By Laurie Voss
Amos Butler Audubon Society is very grateful to Chuck Anderson for the dedicated service and strong leadership that he gave to the organization for the past six years. We were so fortunate that Chuck said yes when asked to take a board position and shortly thereafter step into the President position. But Chuck has a history of service and adventure that many of us are not aware of.
Chuck was born in Chicago and grew up in Morgan Park, a community on the south side of the city. He worked in the city for the largest independent bank in Illinois for 29 years, beginning in the auditing department, and ended up as vice president of the trust department. He traveled extensively for the job and would put in at least 100,000 miles each year. There he honed his leadership skills and, probably, his love of travel.
An Early Retirement—More Ways to Volunteer
Chuck was fortunate enough to be able to retire at age 55, so he and his wife, Connie, packed up and moved to Clyde, North Carolina- a town of about 1,000 people nestled in the Smoky Mountains in the far western part of the state. While there, he volunteered as a Guardian ad Litem, which is a person who represents the best interest of a child within the court system, oftentimes in custody battles or abuse/neglect cases. His “job” was to talk to parents, grandparents, teachers, etc., do home visits, work with the social service department, and be the voice for the child in court. These cases often took a long time to resolve, frequently with foster parents wanting to adopt the children. Although he only intended to take on one or two cases, he ended up taking on five or six.
His volunteer work in North Carolina did not end there. He also volunteered to maintain three miles of the Appalachian Trail. This required some physical labor with weed whacking and often doing storm clean-up. Along with that he was the Membership Chair for the local library.
Chuck and Connie had lived in North Carolina for six and a half years when they decided to move to Zionsville, Indiana to be closer to family. He had not birded until he moved to Indiana and joined the Sunday morning bird hikes at Eagle Creek, after hearing about them from his barber. He also hiked at Daubenspeck Community Nature Park with Brian Cunningham, an ABAS Board member at the time, who asked and recommended Chuck to the Board. Chuck joined the Board as a Field Trip Chair. After two years on the Board, when the President timed out, Chuck was asked and agreed to take on the additional role of President.
Chuck’s Global Expeditions
Since retirement, it has not just been all “work” in all of his volunteer roles. He and Connie have done extensive traveling both within the US and internationally. While still living in North Carolina, Chuck had the opportunity to travel to the McNeil River State Game Sanctuary on the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska. This opportunity came after having applied for the lottery for 12 years, and he was fortunate when one person cancelled. He was the only single person on the wait list and so he was finally able to go.
This is not a trip for the faint-hearted but is quite the adventure. To get there, he flew into Anchorage, then to Homer, where he got on a float plane the next day bright and early in the morning. He had to bring all of his own equipment including a tent, waders, food, water purifier, etc. for four days. All of this to be able to be close to the bears who gather along the river to feast on the salmon. In a day, he and the other participants might view 50 individual bears, some from a distance of about ten feet. Fortunately, the salmon was plentiful and the bears were more interested in the fish than the humans watching them.
In another part of the world, Chuck and Connie owned a time share on a game preserve about 100 miles north of Johannesburg, South Africa. Each visit they would spend two weeks enjoying the beauty and nature around them. The animals were free-roaming and Chuck and Connie, along with others, would go out in open land rovers to observe the wildlife. They experienced game up close and even had a lion rub up against the car. You never wanted to get out of the vehicle because then you were prey.
They had another time share in Hawaii which they visited five times. Three of those visits were to Kauai, their favorite island. There they enjoyed birding, snorkeling, and whale watching. They also got to witness the endangered Hawaiian monk seals when some would come on shore. Because of their low numbers (only about 1600 in the world) volunteers would be on call to protect them on the beach.
Their travels within the lower 48 include coastal California, southeast Arizona, the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, Sax Zim Bog in Minnesota, Magee Marsh in Ohio, Dauphin Island, Alabama, both coasts of Florida, and North and South Carolina. Traveling has kept Chuck very busy in his “retirement”.
Chuck for President
As you might expect, Chuck was a very active president, not only chairing meetings, but also leading hikes when requested by organizations outside of our regularly scheduled ones. He provided PowerPoint presentations on birds for schools, neighborhood associations, and anyone who would ask for one. He advocated strongly with our legislators through Audubon Great Lakes’ Advocacy Day. He networked with other environmental organizations in the state such as the Indiana Forest Alliance, Central Indiana Land Trust, and Hoosier Environmental Council. Not only was he an active and strong President but he was the Field Trip Chair and for part of the time, the Program Chair as well.
During Chuck’s tenure as President, he was always looking for ways that ABAS could support people, programs, and agencies through financial contributions. While President, funds were given to the Lye Creek Prairie Burn, Greenfield Birders/Thornwood Nature Center, Central Indiana Land Trust, the International Crane Foundation, the Eagle Creek Ornithology Center, Aidan Rominger for the improvements for the skating pond at Eagle Creek, and to young birder Matthew Krohn so he could attend a summer program at the National Audubon Society’s Hog Island, to name a few.
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Since retiring, Chuck continues to do Master Naturalist classes twice a year. He participates in the hikes at Cool Creek Park on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and he has plans to go to Georgia’s St. Simon Island for fall migration. Any future travel will be within the US, but mostly he is concentrating on finding birds in all of the Hamilton County parks.
Chuck has given nearly 25 years of service to various organizations, and Amos Butler Audubon Society is very honored to have been one of those organizations which have benefited from his leadership and dedication. Thank you Chuck, and we wish you the best in your latest retirement.