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dent of the Mississippi Bankers Association, rie also served as president of the Mississippi Economic Council, the Gulfport Rotary Club, and the Gulfport Chamber of Commerce. His untiring efforts in the late 1950's were instrumental in the conversion of the Port of Gulfport from city ownership to state ownership thereby enhancing the facility's capacity for growth and development.
Following the devastation of Hurricane Camille on August 17, 1969, Seal was selected by Governor John Bell Williams to serve on the Governor's Emergency Council, a powerful agency charged with the responsibility of coordinating all Federal, State and local "Camille" recovery efforts. In only four short days, Seal was able to have the Small Business Administration task force in full operation and lending the needed hand to suffering businesses and individuals.
You may have noticed a couple of paragraphs back that we called the Hancock Bank the Hancock County Bank. That was not carelessness or a mistake. It was originally chartered in 1899 as the Hancock County Bank, but when it was invited in 1902 to establish a branch in Pass Christian, which, is in Harrison County, the name was shortened to The Hancock Bank and has so remained ever since.
THE YEARS OF EXPANSION Early in its career, to serve the lumbering business at Pearlington and Logtown, branches of the Hancock Bank were established in both towns. Not until the virgin pine of Mississippi had been exhausted and the half century hum of the sawmill along the Pearl had died down and these two towns were left with only the memories of their former glory, were these bank, branches discontinued.
In fact the branch at Logtown was transferred in 1927 to Long Beach, which old timers will remember then as the Radish Growing Center of America. That was when a thousand railroad cars in a good season, some-