Madison Living April 2014

April 2014

Profiles in

Courage

A special edition honoring patriotism, sacrifices and accomplishments in Madison’s community

Great Prom Dress Drive

makes teenage dreams come true

DerbyDays transplants Kentucky race, bluegrass traditions in Madison

Take it Easy

(But not too easy)

YMCA brings gentler fitness to health seekers without intimidation

Thriving

Survivor

Noble Passage flourishes in its new home

Reflecting half a century of excellence in neurosurgery.

A lot has changed since we started in 1964, but our commitment as the regional leader is stronger than ever. From the latest minimally-invasive neck and back treatments to 24/7 trauma care, Spine & Neuro Center combines confident care with a convenient, patient-focused facility. Fifty years is more than a nice round number — it’s experience you can feel good about.

NeuroSpine Surgeons:

Rhett B. Murray, M.D., F.A.C.S.

Joel D. Pickett, M.D., F.A.C.S.

John D. Johnson, Jr., M.D., F.A.C.S.

Jason T. Banks, M.D., F.A.C.S.

Cheng W. Tao, M.D., F.A.C.S.

Bryan A. Gaspard, M.D.

Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation:

Keith C. Anderson, D.O.

Hayley Campbell, M.D.

Ryan C. Aaron, M.D.

Huntsville • Decatur | 201 Governors Drive • Huntsville, AL 35801 Toll Free: 1-888-736-1762 • 256-533-1600 • www.spineandneuro.com

MANAGEMENT Alan Brown President & Publisher EDITORIAL Jan Griffey Editor

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4 features

Gregg Parker Staff Writer Charles Molineaux Staff Writer Sarah Brewer Photographer

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EDUCATION GREAT PROM DRESS DRIVE

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MATH: A WINNING FORMULA BY ANY MEASURE

Jen Fouts-Detulleo Photographer MARKETING Cora Cloud Marketing Consultant Amanda Lang Marketing Consultant Melanie McClure Marketing Consultant CUSTOMER SERVICE Tammy Overman Customer Service PRODUCTION Jamie Dawkins Design

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ARTS & CULTURE DERBY DAYS

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CRIME WITH A CAPITAL ‘SEA’

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IN THE BIZ THRIVING SURVIVOR

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SPECIAL SECTION PROFILES IN COURAGE

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HEALTH TAKE IT EASY (BUT NOT TOO EASY)

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OUT AND ABOUT

home

Amanda Porter Design Jonathan Wise Design Madison Living P.O. Box 859, Madison, AL 35758 Advertising Inquires 256.772.6677 Madison Living is published monthly by Madison Publications, LLC.

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HOME THE REEDS

food 18

LET’S EAT MADISON STATION BAR & GRILL Madison Living 3

EDUCATION

Great Prom Dress Drive makes teenage dreams come true WRITTEN BY GREGG L. PARKER PHOTOGRAPHS BY JEN FOUTS-DETULLEO

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his year, prom dreams will shine a bit brighter because of the Great Prom Dress Event, an initiative at Bob Jones High School.

Students and residents donated gently used short and long dresses, along with shoes, jewelry and handbags “to add sparkle to their prom dress,” student coordinator Mae Crumbley said.

Great Labels Boutique at 1618 Slaughter Road in Madison then sold the dresses for only $10. The Von Braun Center North Hall will be the venue for Bob Jones’ prom on April 5.

This year, the Student Government Association got involved with the drive, which started in 2013. The drive “helped all girls, both at Bob Jones as well as other area schools, to be able to shop for and choose their very own special prom dress,” Crumbley said.

OPPOSITE PAGE: Models Olivia Holston, from left, Lindsey Soloman, Ashley Dong and Abigail Hubbard. RIGHT: In 2013, more than 200 girls bought dresses.

Madison Living 5

LEFT: Ashley Dong is happy with her choice of a formal in tangerine orange.

ABOVE: Olivia Holston models a blue gown.

OPPOSITE PAGE: Great Labels Boutique’s address is 1618 Slaughter Road in Madison.

“Many families in Madison and surrounding areas have been negatively impacted by the economy in the past few years,” Crumbley said. “The Great Prom Dress Event is one way to help offset some prom expense.”

All proceeds will support Easter dinner at Manna House, “a public charity 501(c) 3 that provides food assistance to those in need,” Crumbley said. With 2013 proceeds, Manna House served dinner to more than 2,000 people in need, along with funding other charitable activities.

“I give all the credit to Mae Crumbley, a junior member of SGA, for getting Bob Jones involved,” Bob Jones teacher Brandy Van Dam said. Van Dam teaches 6 Madison Living

marketing principles, sales and promotion planning (sports marketing), workforce essentials and cooperative education, along with sponsoring SGA. “Mae brought the idea and has completed all the legwork,” Van Dam said. “She’s an amazing student and person. I wish I had 50 more just like her.”

In 2013, more than 200 girls bought dresses as the shoppers wrapped around Great Labels’ building. Manna House actually supplied many of the dresses, which residents had donated over the years. Without that surplus this year, Bob Jones students worked even harder.

Selling the dresses at the boutique

allowed a neutral venue “for girls from the entire community to shop,” Van Dam said. Great Labels cleaned dresses, put them on hangers and then stored the apparel.

The drive’s primary goal is to help area girls who may not be able to afford a dress for prom.

“Prom is one of those high school memories that always stay with you,” Van Dan said. “I want every girl to say they went to prom in a beautiful dress.”

The dresses’ styles vary as much as the young ladies wearing them, she said.

“Long, short, beaded, printed and solid dresses of every fabric and color are all seen at prom,” Van Dam said.

“Many people believe Bob Jones students all have money and drive fancy cars, but, after teaching here for 11 years, I can attest that we are a very public school,” Van Dam said. She has taught students who lived in their car or a hotel room and those who were caretakers for

their entire family.

“Sometimes, the breakfast and lunch at school is (their) only meal for the day.

It’s heartbreaking to see what so many students go through during what should be a fun time in their life,” Van Dam said.

“I want prom to be the one night they

can be a carefree kid without the worry of cost.”

Along with Crumbley as catalyst, Van Dam credited Terry Lampiasi, owner of Great Labels, for sponsoring the drive. Dental Associates in Decatur also assisted.

Madison Living 7

EDUCATION

Math: A winning formula of any measure WRITTEN BY DR. DEE FOWLER

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f you have been in any of our elementary schools lately, you’ve probably seen posters of the principal surrounded by kids engaged in math. It is part of promotion we are launching to boost student interest in math.

One of my favorites is of Mill Creek Principal Dr. Styles. The look of shock on her face as she weighs herself, and that of third grader Quincy Wilson wagging a scolding finger, is priceless. I probably have that look each time I step on a scale.

Math is part of our everyday life. We use it for everything,

from designing rockets to calculating the best buy in a grocery store aisle.

Our kids must understand the importance of math and why schools are teaching it. We want to enhance their willingness to learn math for the same reason we promote reading through the successful Alabama Reading Initiative. Both are building blocks for learning.

Our poster campaign followed a contest inviting students to submit a catchy math slogan. Rainbow Elementary 4th grader

CONTRIBUTED

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CONTRIBUTED

ABOVE: Dr. Claudia Styles at Mill Creek Elementary. The student is Quincy Wilson.

OPPOSITE PAGE: Principal Georgina Nelson says math is the key ingredient for success.

Aparna Bhooshanan had the winning entry with: “Math. It all adds up.”

We photographed principals using math and made posters that used Aparna’s slogan. The principals came up with a caption that plays off the theme of the photo.

Our instructional team guides teachers on lesson plans that move away from straight-up calculations and rote memorization to applying mathematical concepts to real life applications.

This Saturday, April 5, Madison City Schools will host its first “Math in Madison Day” with a Math-APalooza competition at James Clemens High School. This free, public event will allow all seven elementary schools to gather on one campus for some fun competitions centered on math.

We’re also planning summer math camps with a focus on acceleration of skills rather than remediation. We are also lining up speakers from various career fields to link math to their jobs.

Being skilled at math will help our kids compete in the global marketplace whether they are going to college or directly into the work force. It’s a winning formula by any measure. You can count on that.

Dr. Dee Fowler is Superintendent of Education for Madison City Schools.

Madison Living 9

ARTS & CULTURE

Derby Days

transplants Kentucky race, bluegrass traditions in Madison

WRITTEN BY GREGG L. PARKER PHOTOGRAPHS BY SARAH BREWER 10 Madison Living

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adison’s homage to the Kentucky Derby and its well-heeled traditions will unfold at Derby Days on May 3.

The downtown festival opened in 2012 as a tribute to the venerable horse race at Churchill Downs, now in its 140th year. Derby Days also salutes North Alabama’s 18th-century connections with the sport.

Madison Station Historical Preservation Society and the City of Madison are sponsoring the event.

“Derby Days will promote our beautiful downtown area and businesses. Come out and see what’s happening downtown,” Gayle Milam said about current construction and renovations by the City of Madison. Milam is the city’s special event coordinator.

Live entertainment will fittingly include bluegrass tunes.

Other bands will share their brand of rock, country and pop music. Performance stages will be rocking on Main Street and at Bandito Burrito.

And what’s a Kentucky Derby party without women’s spectacular millinery? Ladies will wear their finest for the “Best Hat” contest with prize money at stake.

In keeping with the derby’s high styles in apparel, a fashion show will feature today’s latest en vogue trends from women’s wear to ‘preppy’ staples.

