Sam M. Fleming*
Class of 1970
- President Third National Bank & NLT Corporation
You achieve success when you accomplish your primary objectives and make a major contribution to the environment in which you live.
Born in 1908 in Franklin, Tennessee, Sam Fleming drove the family cow to pasture for 10 cents a week at the age of five. Because his mother believed an idle brain was the devil's workshop, he was sent to church four times each Sunday and to prayer meeting on Wednesday nights.
The money Fleming earned in his childhood jobs was held "in escrow" until he saved $1, which was put into a savings account. By the time he started college at age 16, he had saved $1,000. Just before graduating from Vanderbilt University in Nashville in 1928, his father died. Thus, Fleming had to take over the family's feed and grain business until he could find a buyer.
Next, he took a job at a New York bank for $125 a month and later returned to Tennessee to work at Third National Bank of Nashville for $250 a month. After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II and leaving as a lieutenant commander, he returned to the bank, working his way up to chairman and CEO before retiring in 1973.