were always more excited about what we could do for others,” said Abroms, describing the importance of philanthropy to his family and to their Jewish faith.

Of all the Abromses’ many philanthropic efforts, student scholarships at local institutions are an immense point of pride.

The couple established the Andy Abroms Memorial Scholarship fund in 1997 at Indian Springs School to honor their late son. Since then, more than 300 high school students at Indian Springs have received Andy Abroms scholarships to participate in educational summer study programs. Each year, Abroms treasures a book given to his family that includes a description and photos from each student’s experience.

Abroms describes with delight meeting past recipients of the scholarships he and his wife created—a nurse at a doctor’s appointment, a friend’s granddaughter—and is eager to learn about their experiences and how it’s shaping their future.

He is quick to point out that the University Honors Program scholarships—where his first gift was directed nearly 40 years ago and now housed within the UAB Honors College—not only helps students earn degrees in different disciplines, but also helps them prepare and apply for major scholarships for advanced degrees.

“These kinds of impactful gifts can reverberate for decades,” said AEIVA’s Fields. “They help UAB attract the best and brightest students and faculty and prepare them for success in the future.”

Abroms credits his wife Judy and their three children for seeking out new ideas and opportunities around philanthropy. And it was the Hesses of Parisian, he said, that made it possible for him to participate in philanthropy and to reach his potential.

Abroms spent 20 years as an executive at Parisian before it was sold in 1996. Judy Abroms, who passed away in 2018, also had a successful career in retail, owning a boutique in Mountain Brook Village until 2008. The store remains today under new ownership.

Together, the couple has a generous and impressive history of giving. They were charter members of the United Way of Central Alabama’s Tocqueville Society—recognized as one of the top five in the country—and supported important initiatives throughout the Birmingham community, including the Birmingham Jewish Federation, McWane Science Center, the Alabama Symphony, the N.E. Miles Jewish Day School, the Alabama School of Fine Arts, United Ability, Red Mountain Theatre and many more.