For most of Roy Drinkard's 106 years, service meant building something other people could use: a business, an industrial base, a scholarship or a university. Drinkard, the World War II veteran who became the nation's oldest living Marine and a central figure in Cullman's postwar development, died Sunday, Aug. 23, 2026. He was 106.

Born in July 1920 in Falkville, Alabama, Drinkard attended St. Bernard Preparatory School in Cullman before joining the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II. Troy University confirmed both his death and the sweep of a life that linked wartime service to more than seven decades of work in Alabama. After the war, he spent several years operating a funeral home in Guntersville, then returned to Cullman in 1949.

Automobiles gave Drinkard his first durable foothold in the city. He joined Drinkard Pontiac-GMC as a partner in May 1949 and became Cullman's second Chevrolet dealer on May 2, 1955. The dealership was one piece of a larger pursuit. He served as chair of the local chamber board in 1953-54 and joined the group remembered as the Flying Fifty, Cullman business leaders who took the city's case directly to prospective employers.

That campaign began at a moment of high unemployment. The Cullman Economic Development Agency records that residents pledged enough money to make the King Edward Cigars project happen after the Flying Fifty's 1953 recruiting trip. Drinkard went on to chair Cullman's Industrial Development Board for nearly 30 years. By the end of his life, he was the Flying Fifty's last surviving member, and in 2024 a downtown hotel opened bearing the group's name.

His own ventures grew with the city. Drinkard founded Drinkard Development, which managed shopping centers, theaters, medical complexes, apartments and other commercial properties around the Southeast. The Cullman Tribune chronicled the local properties and industrial recruitment that made his name part of Cullman's physical landscape.

Education became another long-running field of service. Drinkard donated land for Cullman County Schools facilities and helped raise money for college scholarships. Nearly 80 when Gov. Don Siegelman appointed him to the Troy University Board of Trustees in April 2000, he stayed for more than 25 years. Troy credited his board leadership during the consolidation of its statewide system into one university and the introduction of its first doctoral programs. The university awarded him an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 2014.

Longevity did not turn him into a ceremonial figure. At 105, he remained involved with Troy and kept a weekly grandkids' night with his family. At his birthday celebration, grandson-in-law Jason Grimmett described him to Troy University as someone who made friends wherever he went. By then, public honors included Cullman's key to the city, the Cullman Times' Distinguished Citizen of the Century designation and a congressional tribute marking his 105th birthday.

The clearest measure of Drinkard's work stands in places that continue to function: the Cullman businesses and industrial sites, the land donated for Cullman County Schools facilities, the scholarships available to students, the Troy programs guided during his trusteeship and even the hotel that carries the Flying Fifty story forward. Together they form a map of how one Marine kept serving after he came home.