By Solomon Crenshaw Jr.
Jefferson County Commission President Jimmie Stephens says he’s long looked up to Mike Bolin, and not just because Bolin’s 6-foot-3 frame is greater than Stephens’ 5 foot 8.
“To my knowledge, he has been an upstanding individual all of his life,” Stephens said. “If anyone has led a life of public service and has had exemplary character, it would have to be Mike Bolin.”
Stephens thought so highly of Bolin that he had the former judge swear him into office each time he began a new term on the Jefferson County Commission. Now, the two are serving together on the commission after Bolin defeated developer David Silverstein for the unexpired term of Steve Ammons, who represented District 5.
Ammons, who stepped down earlier this year to become president and CEO of the Birmingham Business Alliance, twice had Bolin swear him into office.
“He’s always been that solid guy that was always very, very thoughtful and somebody you knew you could count on,” Ammons said. “I’m very happy that he’s the new commissioner for District 5, that he’ll serve them extremely well and be very thoughtful about the decisions he makes.”
Stephens met Bolin when they were students at Samford University. Bolin was the pledge warden as Stephens pledged Pi Kappa Phi social fraternity.
“He was a senior when I was a freshman,” the commission president said. “What he did is he gave us that goal to shoot for. This is what you’re supposed to look like when you become a senior and when you get ready to go out into the world. Mike did that very well.
“What class and character my mom and dad did not give me, I have to attribute to (Bolin’s) teachings when I was in school.”
Do-Gooder
Bolin followed years in private practice as an attorney with 16 years as a probate judge in Jefferson County and 18 years on the Alabama Supreme Court. The 74-year-old retired from the state bench in January and was looking forward to working with the Law Institute, which helps to craft new bills.
“These are just do-good lawyers that come together,” he said. “We Zoom meet or in-person meet and go back over the old laws and try to correct the imperfections and add good things to them. All these people give of their time for free to help the legal scenery in Alabama.”
Bolin said he’s been active with the Law Institute since he first became a probate judge back in the late 1980s.
“It’s been wonderful,” the former justice said. “I’ve really been active with it since January and I’m going to continue to do it.”
Bolin and his wife, Rosemary, have been married 38 years. The couple met when he was practicing law, largely in domestic relations, which is where she worked at the courthouse.
Ultimately, she left the courthouse and became a secretary/paralegal with Bolin’s firm. Their bond grew as he trusted her to drive his mother, who developed kidney failure, to dialysis treatments.
“My mom loved her because she drove slow,” Bolin said. “She thought I was an idiot and drove too fast but she put up with it. After my mom passed away in ‘83, (Rosemary) and I got close. It wasn’t, I guess, a passionate love affair, just close friends.
“Looking back on it, when you marry a friend, a close friend, you’ve got a head start in keeping that marriage for eternity,” he surmised. “We did and we’ve been happily (married) ever after.”
The couple couldn’t have children but were “blessed, truly blessed by the Lord” in 1992.
“He answered years of prayers and this little baby girl, this adoptive baby girl just landed in my arms,” Bolin said of Leigh Anne Balsman. “It was one of the two or three greatest things that ever happened to me. Certainly, it’s in the top two or three other good things that have happened to me.”
“She’s 31 now, living in Nashville,” he continued. “She’s a daddy’s girl, still comes down every six weeks or so and spends the weekend. It’s just been a wonderful life.”
After 18 years on the state bench, Bolin said he likely wouldn’t have sought another term on the Supreme Court. But he found that retirement didn’t suit him and began inquiries about possibly teaching at a law school.
“When this (commission seat) came open and some people started asking me to consider it, I talked to Rosemary and, most importantly, I talked to my daughter,” he recalled. “She would be the first to tell you that my daughter is my adviser and my confidante.”
Bolin said his daughter came down and spent a weekend with the pair, and they stayed up until 1 or 2 in the morning each day of her visit.
“Finally at the end I said, OK, tell me what to do,” he recounted. “She said, ‘Dad, I think you ought to do it. You can still do volunteer work on the side and you’re clearly not happy being retired. I think you ought to do it. Go for it.’”
