The grandson of slaves born into poverty in 1892 in the Deep South AG Gaston a century later with a fortune worth well over 130 million dollars. Gaston not only survived the depression but flourished and by the 1950s he ruled a birmingham-based business empire spanning communications, real estate and insurance Gaston died in 1996, but his legacy and endures. He was a man who proved it was possible to overcome staggering odds and make a place for himself as a leader and a captain of industry and a philanthropist.