“For 2014, we will have more children’s events for their amusement,” Milam said. The youngsters especially have

TOP: Giddy-up! Ethan Brewer races with his stick pony at the 2013 Derby Days. BOTTOM: A team in the Bed Races enters the home stretch on Main Street. OPPOSITE PAGE: Juliana Johnson paces a horse at Derby Days.

Madison Living 11

enjoyed the stick pony races in past years.

The ‘Bed Race’ will inject some comic relief to the festival as fivemember office teams compete for bragging rights. The teams will roll the beds loaded with people down Main Street in a raucous parody of the horses galloping around the race track.

In addition, Derby Days raises awareness “of the area’s history in early horseracing in the Deep South and the breeding of American thoroughbreds,” event founder Dawn Johnson said.

Historians Charlie Nola, John Rankin and Nancy Rohr researched facts for the historical society.

The horse “Peytona put North Alabama in horseracing history by

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winning the 1845 North vs.

South Race on the Union Course track in Long Island, New York,” Nola said. Peytona was sired at the Forks of Cypress Plantation in Florence, Alabama and ultimately sired 14 Kentucky Derby winners.

In the early 1800s, North Alabama had large racetrack and stable operations, including the Green Bottom Inn Jockey Club, Boardman Mills Stable and Pulaski Pike Track. In 1819, U.S. President Andrew Jackson visited Huntsville to race his horses at Green Bottom, now the site of Alabama A&M University.

In 1833, the Pulaski Pike Track audience witnessed the Leonid meteor shower, inspiring the 1934 jazz standard, “Stars Fell on Alabama.”

Brothers Elijah and John Boardman bred American thoroughbreds in the early 1800s at Boardman Mills. This property is situated south of I-565 on Redstone Arsenal, east of Zierdt Road.

These stables “seeded the area with the lines from royal studs at England’s Hampton Court (and properties of ) Lord Chesterfield, Duke of Grafton and Sir Thomas Stanley,” Nola said.

Derby Days’ hours are 3 to 9 p.m. on Main Street, west from Wise Street to Sullivan Street.

Race proceeds have benefited youth sports leagues in Madison for soccer, football, baseball, basketball and swimming.

OPPOSITE TOP: A boy spins his friend in the Human Hamster Ball. OPPOSITE LEFT: Dawn Johnson, founder of Derby Days, wears a magnificent hat.

RIGHT: Juliana Johnson leads a horse from Sunshine Oaks Horse Farm in Madison. The horse is a descendant of a Kentucky Derby horse.

Madison Living 13

BELOW: Noble Passage retail store is two old storefronts in the middle of Madison’s historic downtown, one formerly a bank, the other a mercantile. OPPOSITE PAGE: Deborah McDaniel and her husband Giles, who now serves as Director of the Shoals Entrepreneurial Center.

IN THE BIZ

Thriving Survivor

After weathering rough seas in a tough economy, Noble Passage flourishes in its new home as Madison grows.

WRITTEN BY CHARLES MOLINEAUX PHOTOGRAPHS BY SARAH BREWER 14 Madison Living

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o hear Deborah McDaniel tell it, moving her business to Madison was a matter of freakishly good timing.

Maybe more.

“It was a godly thing,” she said.

McDaniel’s Noble Passage Interiors in the heart of the city’s historic downtown has been enjoying strong sales catering to a rapidly expanding Madison residential housing market, a welcome development in the notoriously volatile and economically sensitive interior design field.

“There’s a lot of growth. Madison is bringing a lot of people to town,” she said. “It’s like we’re breaking loose of the tight times, people holding on to their money. There’s more building and remodeling going on than there has been in the past few years.”

It was in stark contrast to her company’s likely fortunes had it remained in Anniston, its home until right before the bottom fell out.

“Starting in 2008 when the financial meltdown hit, people who had money didn’t spend it,” she recalled. “Most people in the industry saw a 30 to 40 percent drop in sales.

If we were in Anniston, my business would have dropped off 50 percent!”

Commercial interior design contracts, the largest part of the company’s business at the time, dried up in the Anniston area.

“A lot of established businesses, a lot of the old tried and

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Madison Living 15

“We certainly sell accessories,” said Noble Passages owner Deborah McDaniel. “A lot of them are one of a kind pieces. Some are by different artists. They become home accessories and gift items.”

true, had to close their doors,” she sighed.

“Only the strong ones who could reinvent themselves have been able to survive.”

But around that time, by chance, Deborah McDaniel and her husband Giles moved to Florence when Giles took a new job. He is now director of the Shoals Entrepreneurial Center.

“We didn’t run,” she insisted. “We just had

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a door open and we walked through it. But it was a good move.”

That move ultimately landed Noble Passage in a new home on Main Street in 2010, a location McDaniel found close to ideal with its old buildings and historic flavor, a flavor and charm her clients praised.

“I love it,” she exclaimed. “These days people are gearing towards small, quaint,

downtown shopping areas. Look at Providence. Look at Lendon in Hampton Cove. People are spending money to create what we already have in downtown here.”

While Madison’s downtown may remain a diamond in the rough, poised on the verge of major improvements, public and private, McDaniel called it a diamond of unmistakable value.

Owner Deborah McDaniel relishes the location of her Noble Passage store in historic Downtown Madison.

“This may not be the highest value retail space but its potential for the community is huge, just like a park or a civic center or a lake,” she said. “To me it’s more about the culture than actual retail.”

“Its potential for the community is huge, just like a park, or a civic center, or a lake,” she explained.

“To me it’s more about the culture than actual retail.”

And while a friendlier economy may have loosened purse strings somewhat, McDaniel reported a world of business markedly different from what it was before.

Noble Passage’s bread-andbutter commercial contracts never returned to what they were.

Residential work blossomed, with a decidedly more canny philosophy.

“The industry has definitely gone downsize,” she said. “People are building smaller smarter homes, less square footage, more amenities, more open spaces. The living room, the parlor, that people liked to look at but didn’t go into, that’s gone.”

Instead, Noble Passage has been catering to a desire for function: Central family rooms, easier maintenance and plenty of

technology.

“More of a lifestyle,” said McDaniel. “It’s fun for me. I get to add more electronics, theater rooms, more audio visual more attention to detail inside the home.”

By her reckoning, contract interior design came to make up 50-60 percent of Noble Passage’s business, with its marquee retail shop in downtown doing the rest. Occupying two old brick storefronts, one formerly a bank, the other a mercantile, the store offers one other bit of atmosphere McDaniel made a point to mention.

It’s haunted.

“We’re supposed to have a ghost,” she laughed. “We’ve heard rumors. And there have been a couple of little strange situations.

We have answered customers that weren’t there at one time or another. That’s our running joke.

It’s just kind of quirky.”

Madison Living 17

LET’S EAT

Madison Station Bar & Grill revives longtime gathering place

WRITTEN BY GREGG L. PARKER PHOTOGRAPHS BY JEN FOUTS-DETULLEO 18 Madison Living

ABOVE: Playing pool is an option for a night out at Madison Station.

OPPOSITE PAGE: Mark Komara owns Madison Station Bar & Grill, along with The Furniture Factory in Huntsville.

M

ark Komara has renovated, restocked and revived Madison Station Bar & Grill, a longtime nightspot

in Madison.

“The Station was a landmark in Madison, Huntsville and North Alabama. Back in the day, it was jumping,” Komara said. He added ‘station’ to the name, recognizing the town’s first moniker, Madison Station, from the 1850s.

Madison Station isn’t the only establishment that Komara owns. Four years ago, he opened one of Huntsville’s most popular nightclub, The Furniture Factory.

He also operated the Sports Page Lounge and Deli for 23 years and owned five other establishments.

He was interested in The Station for “what it had done in its early years.”

“We gutted the place and cleaned it up with new paint throughout. Our projection televisions, like a jumbo-tron, make it the mecca for football games or March Madness,” Komara said.

The friendliness of Madison Station’s staff “shows a lot of class,” he said. “We wanted a good, clean atmosphere.”

Madison Living 19

ABOVE: Madison Station is located in Sentry Centre at 8694 Madison Boulevard. TOP RIGHT: Tacos with a different twist are on the menu at Madison Station. BOTTOM RIGHT: Guests can enjoy Happy Hour daily from 4 to 7 p.m.

Komara knows Madison has a market for the “young professional crowd. Madison has nice places to eat, but after 9 p.m.

Madison Station gets kicking. Madison needed a place for these people to go.”

In addition, he’s pleased with Madison Station’s address at 8694 Madison Boulevard in the Sentry Centre.

“It’s not so congested, like Highway 72 in north Madison. The interstate is right by for Decatur and Huntsville traffic,” Komara said.

On the menu, flatbread pizzas have been an instant hit. The Margherita Flatbread has marinara, fresh tomato and basil and mozzarella cheese, drizzled with balsamic dressing.

Southern BBQ flatbread is topped with fire-braised pork, cheddar cheese and Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce. The Garlic Chicken has Monterrey Jack, cheddar and garlic Parmesan cheeses.

“We’ve brought some of the Mexican dishes from The Furniture Factory,” 20 Madison Living

Komara said. “We have a really nice 14-ounce ribeye steak.”

Diners interested in a sandwich can try the club, Rueben, BLT, cheeseburger, prime rib, Philly cheese steak, grilled chicken, Cuban, sliders or wraps.

For an appetizing snack, guests like the mesquite chicken quesadilla rolls with salsa, chicken tenders, hot artichoke dip or house and Station salads. Just for fun, try the Southern fried pickles.

