MOBILE, Ala. - Leroy Hill, the founder of the Leroy Hill Coffee Co. in Mobile, died Friday. He was 76.

A company spokesman said Leroy Hill died at Mobile Infirmary after a bout of pneumonia.

Hill spent more than 50 years in the coffee business and built a company that distributes its products throughout the Southeast.

Former Mobile Mayor Mike Dow said charitable causes could always count on Hill.

Former state Sen. Garry Tanner of Grand Bay said Hill used to come into his Crispy Chick restaurant in Grand Bay three or four times a week for "farmer talk over coffee." Tanner said Hill may have been a major executive, but he enjoyed talking about ranching and growing corn.

Hill's career was not without controversy. In 1996, he was convicted of rigging bids to buy 80 acres of state land adjoining his sprawling estate in Grand Bay. He was sentenced to 15 months in prison in federal prison and ordered to pay more than $160,000.

He emerged from a federal prison camp in early 1999 and went back to work at his company.