Yes, they should. There were several steps here. Your father probably
got AWE in a 2001 spin-off of AWE from the AT&T parent company. Then AWE
was acquired in October 2004 for $15/share, in a cash merger with
Cingular wireless. Cingular was majority-owned by SBC, which...later
merged with AT&T, and renamed itself AT&T.
[So in a way you're back to Square One, only with a few hundred million
bucks paid out to investment bankers, lawyers and company execs along
the way for all that "shareholder value" they created!]
But the point is, AT&T is the company you want to ask about this because
they're the successor to the company that bought AWE out in October
2004. Call up their Investor Relations department, or perhaps look
around on the IR part of the AT&T web site -- dig around at www.att.com.
You may be able to tender your shares now, or perhaps the proceeds are
sitting with your father's home state's "unclaimed property" authority.
If you call AT&T you should be able to get an answer. The AT&T web site
should also have information about figuring out your cost basis in these
shares, if that is something you need to know.
-Tad
For the archives, googling for well-chosen keywords often
turns up the answer to questions about seemingly defunct
companies.