Buffalo wings are Komara’s personal favorite. “The guys do a great job with wings. We have three levels of heat, from ‘naked’ to super hot.”

Devilish desserts vary from chocolateon-chocolate cake to the fried Zango cheesecake, dusted in cinnamon and sugar.

Served in a martini glass, the Dessertini varies daily from banana cream, tangy key lime to decadent chocolate.

Currently, Madison Station has one main bar near the club’s center, flanked by two wells, with three or four bartenders. When

the weather breaks, the patio will have a full bar. Chop Top and Fat Tire craft beers are common orders.

Guests can enjoy Happy Hour daily from 4 to 7 p.m. Draft beer is $7 per pitcher, and well brand drinks go for $2.75.

On Wednesdays, a free buffet features barbecue, wings, potato salad and other sides.

“On Friday, we have a free seafood buffet with crab legs, boiled and popcorn shrimp, fried clams, hush puppies -- with hot butter,” Komara said.

For the future, Komara hopes to attract class reunions for Bob Jones High School and other local schools, as he has done at The Furniture Factory.

“I can do the same thing in Madison.

I’m good at it,” Komara said.

Madison Station is open MondaySaturday from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. For information, call 256-325-1333, email to MarkKomara@yahoo.com or visit Facebook/Madison Station Bar & Grill.

Profiles in

Courage

A special edition of Madison Living, honoring the patriotism, sacrifices and accomplishments of Madison’s military and space exploration community.

Madison Living 21

Profiles in Courage

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Profiles in Courage

Mettle and Honor

Madison Medal of Honor Recipient Leo Thorsness tries to deliver heroes’ lessons to build character in young people.

WRITTEN BY CHARLES MOLINEAUX PHOTOGRAPHS BY JEN FOUTS-DETULLEO

F

our decades after his departure from the military, retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Leo Thorsness continued a passionately pursued military mission: To secure the future by spreading the principles of courage, honor and character personified by America’s elite

heroes, recipients of the U.S. military’s highest distinction, the Medal of Honor.

Recipients like him.

“It’s all about service before self,” he said. “It’s all about patriotism, why I enlisted, why I went.”

Through personal appearances, later via DVDs and webinars, Thorsness and

his fellow medal honorees have spoken to thousands of schools in a special curriculum that revolves around the ideals that set them apart. “That’s our prime mission now,” Thorsness explained.

Thorsness demonstrated his mettle through grueling trials during the Vietnam War. He earned the Medal

EXIT REALTY OF THE VALLEY

Madison Living 23

Profiles in Courage

Leo Thorsness with then-president Richard Nixon in 1973 as Thorsness, still on crutches, is awarded the Medal of Honor after six years in North Vietnamese P.O.W. camp. (Photo courtesy Congressional Medal of Honor Society)

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Profiles in Courage of Honor in a hellacious dogfight in 1966. Low on fuel and ammunition, he repeatedly returned his F-105 attack jet to the thick of battle to protect his fellow pilots.

But his grit was to be brutally tested again. Only two weeks later, he was shot down and captured. He spent six years as a prisoner of war in Hanoi. It was an ordeal where his “advanced” age became a paradoxical asset.

“I was 35,” Thorsness recalled. “We were not physically as strong as some strapping 18- or 19-year-old kid but we had more experience. So when they tried ‘brainwashing’ – they just tried to use torture – we were stronger mentally.”

After his release in 1973, Thorsness said, he found an appreciation of life.

“I’ve never really had a bad day since I’ve been home. The things that are important in life are your friends your family, your faith and fun. Another way of saying it is ‘if the doorknob’s on the inside, it’s a good day.’ ” Thorsness came home to join a small unique corps of heroes, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, medal recipients, each with his own history.

“We come from all walks of life — preachers, teachers, entrepreneurs.”

The unique camaraderie of the recipients at their annual reunions was sometimes jovial fun, (Air Force honorees enjoyed pointing out that the Air Force’s Medal of Honor is twice the size of the Army’s and Navy’s), sometimes rueful marking of the years (“In the old days,” Thorsness chuckled, “we’d talk about war stories. Now we talk about health.”), but sometimes an urgent realization that their work was not done.

“We said ‘by golly we’ve got to get to these young folks. They’re the future.’ We started talking to the schools.”

Years of speeches turned into a more scientific coordinated outreach eight years ago when the Medal of Honor Foundation began assembling a teaching program with the help of educators and major corporate backers.

“We needed to get into the education business,” Thorsness said.

The result was “Medal of Honor: Lessons of Personal Bravery and Self-Sacrifice,” an online and DVD resource for teachers, long talks with honorees distilled into brief vignettes to help teachers with character development.

“The fear was that this would be all about killing but it doesn’t come across that way at all,” Thorsness hastened to clarify. “It’s all about values, protecting the man on your right, the man on your left, all the good things, courage and selflessness.”

The program could be woven into several classes over a week, a semester or a school year, instead of a single speech.

“We’d talk to a class. We feel good about it, but I don’t know if it really made that much of a difference,” Thorsness said. “Now we’re seeing some metrics that say this is being very successful.”

Thorsness recalled one student in Erie, Pa., where the initiative started, who wrote to him saying it had changed his life.

“That made you feel good,” he said. “Last I heard from him he was about to finish college and he was doing great. We know it makes a difference.”

Madison Living 25

Profiles in Courage

Witness to History Madison author, military ambulance driver, veteran Arthur Wolde tells his stories of suffering, courage and victory in World War II Europe WRITTEN BY CHARLES MOLINEAUX PHOTOGRAPHS BY SARAH BREWER

World War II veteran Arthur Wolde recounted his wartime experiences in his book “Ambulance #11,” published in 1978.

“I wanted to forget the war,” he recalled. “Most everybody does, you know? People said ‘why don’t you write a book?’

And I said ‘You’ve got to be John F. Kennedy or Eisenhower or somebody before they’ll even look at it.’” But a solicitation from Vantage press for manuscripts got him writing.

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Profiles in Courage Mo Brooks meets Arthur Wolde.

(Contributed)

H

is war tales range from epic, to blood curdling, to funny, but Arthur Wolde insisted on a simple, consistent, theme.

“When they called, I answered,” Wolde insisted. “My duty was there first, before anything else.”

At 96, Wolde acknowledged that he was one of a dwindling number of World War II veterans still around to talk about those days.

But in June of 1944 he was “The Patchogue Kid,” a young ambulance driver from Long Island with that nickname stenciled on his vehicle, Ambulance #11, as he came ashore on Omaha Beach.

“Ambulance #11” became the title of Wolde’s book, chronicling his odyssey across wartime Europe.

“I wanted to forget about the war. But people kept asking about it. Then people said, ‘Why don’t you write a book?’ ” Behind the wheel of his ambulance Wolde traveled through battlefields so iconic that a single word summons up chapters of history:

Omaha, The Bulge, Remagen, Berlin, St. Lo. And, while a onetime New Yorker, Wolde became firmly anchored to Madison County for almost seven decades with his wife, Gladys, who he had met on a Huntsville street in 1943.

Some of his missions led to immediate attention. In 1944, Wolde talked with a writer, who turned out to be Ernest Hemingway.

“It was in newspapers all over the world,” Wolde exclaimed. “I was world famous for 24 hours.”

And then?

“The next day, I almost got killed four times,” he continued.

Wolde constantly dealt with soldiers suffering the worst of the war, some who died in his ambulance.

“It was terrible sometimes. I never knew much about them,” he said. “They were strangers, GIs. They came and went.”

There was also the danger he faced himself.

“Wherever an ambulance got knocked out up front, we would have to go in and take their place. It was pretty bad because you never knew if you were going to get killed or not.”

Not above a little subversion, Wolde employed another skill.

“When the guys sent rolls of film home, the government took them,” he recounted.

“So I told them, ‘You give me your film. If you can get me the equipment from destroyed camera shops, I’ll print and develop the pictures and you can save them.’”

Wolde had his own take on the legendary taking of the bridge at Remagen, depicted in movies as a fierce battle.

“The bridge was almost deserted,” he explained. “We got across and on the other side there were about a dozen drunk soldiers.

They beefed it up for Hollywood.”

Driving through liberated Paris, Wolde described as “very nice.”

“I never got kissed so much in all my life,” he smiled.

Wolde got a darker laugh out of one Madison Living 27

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Profiles in Courage

LEFT: As a medic, Wolde never shot anyone but was left uneasy by one man he suspected he sent to his death, a German spy with whom Wolde ended up face to face. A man in a U.S. Army uniform approached him at a hospital asking for directions.

“I looked at him and thought ‘man, he’s a German!’” Wolde said. The German was captured and likely shot shortly afterward, Wolde said.

“To think I had a man killed. It’s not a good feeling.”

victory celebration where American soldiers commandeered several huge barrels of wine.

“I was as bad as anybody else. I was going to drink some wine,” Wolde chuckled. “I don’t know what made me look in the top of the barrel but I saw there was a dead German floating around in it! Ghoulish. I was glad I didn’t drink any of it.”

After the war, Wolde briefly moved back to Long Island but quickly discovered he

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preferred Madison County.

“Up there, you could live around somebody for 10 years and not even know your next door neighbor. But down here, people are so friendly. I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else but the South.”

Even in so military-focused a community as Madison, Wolde said he still encountered confounding attitudes toward veterans.

“People today don’t seem to appreciate

what soldiers have done,” he sighed, “and what people are doing over there in Afghanistan.”

