This December, we are, specifically, reflecting on the lives of two of our Sierra Club, Alabama Chapter members who have passed on to the Great Wilderness. The lives of Curtis Hallman of the West Alabama Group and David Underhill of the Mobile Bay Group have made an impact on Our Club and Our Earth with their service and dedication to protecting our natural world. Please pause, as you will, for a moment of silence to honor these two individuals. Read about the life of Curtis Hallman as our honorary Featured Sierran below and the life of David Underhill as our honorary Featured Sierran in the January newsletter.
Name: in honor of Curtis Hallman
Alabama Sierra Group: West Alabama
*a collection of thoughts from fellow West Alabama Group members*
What are your specific environmental interests?
“Curt was an environmentalist who loved nature. He was a member of the Sierra Club, Alabama Chapter, Friends of Hurricane Creek, and Black Warrior Riverkeeper. Curt wished to protect all of God's creatures except for wild hogs!! He carried an offbeat sense of humor, hardcore political views, and always a smiling face.”
How are you helping Alabama explore, enjoy, and protect the environment?
“I remember that Curtis always carried big garbage bags and gloves in the back of his car. He did not just talk about Alabama Beautiful - He Kept Alabama Beautiful. If he saw trash on the side of the road, especially in the Talladega Forest ,he would stop, give everyone with him gloves and a bag and we would help him pick the trash up. He truly loved nature and it’s beauty and made all attempts to protect it - except Feral hogs!”
“Curtis Hallman was a colorful and enigmatic creature of God’s green Earth. By self-report, his emotional and passionate absorption with our train in space was not always associated with its health and preservation. In his younger days, his frolics into “the woods” was for unbridled self-indulgence. Any damage therefrom was not recognized or pondered. He never was clear as to when or what altered his mindset and reactive behavior. Whatever the circumstances, the transformation had to be something like a 180-degree turn. In the few years that I knew him, following years before that of his dealing with chronic illness and its ever-increasing limitations, he would whine and bellow like a dying bull moose if he saw a gum wrapper in either the forest or one’s lawn. He learned to appreciate the intricate beauty of common wildflowers. He enjoyed the still and motion pictures he took of wild critters in his yard as would a small child with milk and cookies. Discovering a trash dump in the forest would elicit not only anger but anguish. Letters to the newspaper editor were frequent. He longed for positive outcomes and realized that this necessitated public action.
Curtis was episodically pessimistic, even sometimes beyond comprehensible reason. He realized this and would laugh at himself with others. He had a sense of humor. He had a way of making others realize that he was honest and flexible. We who knew him, and I wish I had had the opportunity to know him longer, miss him. He was certainly a champion for the wild and the majesty of Nature but he was also a role model for courage. To witness his commitment and dedication in the face of so many limitations, ever increasing, was inspiring. I once told him this and he simply replied,” I just do what the doctor tells me”. This had to grow much more difficult with time.
May God be with Curtis. May his efforts on the part of The Creation long bear fruit.”
What is one of your favorite memories associated with the Sierra Club?
“Curtis came up with a novel way of helping us remember him -- a few years ago he dissolved his collection of Indian head pennies. He handed them out at a Sierra Club meeting. I still have mine, it's a 1906 penny.”
“We always enjoyed his company at meetings and his great sense of humor. I loved his business card cleverly worded, Curtis Hallman, Sophisticated Redneck Christian Democrat Tree Hugger.”
“I have a collection of goods that I use for educational purposes and sometimes just for decoration on my coffee table. These include “gifts” from “Uncle Curtis; a preserved wasp nest, a beautiful polished turtle shell, and a bag of snake skins. He was a wonderful, naturalist soul.”
What is one action you would like to see more of from the Sierra Club Alabama Chapter?
“Curtis had a vision of engaging in communities while protecting the environment in an interconnected way. He urged and even volunteered to fund a native butterfly garden to be constructed at Hurricane Creek Park in Tuscaloosa. See in the photos, Curtis as he “supervises” this project. Too weak to lift and sow, he was the smiling face that motivated the adult members of the West Alabama Group, along with, a group of camp children to finish the job.”
"If I could imagine one thing that “Uncle Curtis” would ask of us as Sierra Club, Alabama Chapter, he would say something like “get out and do something good-whether you cause trouble or not.””
MOUNDVILLE - Curtis Hallman, age 61, of Moundville, Ala., passed away on Friday, September 6, 2019, at Hospice of West Alabama. A graveside service was held at 10 a.m. Monday, September 9, 2019, at Christian Union Cemetery, 15436-15454 Brackner Dr, Brookwood, AL 35444, with Tuscaloosa Memorial Chapel Funeral Home directing.
May Curtis Rest in Nature & Peace.