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Hal Flanders 1915 - 2001
Tributes

Big Bend Regional Sierra Club
© Brian Cassell 2001

Martha Floro

A MEMORY OF HAL
When George and I moved into our house in 1985 we began holding Quaker Meeting for Worship in our home on Sunday mornings. Among the first people to come were Hal and Mary.

We began to look for a service project consistent with our principles and the small size of our group. First we came up with the idea of "Peace With Justice" and tried to coordinate any service we could provide with a sanctuary house for Central American refugees in El Paso. However, this proved difficult because of the distance involved and Hal suggested a recycling project. That seemed consistent with the Quaker principle of "walking gently over the earth." The idea began to germinate and soon a half dozen or so of us were crushing glass at the old landfill, at first using a steel pole.

I feel proud to have been a small part of this beginning and to share Hal's enthusiasm for recycling.

This is just one of many memories. One of my favorites is climbing the mountain behind our house with Hal who helped me over the rocky places. He helped many people over rocky places in their lives and we will miss him.



Elaine Harmon

HAL FLANDERS, MY HERO
It is hard to describe my first encounter with Hal. He was in the early years of the formation of Big Bend Recyclers and was wearing a pair of the grungiest coveralls on earth. We introduced ourselves and after the formalities, talked about convincing the "town fathers" to promote the recycling effort. He grinned and said "When I speak to them, I look like this!" His acknowledgement of the hard, dirty work it takes was my introduction to the quality of individual Hal was. And he truly wa a "quality person."

He influenced the National Park Service and the community of Fort Davis to begin its effort in recycling. There is an indelible mark on our town which radiates from his initial pioneering work in Alpine. His spirit lives on in the continuance of his good works, his kindness, and unrelenting quest to clean up the environment.

A million thanks, Hal!



Gary Oliver

WALKING WITH HAL
Vermont, summer, 1998. Hal Flanders' 84th year, and it had been a rough one. He had just completed a round of radiation therapy for prostate cancer, and he was feeling, quite understandably, weak. Even so, he jumped into a car with Susan Curry and me to drive 2400 miles to Vermont to make the case to that state's residents against sending their nuclear waste to be buried in West Texas. The Sierra Blanca license would be denied just months later, but of course we didn't know that, and the Compact, the deal that would oblige Texas to take waste from Maine and Vermont, was coming to the Senate floor in two weeks. Vermont's legislators were all for it, and they claimed that Texans wanted it, too. An easy claim to make, with the prospective dumpees 2400 miles away. We thought they should hear another side, and Hal, bless his heart forever, was ready to put aside his personal problems to become one of the messengers.

We spoke in the Vermont Statehouse and we spoke at a hearing before the Vermont nuclear agency, but the centerpiece of the trip was a 93 mile walk, in protest against nuclear weapons, across the state, from the Capitol grounds in Montpelier to Springfield. Well, nuclear weapons are just part of the chain that includes nuclear power, which produces weapons-grade plutonium, and, ultimately, dumps like the one our beloved legislators keep trying to force into West Texas, so we had no problem fitting in. Susan helped orchestrate a press blitz along the walk, and often the result was that newspapers would publish, alongside their pieces on the walk and on nuclear weapons, a sidebar on the visiting Texasns and the issue of Vermont dumping on Sierra Blanca, a subject that had theretofore seen a virtual blackout in the Green Mountain State. I brought along a sheaf of documents to disprove the justifications that Vermont officials were using for their behavior. Over 93 miles we told our side of the story to many, many Vermonters, nearly all of whom were horrified by their government's actions.

And Hal, who sometimes drove a support car but who walked over 60 of those 93 miles, completely won their hearts. It's always been tough to say no to Hal -- just ask any local public official. With the quietest voice and the utmost deference, Hal would still be heard; he'd keep coming back until he was heard. On that walk it would be Hal who would find the special things, the bypassed flower or the unusual plant or the delicate bird's skeleton, and who would elaborate on them to the native Vermonters. They would marvel at his knowledge along with his love for the world around him; probably they would think, as did those of us who knew Hal in these parts -- how rare and wonderful to find such a spirit, at any age, but especially at his age. What a goal he set for others.

Hal would groan with the uphill parts, and sometimes remark that Vermonters ought to be equipped with legs of differing lengths to accommodate the terrain. I always meant to draw him a tee-shirt with the line,"Ain't No Hill Stopping No Hal" on it, and, like so many things I meant to do, I never did. But I think of that line when I think of Hal, which is and will continue to be, often; it fits.

Thanks, Hal, for coming with Mary to spend all those years with us in the Big Bend. Thanks for sharing.

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