“But then,” he continued, “All of a sudden somebody will come up and say, ‘Thank you for what you’ve done.’ I appreciate that. I don’t expect people to fall all over me. It was my duty to serve my country. That means more than any book or anything else.”

Finley

guides youth’s educational path straight to the stars WRITTEN BY GREGG L. PARKER PHOTOGRAPHS BY SARAH BREWER

ABOVE: Dr. Julie Finley takes a break near the Saturn V rocket.

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Profiles in Courage

r. Julie Finley’s work at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center is instrumental in launching youth on a stellar path with education.

Finley formerly worked as assistant principal for curriculum and instruction at Bob Jones High School. Finley now serves in the newly developed role of Vice President of Educational Initiatives at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center.

With center CEO Dr. Deborah Barnhart, Finley is designing and implementing plans for the next generation of supplemental informal education with curricula emphasizing science, math, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

“Moving from 24 years in public K-12 educational administration, the shift to ‘informal education’ at the rocket center was natural,” Finley said. “It’s simply about sparking interest and providing kids hands-on experiences showing the relevance of what they are learning every day in the classroom to the application of those skills in a real-world setting.”

The center “has the ultimate facility to inspire kids to seek skills in STEM occupations. That’s our treasure trough,” Finley said.

With her job, Finley manages development of educational connections to show the relevance of learning in formal educational settings and hands-on application.

She works with state government and leadership to increase local awareness and participation in Space Camp®, Aviation Challenge®, Robotics Camp and Ultimate Field Trips.

In addition, Finley extends the museum’s visibility in regional, national and international venues for education.

“My goal is to make every experience the very best. Feedback is most beneficial in developing direction to our guest service staff,” Finley said. “Above all, we want to be responsive to our guests’ desires.”

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Profiles in Courage

Dr. Julie Finley stands at the entrance to the Davidson Center.

32 Madison Living

Profiles in Courage Pursuing 2014 goals, Finley has invited Teacher of the Year winners from all Alabama school districts to attend International Space Camp. The educators’ session will have the climate for networking.

“We’re also developing a Youth Leadership Retreat for the center that focuses on leadership qualities of collaboration, communication and problem solving for students 15 to 18 years old,” Finley said. “The development of these skill sets benefits our youth by engaging proactive leadership.”

Finley believes she and the center’s staff “ make a difference when we provide a real-world environment to apply knowledge. It’s all about the experience -- whether rigor of the classroom or showing relevance of skill sets learned.”

Finley earned bachelor’s degrees in English and psychology at Murray State University, a master’s degree in school counseling at Western Kentucky University and a doctorate’s degree in organizational administration at the University of Louisville.

She taught in Kentucky 14 years and then was assistant principal at Columbia Elementary School in Madison. Reared in Owensboro, Ky., Finley relocated to Madison in 2003 after marrying Paul Finley, former mayor of Madison.

Their son Tyler, 21, is a junior at Auburn University majoring in biomedical engineering. Tanner, 17, is in the Class of 2014 at Bob Jones and co-captain of the varsity basketball team. Kyle, 14, is a freshman at James Clemens High School.

Paul has restarted his business, Paul Finley Consulting. The Finleys attend Asbury United Methodist Church.

She serves on the Asbury UMC Board of Trustees, Madison Hospital Women’s Council and Huntsville/ Madison County Chamber of Commerce committees. She is a board of directors member for the Madison County Mental Health Center, Partnership for Biotechnical Research, Hogan Family YMCA and The Schools Foundation.

Dr. Julie Finley works as Vice President of Educational Initiatives at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center.

Madison Living 33

Profiles in Courage Michael Durant inside his Pinnacle Solutions office.

Beyond ‘Black Hawk Down’ From Mogadishu to Madison, Army vet, helicopter pilot, entrepreneur, Michael Durant finds business success… and home WRITTEN BY CHARLES MOLINEAUX PHOTOGRAPHS BY JEN FOUTS-DETULLEO

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o hear Mike Durant tell it, he didn’t actually plan to settle in Madison, his family’s home for more than a decade now.

“That comes as a surprise,” he said.

“We didn’t come here thinking we’d be here for the long term.”

But settle he did, as a father to six children, helicopter pilot, and an entrepreneur, founder and CEO of 34 Madison Living

training and simulation company Pinnacle Solutions. Pinnacle provides manuals, analysis and pilot instruction for military aircraft. After six years of operation, the business has become a valued fixture for Redstone arsenal employing more than 70 workers.

His world in Madison was a far cry from the ordeal that made Durant an international household name. It was in the bloody 1993 Battle of Mogadishu,

Somalia, officially called Operation Gothic Serpent, that Durant’s Black Hawk helicopter was shot down.

Shot, and with a broken leg and back, he was captured by a mob of Somali fighters and held prisoner by a Somali warlord for 11 days. Images of Durant’s bloodied face ended up on TV, and on the cover of Time magazine. The episode became the basis for the book and the movie “Black Hawk Down.”

Profiles in Courage More than two decades later, Durant still talks about what happened in speaking engagements. He wrote his own book on his experiences “In the Company of Heroes.” But generally, he insisted, he tries to leave it behind.

“I try not to focus on it,” he said. “There are days when I don’t even think about it. There have been anniversaries where I don’t even think about it. I see that as a positive thing.”

Absent from the movie was Durant’s grueling struggle to recover from his injuries to the point where the Army was willing to put him back in the cockpit. But he was flying again by the time he retired and moved to Madison in 2001.

“This area, in a surprise to no one, offers a lot of opportunity for former military in particular,” Durant pointed out.

The switch to civilian life, however, took some adjustment.

“Someone said something very profound when I retired,” Durant recalled. “Simple but impactful for me: ‘When you walk out that gate, they don’t live in your world. You now live in theirs.’ You have to make a conscious decision to adjust your way of thinking and your leadership style.”

Durant was also thankful for the administrative education he went through while on active duty, working in acquisition and developing skills at leadership but also management which, he discovered, could differ widely between the military and business worlds.

“In the military,” he observed, “theoretically, commanders can direct someone to do something and not worry about

whether someone wants to do it. In the civilian world, you have to be a little softer. Get it to where they want to do it.

That’s more effective.”

If any aspect of life in Madison came up short, this New Hampshire native pointed, with some conflict, to the weather.

I grew up skiing and snowmobiling,” he recalled. “Of course it’s different when you live in it and work in it versus playing in it, but I miss the recreational aspects of it.”

His notoriety has helped as far as breaking the ice in the business world, Durant granted, with some very clear limits.

“It’s certainly helped me in establishing relationships and making business contacts. But that’s where it ends, once you get your foot in the door.”

Durant admitted to being less fond of the label “hero,” routinely applied to him and other veterans who’ve persevered through intense ordeals.

“I don’t think any of us feels comfortable with that,” he mused. “Anyone who’s served as combat meets the criteria. We all tend to feel the same way. We did our jobs. Most did them to the best of our ability and we’ll leave it at that.”

ABOVE: Michael Durant

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Profiles in Courage

Clark, Herd with Bob Jones AFJROTC instill responsibility of education WRITTEN BY GREGG L. PARKER PHOTOGRAPHS BY SARAH BREWER

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llis Clark and Randy Herd emphasize responsibility to Air Force Junior ROTC (AFJROTC) students at Bob Jones High School.

Clark retired as Chief Master Sergeant. He joined in 1978 to explore the world.

“I knew there was much more to life than living in New Jersey. I decided to make a career commitment because I enjoyed what I was doing and benefits were substantial.”

First stationed at Cannon AFB, N.M., Clark worked in avionics that led him to New York, Colorado, Arizona, Japan, Korea and RAF Upper Heyford in England. He retired at Langley AFB, Virginia.

Clark’s numerous deployments included several to Kuwait and United Arab Emirates, along with Australia, Germany, Turkey, Alaska and Thailand.

“Strangely enough, I felt a lot of pride when deployed. The sense of gratitude for the military abroad brings the feeling of ‘it’s truly worth it,’“ Clark said.

36 Madison Living

Soldiers “appreciate freedoms we have as Americans when you witness firsthand the freedoms denied to people in other countries.”

Time in Korea was most rewarding.

“It brought history to life that history books do not do justice,” Clark said.

Unexploded ordnance and threat of SCUDS in Kuwait proved his most dangerous time.

He was glad when his assignment ended at Cannon AFB. “You have to be stationed there to appreciate that answer more,” Clark said.

Extensive teaching experience led him to Bob Jones AFJROTC. “A good education is better than having money in the bank; you can lose your money, but you’ll never lose the knowledge it takes to make you successful in life,” Clark said.

He sees plenty of promise in his Bob Jones students as they embrace ideals of the “Building Citizens of Character” program.

His wife Crystal is a retired

Cadet Major Victor Widgren works a flight simulator with help from retired Lieutenant Colonel Randy Herd.

Air Force veteran. Their 10-year-old twins, Brandon and Briyana, are fifth-graders at Columbia Elementary School.

His oldest son Ellis Jr. is a graphic illustrator at Jersey City University.

Herd retired in 2003 as lieutenant colonel. He decided on an Air Force career while teaching and working as parttime deejay at WEDG radio in Soddy Daisy, Tenn. A public service announcement for the Air Force persuaded him.

“I had always seen teaching as a calling,” Herd said. “It was a short, logical leap to see serving one’s country in the military as a similar calling.”

Herd’s career took him from officers’ training at Lackland AFB, Texas, to Mississippi, Alabama, Colorado and Nebraska and internationally to Keflavik Naval Air Station, Iceland. With a commander’s scholarship, he earned a master’s degree at Georgia Institute of Technology.

