Late Afternoon Life
After completing his year as COO in Virginia, Hadley returned to Fairhope, where now his workdays — and commutes — are deservedly shorter. “Commuting to work is pretty easy,” he says, “because I just walk from one end of the house to the other.”
Fortunately, he and Sherry had time in their semiretirement to enjoy their joint passion for travel. For 10 years before COVID, they took nine different Viking river cruises, as well as several small boat ocean cruises. “We liked smaller river cruises to mass commercial cruises because we preferred not to be packed at sea with 5,000 of our closest friends,” he remarks with a touch of humor. His three favorite cruises sound like a bucket wish-list. “Viking has a lot of good cruises,” he says, “but my favorites were the Danube River (that flows through the middle of Europe), the Douro River (through Spain and into northern Portugal) and the southern France cruise from Avignon up to Lyon.” He pauses these travel recommendations for a half-beat that serves to make his next comment more poignant, “We liked to travel...I’m not sure what I’m going to do without her...” Yet, before that heartfelt moment weighs too heavy, Hadley bounces back, “But I still like to travel and I’m certain I’ll figure out
something.” (He might buy an EU rail pass, which is his favorite way to tour Europe.)
So overall, Hadley is adjusting to these comfortable late-afternoon, widower days as well as one could. His Helicopter Handler business keeps him busy and runs like a fine-tuned machine. He says, “This is a pretty stable business that slowly varies according to overall helicopter sales. We don’t have regulatory oversight because ground-handling equipment doesn’t have oversight from anybody, which is unlike the regulations that the aircraft on our platforms must meet.”
He also finds stability and comfort in the industry he entered as a cop those many years ago. “Little did I know when I was asked to restart Tulsa’s aviation unit back in 1981 that it would lead me down the paths I traveled to own a manufacturing company in the helicopter industry,” he muses. “What I found when I first started at ALEA and got involved with HAI is that this industry gets in your blood. Once you’re exposed to helicopters, you’ll carry them with you the rest of your life.”
What a full life of love and work it’s been.
16
Nov/Dec 2023
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