He's a doctor, an art collector and the owner of a high-profile business, but so averse to the limelight that few people know much about him.
As a nephrologist, he tends to patients whose failing kidneys sometime signal a somber future, yet he infuses them with hope.
He spends 12-14 hour days interacting with people, yet craves the peace and solitude of his carefully-tended rose garden.
He surrounds himself with art and beautiful furnishings, yet few people penetrate the privacy of his home.
Hervy Hiner Jr, is very much the product of a middle-class childhood spent in rural Pittsburg, Texas, about 45 minutes north of Longview.
His parents were educators: Hervy Hiner Sr, taught agriculture and Annie Beatrice Jones Hiner taught home economics. From his mother, who enforced discipline, he developed an appreciation for design and surroundings pleasing to the eye. From his father, he learned compassion, tolerance and a strong work ethic.
The Baylor College of Medicine graduate eyed internal medicine, but ended up in a demanding specialty that makes the most of his personality. Hiner, who is medical director for four Southeast Texas kidney centers, carries a pager and two cell phones. One is for his medical practice; the other is for his restaurant he opened despite knowing very little about the business.
Every city has its signature restaurants, with a location, decor, or menu so distinctive they quickly become classics. Hiner hopes diners who pursue such places will choose Suga's Deep South Cuisine and Jazz Bar.
During numerous revisions to the plans and restoration demands, businessman Joe G. Perl, an advocate for revitalizing Beaumont's historic downtown, called Hiner and encouraged him to develop the project.
"He said, 'I'm glad you bought the Coale building. Beaumont really needs a place like this.' That stuck in my mind," Hiner said. "I wasn't too anxious to go into the restaurant business, which is high risk. I don't know if it was the challenge, or what Joe Perl told me, but I just could not put it down. Every time I tried, it would say, 'Come back.' I just got tired of fighting it. I thought, there must be something God wants me to learn."
"He's very shy and very introverted," Rosalind Hall said. "When he said he was going to open a restaurant and club, I said 'What? You're kidding.'" Now, the man she describes as "devoted to his children and his patients" has a new love.
"His restaurant."
The 1914 building has become a showcase pairing a restaurant and jazz bar filled with his passion - art.
_Taken from The Beaumont Enterprise 2006_ (Beaumont's Quiet Man)