Profiles in Courage His most fulfilling assignments were as recruiting squadron commander, working radar systems in an Air Force laboratory and in Iceland. He patented a multi-static cruise missile detection system and earned an Air Force Scientific Achievement Award.

He recalls a Texas Rangers’ Fourth of July baseball game when 25 recruits were installed. In the stands, 45,000 people erupted with cheers and applause.

“Camaraderie among troops working a common mission overseas is really neat,” Herd said. “This nation is so blessed; it becomes even more obvious when you’re outside of it.”

After retirement, returning to the classroom seemed natural. After three interviews in the Southeast, he established “a new program from scratch at Bob Jones.”

“Education is one of the keys

to a community being a vibrant, desirable and satisfying place to live,” Herd said. He and Ellis emphasize that education is a responsibility. Students’ success/ failure affects everyone.

In most teenagers, Herd sees “natural curiosity and passion for life” that usually diminishes with age. “The raw talent in our students is amazing.”

“If one’s definition of ‘hero’ includes sacrifice, commitment and service before self, military spouses are the true heroes,” Herd said. His wife Janet has set up and dismantled households 13 times in 24 years.

Their daughter Amanda works for Huntsville Police Department.

Their son Dr. Andrew Herd, an Omaha emergency room physician, and wife Monica have three children: Nathan, 9, Katelyn, 6, and Megan, 4.

Ellis Clark’s deployments included Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Australia, Germany, Turkey, Alaska and Thailand.

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Profiles in Courage

ABOVE: Retired Sergeant Major Samuel McCray, at left, and retired Colonel Courtney Taylor are Junior ROTC instructors at James Clemens High School. OPPOSITE PAGE: Practicing a presentation of colors are Col. Courtney Taylor, from left; cadets Andrew Lemley, Noah Stapp, Darrien Brown, Andrew Worley and Joseph White; and Sgt. Maj. Sam McCray.

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Profiles in Courage

McCray, Taylor lead JROTC program at James Clemens WRITTEN BY GREGG L. PARKER PHOTOGRAPHS BY SARAH BREWER

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etired Sergeant Major Samuel McCray and retired Colonel Courtney Taylor positively influence students in Junior ROTC ( JROTC) at James Clemens High School.

After attending a vocational school, McCray worked at a fast-food restaurant. “I decided I wasn’t going to end up living the same lifestyle my mother and most of the (neighborhood) lived,” he said.

The turnaround was quick. During basic training, the “extremely shy young fellow” was named squad leader. His shyness diminished by leading complete strangers.

As the only soldier to “max the end-ofcycle testing,” McCray was recognized by drill sergeants. “At that moment, my life changed forever,” McCray said.

His childhood acquaintances -- even McCray himself -- never thought he “would do 31 years in the Army and reach the highest enlisted rank of Sergeant Major,” McCray said.

Stateside, McCray was stationed at Fort

Bragg, N.C. multiple times, as platoon sergeant at Fort Lewis, Wash. and at Fort Lee, Fort Hood and Redstone Arsenal.

Abroad, he served at Camp Humphreys and Yongsan, Korea and in Mannheim, Germany. His most dangerous deployments included Desert Shield/Desert Storm; Operation Iraqi Freedom; Camp Taji, Iraq logistically supporting more than 27,000 soldiers; and Operation Iraqi Freedom, Kuwait.

Returning from the Gulf War with a Bronze Star, McCray said “the welcome home at the airport almost made a teardrop fall from my eye ... I said, ‘Almost.’ All those people came out to welcome me home when I was just doing my job.”

Time as drill sergeant was his most rewarding yet miserable. Hours were long.

Trainees tested his nerves. “But when a kid thanks you for changing his life, there’s nothing more rewarding,” McCray said.

The military showed McCray the value of education. He shares his story with students who feel they cannot earn a college degree.

“I worked hard to get my bachelor’s degree (3.67 GPA, magna cum laude). I tell them, ‘If I got a college degree, I’m sure all of you can.’”

He and wife Cynthia have been married 25 years. Son Bryant, 20, attends Alabama A&M University and daughter Amber, 15, attends Columbus High School.

Taylor pursued an Army ROTC scholarship at Stetson University when his sports days ended. “Camaraderie was similar to a sports team with our ROTC Ranger Challenge team I led.”

However, he never dreamed about serving beyond his scholarship. Yet, directly out of college, he led a platoon and completed Jumpmaster School and Ranger School.

Then, Desert Shield/Desert Storm “kicked off.” His Fort Bragg battalion deployed immediately to Saudi Arabia.

Later, he served in Israel and Egypt in a multinational, peacekeeping force.

He deployed as battalion commander to Afghanistan with multi-national allies in his most dangerous work -- fighting the Taliban.

Madison Living 39

Profiles in Courage

James Clemens cadets take orders from Sgt. Maj. Sam McCray.

Taylor retired as colonel in 2012 after 24 years of active duty.

For D-Day’s 50th anniversary, Taylor and 500 U.S. paratroopers parachuted to St. Mere Eglise, near Normandy. “The French ... treated American troopers (like) World War II heroes. The eye-opening experience filled me with pride and educated us on sacrifices of our ‘Greatest Generation’ forefathers.”

Taylor was inspired to track Normandy Invasion sites where his grandfather had fought. His grandfather received two Purple Hearts and the Silver Star.

Taylor felt most rewarded in Hawaii as brigade commander supporting troops across the Pacific. Three battalions and units in Japan, Okinawa, Korea, Guam, Alaska and Singapore strengthened bonds with countries like Thailand, the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand.

In Afghanistan, “losses of great American heroes from our battalion stung,” Taylor said. “Seeing my bride and kids was a happy reunion for all of us.”

After retirement, Taylor considered serving as JROTC instructor... “especially when former bosses did it.” He was attracted to “giving back” and impacting young people’s lives.

JROTC teaches skills like discipline, community service and selflessness, Taylor said. “Education (is) the foundation of our future as a nation. We need to educate our youth to ... ‘think outside the box.’”

At James Clemens, Taylor sees “assertive, open-minded, highly technological youth.” While some countries educate by ‘boxing in’ exact answers, we need to harvest free-flowing thought that has made us the leading nation and economic power,” Taylor said.

His wife Kimberly teaches adult education at Calhoun Community College. Daughter Savannah, a James Clemens High School freshman, is a competition cheerleader. Son Jackson, Liberty Middle School seventh-grader, plays football and baseball.

40 Madison Living

Profiles in Courage “Education we provide our children sets them up for the future ... or not,” David Hergenroeder said.

From colonel to civic consciousness: Hergenroeder applies experience with board of education WRITTEN BY GREGG L. PARKER PHOTOGRAPHS BY JEN FOUTS-DETULLEO

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etired Col. David Hergenroeder has felt deep patriotism during overseas deployments. Contrasts between the United States and most of the world make him “proud to be an American.”

His patriotism pinnacles in seeing sacrifices and accomplishments of young men and women serving in our armed forces -- soldiers, airmen, sailors, marines and coast guardsmen. “And, in some small

way, supporting their efforts,” Hergenroeder said.

Hergenroeder graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1979. At graduation, he was “in for five,” intending to leave after that commitment.

However, as field artillery lieutenant, his appreciation grew for the organization that “contributed to better our nation. So, I stayed,” Hergenroeder said. “In hindsight, it was a great decision.”

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Profiles in Courage In 2004, he retired as colonel in the U.S. Army.

Hergenroeder credits army life for meeting outstanding people, traveling extensively, experiencing unimaginable situations ... even meeting wife Melanie, also an army captain.

As a “wet-behind-the-ears field artillery lieutenant,” he learned about cannons and fire support. Eventually, he served on the Pentagon’s Army Staff and “ended 25-plus years later as the Director of Operations for a joint and multi-agency task force.”

“Certainly not the ‘five-year plan’ I had when I graduated from

David Hergenroeder takes his seat for a Madison Board of Education meeting.

42 Madison Living

college,” he said. He now works as a Department of Defense civilian at Redstone Arsenal.

Hergenroeder earned master’s degrees at the University of Washington and National Defense University in Washington D.C., along with a professional engineering license.

During his career, Hergenroeder served in Korea on the DMZ, on Germany’s border during the Cold War and in U.S. border security missions after 9/11. “I’ve never deployed to an active war zone,” he said.

Profiles in Courage His assignments also took him to Washington, Hawaii, Kansas, Texas and Virginia. He also taught mechanical engineering at West Point.

He was most rewarded with “the privilege of serving with troops in various units, especially when I was in command as captain and lieutenant colonel,” he said.

While Washington D.C. offered amazing attractions, “I cannot say I was sorry when my tour in the Pentagon ended,” Hergenroeder said. “The bureaucracy was stifling. Traffic could be horrific with commutes consuming inordinate time. I much preferred to be out in the ‘real Army.’”

After military retirement, Hergenroeder gives back to the community as an education protagonist. Soon after moving to Madison, he started attending board meetings, which led to committee work for a new high school and principal hirings. He now serves on the Madison Board of Education.

“Education we provide our children sets them up for the future ... or not. We better pay attention to our schools and what they’re learning,” Hergenroeder said.

With the army, the family was exposed to 10-plus different school systems. “We’ve seen many different approaches.”

“We chose to live in Madison based on the quality of the schools,” he said. At that time, the Hergenroeders had a child in elementary, middle and high schools.

