There was a time in the 1990s when a popular bumper sticker in the Shoals proclaimed the area the state’s best-kept secret.

Yet, one of Alabama’s most influential officials was well aware of that secret the whole time.

That man, David G. Bronner, chairman and chief executive officer of Retirement Systems of Alabama, has dedicated a great deal of time and money to this region during the past decade.

His influence and help in growing the Shoals economy propelled him to Newsmaker of the Year in a poll conducted by TimesDaily staff.

In 2011, Bronner’s relationship with the Shoals and business world produced a major announcement: Fortune 500 company Navistar International Corp. would take over operations of the National Alabama facility in Barton, with plans to produce some 2,200 jobs.

This came during the same year when some state legislators produced bills trying to strip Bronner of his investment control over RSA money. The bills didn’t make it very far, but local officials responded by voicing support for Bronner. In fact, the Lauderdale County Commission issued a formal resolution in support of the RSA chief.

“I cannot begin to tell you how important it is to have not only Dr. Bronner but the whole RSA team,” said Forrest Wright, president of the Shoals Economic Development Authority. “Clearly, this community’s moving in the right direction, due in a great measure to his influence and input.”

Colbert County Commissioner Rex Burleson has worked with Bronner on many Shoals projects, dating back to the economic development project in 2001 that ultimately produced the Marriott Shoals Hotel and Spa in Florence and two Robert Trent Jones golf courses in Colbert County.

The projects also helped upgrade the conference center and save the Renaissance Tower, both in Florence.

“David Bronner has been a lifesaver for the Shoals,” Burleson said. “Without him, unemployment may be about 14 percent right now.”

The Shoals’ unemployment rate in November was 7.4 percent, according to the latest figures from the Alabama Department of Industrial Relations. That figure doesn’t include the 2,200 jobs that Navistar is expected to bring.

Navistar officials said in September when they announced plans for the facility that their relationship with Bronner was the catalyst that brought them to the Shoals.

Bronner said RSA’s investment in the Shoals is “bouncing around $1 billion.”

That includes about $206 million invested in Wise Alloys in recent years in efforts to stabilize operations. Today, Wise is enjoying a major long-term contract with Anheuser-Busch InBev. Among the fruits of that: Wise relocated its home office from Baltimore, Md., to the Shoals.

RSA had invested $625 million into the National Alabama railcar plant and ultimately took over the plant and leased it to Navistar.

Bronner said investing in the Shoals always was an easy decision.

“It’s just an opportunity in which there’s a lot of potential that for years was ignored by other people,” he said. “I think the whole Shoals will be a completely different place within a matter of a year or two, as far as the business acumen and business opportunities.

“I would be very shocked if Navistar didn’t have 900 to 1,000 employees or more within the next year. This is not a fly-by-night industry, and they have diversified enough that, regardless of the economy, you don’t have a company that goes up and down rapidly based on the economy.”

Bronner said he also thinks Wise will expand in the future, on the heels of its decision to make this area the home office and the company’s contracts with InBev and Coca-Cola.

“Wise and Navistar are two great companies now,” he said. “Wise making the Shoals its company headquarters, alone, is extremely important. It gives people a chance to come in, see the community and get involved in it.”

Tuscumbia Mayor Bill Shoemaker said he is excited that, of the Shoals’ largest four cities, Tuscumbia geographically is closest to Barton. Still, he said Bronner’s impact on the Shoals is limitless.

“He’s just been unbelievably kind to the Shoals area,” Shoemaker said. “He has poured out so much money into the Shoals area and has just been an excellent man to work with, in that he’s kept the Shoals all together.”

Bronner said it’s important that the Shoals continues to see itself as one area in the big picture.

“I’ve never been a believer that the Tennessee River should separate four great communities,” Bronner said. “I look at it as all one. If the area looks at itself that way, it’ll excel.”

Bernie Delinski can be reached at 256-740-5739 or bernie.delinski@TimesDaily.com.