With his engineering background, Hergenroeder brings a “data-driven” presence to the school board. “My interests are all over the map.”

“The Madison City Schools system is in great shape, but we need to maintain that azimuth of improving all the time,” he said.

One challenge is preserving high standards for both high schools. “We don’t want a ‘Bob Jones system’ and a ‘James Clemens system.’”

David and Melanie’s children are John, a computer analyst in Chicago; Laura, a senior at the University of Alabama; and David Jr., a freshman at Yale University.

He believes the board should “not just focus on bringing up low achievers or pushing our academic stars. (We) need to challenge each and every child to learn and improve.”

He appreciates the board’s commitment “to keep Madison City Schools one of the best in the nation.”

David Hergenroeder graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1979.

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Profiles in Courage

ABOVE: Cadet Major Victor Widgren works a flight simulator with help from retired Lieutenant Colonel Randy Herd.

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Profiles in Courage

One (Good) Thing Leads To Another

WRITTEN BY CHARLES MOLINEAUX PHOTOGRAPHS BY SARAH BREWER

Organizer, advocate, self-proclaimed ‘middleman,’ Jane Dow keeps endless irons in the fire to help vets and the community.

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s a veteran, a former leader of Madison’s American Legion Post 22, Carl Dow certainly served, but he would freely admit to being upstaged by his wife Jane, whose involvement with veterans in need, and one neighborhood initiative after another, keeps going and going.

“I was commander of the post for five years. She’s still active!” Dow exclaimed.

“I’m just watching from the husband’s seat.”

Jane Dow acknowledged an ongoing inclination into serial community involvement, a never ending mission that largely focuses on area vets.

“There’s always somebody out there to help,” she said.

Her latest enterprise, a newly formed nonprofit Veterans of North Alabama Services Assistance Program was founded to assist vets and their families still working on segueing out of the military life.

“We try to provide the tools necessary for reintegration into civilian society,” she

said. “We hook them up with the right people. We do mentoring. We’ll be able to step in financially to help vets not lose their apartments, if we ever get money.”

Yes, money remained a challenge as the plan awaited the blessing of Uncle Sam. “I do have corporations waiting to donate,” she said. “But they can’t until we get the 501(c)(3) designation. All we can do is wait.”

Waiting may be difficult for this driven leader for whom community undertakings became child’s play, and vice versa.

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Profiles in Courage

In 1997, she was in the middle of the creation of Kids Kingdom playground in Dublin Park.

“That was just something I did as a community mom,” she recalled.

It was a venture to which she would keep returning for years.

It was also the start of a succession of projects, said husband Carl.

“After Kids Kingdom, she started helping the veterans and the homeless and elderly and homebound and it kind of went from there,” he said.

“I guess you can say I’m the professional nudger,” chuckled Jane. “I try to jump in and do whatever everybody else is doing but I also nudge a lot.”

A friend asked Jane to get involved in events welcoming returning veterans.

“I did the first ‘welcome home’ tribute in about 2002,” she explained. “They ABOVE: Jane Dow stands at Kids Kingdom, which she helped to create.

46 Madison Living

needed somebody with organizational skills. I got to know all the people involved in veterans type services.”

During the holiday seasons, she worked with the American Legion on Operation Christmas Bear, a party for the children of military families whose parents were deployed.

“It was our way of giving back to those families,” she said. “I went out and solicited funds. The American Legion guys came out to serve the food and prepare the trays.”

More projects queued up.

In 2012, Operation Stand Down Huntsville brought together food, shelter and referrals for homeless veterans.

“I had a couple of people ask me if I’d coordinate that. We had probably 20 to 30 different organizations set up,” Dow said. “The veterans had a couple of nights in the warm. Then they left with things like sleeping bags, coats and boots.”

Dow’s conclusion? Not enough.

“That’s what sparked me,” she declared, “seeing the needs of the veterans. Not just the homeless veterans, veterans in general, and their families. A lot of them are in need.”

While the Service Assistance Program awaited sanction from the feds, Dow saw plenty more ideas in need of her aid.

“There’s the Easter Food Box. That’s coming up,” she said. “And the Madison Assistance Project. We try to coordinate home repair work with different churches for low income and elderly and homebound.”

“She says that’s her calling,” marveled Carl Dow. “Jane is just outstanding as far as helping others.”

“All you have to do is look for them,” said Jane. “Or in my case, they usually find me.

“It’s always a work in progress,” she continued. “You’ve heard of the song that never ends? This is one of those.”

Profiles in Courage

Cushman stands by a World War II B-25 Warbird that flew a five-man crew. The aircraft resides in a museum in Palm Springs, Calif. (Contributed)

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Profiles in Courage

Cushman ‘goes remote’: Searching for WWII aircraft crashes WRITTEN BY GREGG L. PARKER PHOTOGRAPHS BY JEN FOUTS-DETULLEO

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any people are history buffs, but Steve Cushman preserves history from fighter plane crashes during World War II. With his company, Go Remote, Cushman leads individuals on “adventure travels” in the Americas and Pacific, especially Papual New Guinea.

During tours, he searches for downed WWII planes. The truly courageous were “thousands of WWII M.I.A. airmen and others who never came home. Too many have been forgotten,” Cushman said.

Go Remote adventures explore Mayan ruins, Belize, the Australian outback, jungle rafting, hot air ballooning and SCUBA trips to Queensland. As “adventure escort,” Cushman makes arrangements and educates clients of risks.

Does Cushman travel for reclamation? “’Reclamation’ is a go-to-jail word in Papua New Guinea. Foreign salvagers have

pirated (illegally exported) WWII wrecks for restoration, sometimes worth millions,” Cushman said.

“Any interest from tall, white guys is understandably viewed with suspicion,” he said. Even legitimate purchases have involved tribal wars and arrest warrants for Americans, Australians and Chinese.

For an adventure, Cushman must secure a native translator, permission of the territory’s “headman” and a local guide. A GPS often is useless in a double-canopy jungle. Tribes’ verbal histories reveal wreck stories.

He recently used hard candy and Frisbees as bargaining tools. Drums summoned a tribal meeting, which permitted his request.

“Copter drivers won’t land without permission — too much risk of a spear thrown in the blades,” Cushman said.

Purportedly, two witches recently were burned at the stake.

Award-winning producer Josh Baxter hired Cushman to locate a P-38 fighter

plane in the swamps of Japanese-occupied New Guinea and to connect Baxter among native tribes. In Honduras, crews reenacted/ filmed the pilot’s escape from headhunters and survival as “Injury Slight, Please Advise.”

The film won an Emmy for historical documentary. “Injury Slight, Please Advise” was the pilot’s first radio message after 30 days in the jungle.

After high school graduation in southern Illinois, Cushman enlisted in the U.S. Army and soon was an infantryman in Vietnam. He became a “Mustang,” or second lieutenant.

He decided on a career after studying World War II since childhood. All his uncles were WWII veterans. After 21 years, Cushman advanced to armor/cavalry major and earned his second master’s degree at retirement.

“I was privileged to serve with some of the very best during divisive times for this nation,” Cushman said.

During deployment, Cushman saw “a

Steve Cushman sits among the components of his work with his company, Go Remote.

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Profiles in Courage Steve Cushman studies a survivor’s map from a World War II fighter crash.

tyrannical government out of control on the West German/Czechoslovakian border.” In Vietnam, Cushman was an ‘old man’ at age 23, reporting to a first sergeant with 23 years service.

He had the most fun as “Bootstrapper,” full-time civilian student, Army captain

50 Madison Living

and senior at the University of Southern Mississippi. Cushman was most relaxed as combat arms instructor with “mostly office hours ... What a great concept!”

Fairbanks, Alaska was Cushman’s top pick for outdoor living — in temperatures 60 degrees below zero with Brigadier General Norman Schwarzkopf.

His “most formative view” of threats to world freedom was in antebellum Middle East. “I lived among them ... as an infidel,” Cushman said.

When has Cushman felt the most pride as an American? “I’ve always been proud to be an American — unlike the wives of some politicians. I grew up among vets who served,” he said.

Furthermore, Cushman takes great pride in living in the Madison/Huntsville area with “many other active veterans and true patriots.

Many of them and many defense companies work hard in organizations like Semper Fi Community Task Force, Still Serving Vets, Valor Flight and Honor Flight.”

Cushman cites a CBS news report “on the ‘acutely dysfunctional’ Joint MIA/ POW

Accountability Command, a joint service group in Hawaii responsible for recovery and identification of MIA service members.

The command has failed to search, manage and recover remains. Private companies and searches, like mine, have a greater success rate with less money on a not-for-profit basis.”

Furthermore, the command “has even blocked access to ‘private’ records needed by independent searchers,” Cushman said.

Cushman’s goal is to complete an accurate documentary for missing WWII crews.

He hopes to gain corporate or foundation sponsorship for a not-for-profit museum and to support videographies. “This American history should not slip away undocumented, he said.”

His wife Paula Cushman belongs to Rotary Club of Madison and recently retired from the defense industry. Their son Chris is an attorney.

Steve enjoys SCUBA diving, whitewater rafting and volunteering with Vets with Vettes and Semper Fi Community Task Force.

For more information, visit Goremote.net.

Profiles in Courage

Leadership courtesy the U.S. Army Madison Mayor Troy Trulock credits his Army background for his leadership and service to the city WRITTEN BY CHARLES MOLINEAUX PHOTOGRAPHS BY JEN FOUTS-DETULLEO

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adison Mayor Troy Trulock admits he knew next to nothing about Huntsville, let alone Madison, until he met some “very smart people,” engineers, who came to work on his missile battery during the first Persian Gulf War. “They said ‘there are some rocket scientists, some PhDs, from this place called Huntsville, Alabama,’ ” he recalled. “I didn’t know where Huntsville was.”

But two decades later, assigned to Redstone Arsenal with the Army, Trulock turned down a chance to go to the U.S. Army War College because he wanted to stay in the city he’d come to love.

“It ended up being the best place we’d ever lived,” he proclaimed. “So we went from ‘we’re not sure we want to go there’ to ‘this is the place we’re going to retire.’”

Like many of his fellow veterans, Trulock made his way to the Huntsville area because of its military ties, then opted to stay after the familiar odyssey from posting to posting.

“We lived in nine or 10 locations — Fort Bragg, East Coast, West Coast, Fort Leavenworth,” Trulock’s wife Dana said, “I could try to get them in order but oh my gosh.”

Trulock joined the Army after graduating from the University of Kansas, and embarked lessons in leadership skills: I don’t know that I would have learned if I hadn’t been in the military,” he said.

At a Cold War missile site in Germany, his job bore a certain similarity to his future in city government.

“We were 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.”

Trulock said.

The demands of service came up again when, only three weeks after Trulock and his wife had moved to their new home at Fort Bragg N.C., Trulock shipped out to the Middle East for the first Gulf War. “It’s part of the Army life,” said Dana Trulock,

Madison Mayor Troy Trulock

Madison Living 51

Profiles in Courage Dana and Troy Trulock

CONTRIBUTED

“and I was very proud of him for serving.”

In the Saudi Arabian desert, Trulock faced the threat of Iraqi Scud missile attacks until a team from the Patriot Project Office in Huntsville upgraded the team’s software to counter Scuds.

“After several more volleys,

we realized the system really works. I really owe my life to this organization which, ironically, I came back to be a part of, he said.”

Trulock did eventually join the project office in Huntsville as an air defense officer, then discovered he’d rather stick

LANDSCAPE NURSERY AND GARDEN CENTER

52 Madison Living

with his adopted hometown of Madison than uproot again. He retired as a lieutenant colonel and became involved in the city, successfully running for mayor in 2012.

“The military taught me how to be a leader,” he said, “Every place that I went, I had to start over and learn and grow that organization. That’s what this job is about.”

Dana Trulock maintained she had always seen her husband as a leader but that his service experiences fine-tuned him.

“Definitely,” she said. “The military puts you in those situations and really does develop those leadership skills.

That’s one of the reasons our veterans to do such amazing work and continue to give back to our communities.”

“It’s a fantastic job,” Trulock

said. “In the military, you serve your country and you serve your soldiers at the same time. The mayor does the same thing. I serve our community and I serve our citizens.”

Trulock laughed off the idea that his schedule, city business and public appearances day and night all week long, is tough.

“People keep asking ‘isn’t it long hours? A lot of work?’

That’s OK. We were involved in the community already. I’m probably not spending any more time at it, he said.”

“Once he retired and we learned so much about this community we love so much, it’s just a natural progression to want to get involved,” added Dana Trulock. “If you have those skill sets, I don’t think that you should hold those to yourself.

You need to make a difference.”

HOME

The Reeds

add personal tastes to estate home in Clift’s Cove

I

n May 2013, Earl and Amanda Reed moved into the 122 Cheekwood Drive property in Clift’s Cove. Almost a year later, the Reeds are continuing to find their niche in the home with updates and renovations.

The Reeds originally noticed that the house was for sale while viewing online sites. However, they were not ready to purchase a new home. “At that time, the original owner, Danny Windam, had it on the market,” Earl Reed said.

“By the time we started looking to buy, Rolando McClain had just purchased the house,” Reed said.

A Decatur native, McClain was named All-

American and was considered the country’s best linebacker while playing football at the University of Alabama. He then played three seasons for the Oakland Raiders. After signing with the Baltimore Ravens, McClain abruptly retired.

“After looking for several months, we actually decided to buy Rolando’s other house that he had for sale on County Line Road,” Reed said. During the home inspection, the Reeds discovered McClain had just listed his house in Clift’s Cove.

“We asked if we could see it. We fell in love with it as soon as we saw it,” Reed said.

The sprawling house has approximately 8,700

WRITTEN BY GREGG L. PARKER PHOTOGRAPHS BY JEN FOUTS-DETULLEO ABOVE: Hayden Wyatt, Earl and Amanda Reed and Cody Wyatt live in Clift’s Cove.

Madison Living 53

square feet with five bedrooms, each with a full bath.

The house has another three half-baths. For several years, the house was purportedly the largest dwelling in Madison.

For Earl, the home theater is the favorite room with “a large projection screen with full Dolby surround sound and theater seating for eight people. It’s great for watching movies or big football games.”

For Amanda, the family room off the kitchen is her choice spot. Two sofas situated in front of the fireplace make it ideal for a relaxing break.

Their furnishings are still “a work in progress. Since we moved from a 3,300-square-foot home, we have been gradually buying furniture a little at a time to fill up the new home,” Earl said. “Amanda has done most of the decorating and is going for a ‘comfortable-butclassic’ look.”

For the great room, Earl wanted a pool table and large flat-screen television. “We actually put a pool table in the same spot that Danny Windam had his,” Earl said. “We are going for more of a ‘country club’ or stylish ‘pub’ look in that room.”

TOP: An elegant pool provides for refreshing use of outdoor space in spring and summer.

(Contributed) BOTTOM: The Reeds bought their Madison mansion from former NFL player Rolando McClain. OPPOSITE PAGE: The roomy kitchen features an island, double ovens and spacious countertops and cabinets.

54 Madison Living

The home’s exterior is primarily brick in a reddish-brown hue. Perched atop the sloping landscape, a pool area offers an attached sitting pool. A sitting area in the upper terrace overlooks the backyard.

“The house has great landscaping and wonderful curb appeal,” Earl said. “A couple of beautiful weeping willows on the side and large crepe myrtles frame the entrance.”

Earl Reed is vice president of

engineering at DeciBel Research. Amanda Reed works as a nurse at Huntsville Hospital. “We’ve been married since June 2012,” he said. “I have lived in Madison since 1992. Amanda and her two sons moved here when we got married.”

Amanda’s sons Cody Wyatt, 10, and Hayden Wyatt, 12, both attend Rainbow Elementary School. Earl’s children are Trey Reed, a 19-year-old sophomore studying mechanical engineering at the

University of Alabama, and Anne Carter Reed, 16, who attends Auburn High School.

Earl hails from Wetumpka, while Amanda grew up in Florence.

“We enjoy attending services at Asbury United Methodist Church,” Earl said.

He serves on the board of directors for HEALS Inc. (Health Establishments at Local Schools) and Alabama School of Math and Science in Mobile.

Madison Living 55

ARTS & CULTURE

Crime, with a capital ‘sea’ Madison vet turns a Navy tour into serial killer’s hunting ground in his first novel

Lieutenant Commander, abbreviated LCDR, in Service Khaki uniform. (Navy officers have a lot of uniforms)

56 Madison Living

F

or Eric Herbert, the globe-spanning world of a Navy officer voyaging the seas made a compelling natural environment for… a murderer.

“One of the things I was trying to do was figure out a good setting that hasn’t been used before,” he explained, “and having a serial killer attached to a military environment played into my background.”

As a former Navy Lieutenant Commander who circled the globe four times by his own estimate before landing in Madison, Herbert was familiar with naval journeys, as well as the disparate locations sailors find port.

So it was in that milieu that he placed his first published novel, “The Butcher’s Bill,” a crime thriller, published in January, that pits a uniformed serial killer against an undercover FBI agent, a team of psychologists and, most importantly, a Catholic priest who finds he and the killer have a lot in common.

“It’s actually a good versus evil tale,” said Herbert.

Herbert’s foray into the book world came after a 20-year career, first in the Army, then the Navy.

He served in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm, and in the Indian Ocean during Operation Enduring Freedom after Sept. 11, all

the while honing his expertise at combat systems, eventually getting Master’s degrees in systems and electrical engineering.

That was what led to his job with the Missile Defense Agency at Redstone Arsenal as a contractor after his retirement from the Navy in 2008.

His move to Madison, he said, was the result of extensive homework.

“I was wondering if I’d really enjoy northern Alabama,” he recalled.

A father of two boys, seven and 14, Herbert put a priority on family, noting “that southern hospitality really came through in Madison, very family oriented, great schools.”

It was an affinity he discovered starkly in the worst of times.

“This may sound macabre but it was the tornadoes in April 2011,” he said. “What surprised me after the tornadoes was how many people came out and helped each other. They started flocking to churches and shelters to help people pick up the pieces. It just amazed me.”

Herbert’s work on the sea also yielded what he hoped would be a gripping sea story.

“All the many years of just looking out at the water,” he mused, “thoughts of crafting a story, and

STORY & PHOTOS BY CHARLES MOLINEAUX

Madison Living 57

finally it just stuck in my head and I started putting it down on paper.”

The result was “The Butchers Bill,” the title itself a play on a gruesome sailing ship era term for the casualty list a ship’s surgeon would turn over after a bloody battle.

Drawing heavily from his own experiences in the Navy, it tells of a Seattle priest who becomes involved in the case of a murderous naval petty officer, and spans the seas along the killer’s trail.

“All the places in the book, in Thailand, Washington, Hawaii, I’ve been to myself,” he said. “So I was able to understand and picture the scenery and the settings.”

He also went for Biblical parallels, a bit of Gandhi, and “a Cain and Abel kind of thing.”

Those spiritual angles, he said, helped to attract the attentions of 58 Madison Living

Tate Publishing, which specializes in religious themes.

It was a happy ending for which Herbert was grateful after a year of shopping his finished creation around to agents and publishers.

“Ah, that was difficult,” he conceded.

With the paperback in stores and on Amazon, Herbert watched for a verdict from the market, and enjoyed a smattering of positive reviews from fellow Navy vets impressed at its accurate depictions of life aboard ship.

“I’m thrilled people are enjoying the story,” he said. “Each time they think they know what’s going on, it takes a different twist.”

He was particularly tickled by feedback from colleagues at his day job at The Aerospace Corporation.

“They’re just surprised an engineer can write fiction,” he laughed.

TOP OPPOSITE: Photo of Lt. Herbert (from left) with USS FIFE (DD-991) Commanding Officer Steve Huber and LTJG Tim O’Neil on the destroyer’s bridge. Photo was taken the day they departed Naval Station Everett Washington for a six-month deployment to the Persian Gulf in 1999. BOTTOM OPPOSITE: Herbert said his novel “Butcher’s Bill” got an enthusiastic reception among Navy veterans for its faithful depiction of life on ship, and a surprised response from his Aerospace Corporation colleagues.

“They’re just surprised an engineer can write fiction,” he said. TOP: A literature enthusiast, author Eric Herbert also pursues music, playing piano and,yes, guitar. BOTTOM: Eric Herbert shows off shadow box of mementos from his 20-year career in first the U.S. Army, then the Navy, from which he retired as a Lieutenant Commander.

Madison Living 59

HEALTH

Take it easy (But not too easy)

YMCA brings gentler fitness to health seekers without intimidation

WRITTEN BY CHARLES MOLINEAUX PHOTOGRAPHS BY JEN FOUTS-DETULLEO 60 Madison Living

OPPOSITE PAGE: Walk ‘n Tone class members range in age from mid 20s to mid 70s. of class.” ABOVE: Instructor Joselyn Kirstein stretches with her class.

I

nstructor Sheila Hunt urged her students into motion.

“I want three minutes of ‘go!’ ” she called out. “Let’s move with a purpose.”

While a hardcore athlete herself, Hunt carefully modulated the intensity of work she demanded of her class in the Walk n Tone exercise program at the Hogan Family YMCA, a class where participants ranged in age from their early 20s all the way to mid 70s.

“They are doing really well,” she declared. “They are much stronger than they think. Try it.”

The exercises in the workout transitioned between brisk walks around the Y’s elevated track, stretching against the balcony railings and strength training with elastic resistance bands or weights, or no weights at all, depending on the individual participant, a deliberately varied level of difficulty for a very varied group of people.

“Really, it can be for anybody,” explained Kelli Phillips, senior Madison Living 61

program director, “because it’s a class that you do at your own level.”

While the Y hosts more than 70 classes a week, including many vigorous high intensity, high impact ones, this program specifically targeted those for whom grueling extremelevel workouts would not be suited, but who still seek improved fitness.

“It’s very non-intimidating for the health seeker,” Phillips continued. “You walk into a certain type of class and you just feel kind of overwhelmed, and everybody’s fit and knows the moves and the choreography. There’s no choreography to this type of class. You have all ages, young, to the senior adults.”

And the lapsed athletes, too.

“I haven’t been back in a while,” confessed class member Laura Tucker, only slightly winded after an hour’s workout. “So it was a lot for me, but we’re not overdoing it.”

And while Hunt repeatedly demanded “let’s grind!” of the class, she took extra care not to overdo it with at least one member, 72-year-old Margaret Wiegand, who Hunt deliberately positioned closest to herself and gave extra attention.

Leaders at the Y emphasize the power of a

62 Madison Living

Walk ‘n Tone instructor Joselyn Kirstein.

class environment.

“We’ve found that those group atmospheres keep people going longer and maintain an exercise routine,” said Phillips.

“The motivation of an instructor gets them through class or they get to know other people in a group and they notice when they’re not there.”

“Where’s Miss Janet?” Hunt suddenly called out in the class?

The question drifted around the balcony until another member of the class satisfied her with the news that Miss Janet was babysitting that day.

“You have two different types of exercisers,” Phillips went on. “You have the ones who are self-motivated. They pretty much take care of themselves. But the camaraderie of those groups…Some of them get together and eat lunch once a month!”

“They’re wonderful people,” said Brenda Long, a heroine of the class for her success at losing more than 60 pounds. “It’s an important balance. Don’t overdo it.”

Phillips said the Y has been trying to keep up with demand for some not-so-intense exercise programs.

“We do get feedback,” she acknowledged, “that we need to continue different types of intro classes or beginner classes.”

While a chair aerobics class for seniors is still in the works, the Y just started a basic step class in early March. Yoga, too.

“We have yoga classes that are high intensity, a lot of strength type. You’re standing on your head,” she laughed. “But also ‘gentle yoga’ for those people just being introduced, and ‘yoga basics,’ lower impact, less intense.”

Phillips noted that membership in the Hogan Family Y has been rising but insisted that an important objective is to keep its members coming back.

“You want those people to start out and be successful at what they do instead of expecting everybody to come in and just pick it up like that,” she said.

TOP RIGHT: A group walk around the balcony at the Hogan Family YMCA takes a party atmosphere. “The camaraderie of those groups!” said senior program director Kelli Phillips. “Some of them get together and eat lunch once a month.” BOTTOM RIGHT: Instructor Sheila Hunt (center) instructs members of the Walk ‘n Tone class at the Hogan Family YMCA, while member Margaret Wiegand (left) listens in.

(Photo by Charles Molineaux)

Madison Living 63

Pre-diabetes: Know Your Risks and Options Could you be at risk for pre-diabetes? In the U.S., 26 million people suffer from diabetes and 79 million people have prediabetes. These statistics are alarming, and the impact on the cost of health care and the overall well-being of our communities makes preventing the number of new cases of type 2 diabetes more important than ever before.

As a leading voice in the community for improving health and well-being, the Hogan Family YMCA wants residents of Madison to know their risk factors for prediabetes and type 2 diabetes as well as preventative steps they can take.

Pre-diabetes is a condition in which individuals have blood glucose levels that are higher than normal but not high enough to be classified as diabetes. Often a preventable condition, people with pre-diabetes can reduce their risk for developing type 2 diabetes by adopting behavior changes that include eating more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and choosing lean meat, skinless poultry and fish; exercising 30 minutes per day, five days a week; and choosing water over sugary drinks. People 64 Madison Living

with pre-diabetes are at risk for not only developing type 2 diabetes, but also cardiovascular disease, stroke and other chronic illnesses.

The Y encourages all adults to determine their vulnerability for type 2 diabetes by taking a risk assessment at www.diabetes. org/risktest.

“Learning your risk for pre-diabetes and making lifestyles changes is easy to say, but oftentimes hard to do” said Drew Freeman, Executive Director of the Hogan Family YMCA. “The good news is that you don’t have to do this alone. The Y can help with wellness classes and programs for all ability levels. As a free gift to the community, the Y is hosting the Madison Health & Wellness Expo on April 5 here at the Hogan Y.” The Madison Health & Wellness Expo will feature free screenings for blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose and vein health, a blood drive, door prizes and more than 60 trusted health experts from 9 a.m. to noon. The Expo is free and open to the public.

To learn more about the Madison Health & Wellness Expo or Hogan YMCA programs, please visit ymcahuntsville.org or contact the Y at 256.705.9622.

1

Medi Gras Bash The third annual Medi Gras Bash, benefitting Madison Hospital, held at the Jackson Center at HudsonAlpha in Huntsville, was a roaring success.

1. Madison School Board President Ray White (left) with Phil Schmidt of Fantastic Plastic 2. City Council Member Ronica Ondoscin (left), Huntsville Hospital Foundation President Candy Burnett 3. Designer Leigh Thomas (left) with husband David, Amazing Grace Enterprises.

2

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4. Toni Johnson (left), with Beth Mumaw and Amy Goddard 5. Sonja Griffith, Madison PTA, Dawn Speegle, Redstone Federal Credit Uniion, Fairee Brugge with the Madison Hospital Women’s Council 6. Senator Bill Holtzclaw (at right) with (from left) Son-in-law Michael Hays, daughter Sydney Hays and wife Pam Holtzclaw 7. Horizon Elementary school principal Rodney Richardson (left), with Progress Bank President Beth Martin

PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHARLES MOLINEAUX

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Madison Living 65

8. Chuck Lewis of SAIC (left) with Madison Street Festival organizers Kathleen Lewis and Rosalie Holcombe, and Jonathan Perkins with GKN Aerospace (right)

8

9. Marcia Fowler (left) with husband, Madison School Superintendent Dee Fowler 10. Madison Police Chief Larry Muncey, Rita Muncey 11. Madison First Lady Dana Trulock (left) with Madison Hospital President Mary Lynn Wright and Madison Mayor Troy Trulock.

12. Steve Wright (left), Liz Dye, Buster Betz 13. Jim and Carol Tevepaugh of Water Oak Resources, with Norm Tew of Boeing

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14. Huntsville Hospital Children’s Services Director Cathy Hubler (right) with husband Don Hubler (left)

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13 66 Madison Living

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Madison Living 67

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