Karen Brady
A positive attitude and a love for helping his fellow man has kept Al Hair going strong for the past 86 years.
"In my younger days, I never had a high regard for myself, but when I started working for myself, I realized I had something to offer, that my ideas were worthwhile," said Hair. "I have always tried to be positive and even if I don't have a smile on my face, I refuse to be grumpy."
When Hair was six weeks old, his family got into a covered wagon and instead of heading west, they headed east out of Braggs, Okla., ending up near Van Buren, Ark.
Hair also called Tulsa home for a time and he spent 12 years in Texas before settling in Chickashain 1965.
That same year, Hair and his daughter Rita joined the Nazarene Church in Chickasha. Today, the two are the longest-standing members of the local church and Hair is also the oldest member.
While on several mission trips for the church, called "Work and Witness," Hair kept a journal, reporting on events of the trips. As a result, he is now the unofficial church historian.
"I wrote down everything I could think of like what happened, and who was there and I didn't worry about whether it was 'literary'," said Hair.
A graduate of the University of Tulsa with an engineering degree in physics, Hair worked for IBM in Tulsa for six years.
"I realized I was not the 'Type A' personality required for the job, so I left my college training and went to work for the Boy Scouts in Dallas," said Hair.
The only boy in a family of girls and the father of four daughters, Hair was jokingly accused of going to work for the Boy Scouts to get some boys. And, for the first 10 years with the Boy Scouts, Hair did spend a lot of time with the boys camping in the woods.
"I grew up in Arkansas and I was the only boy in the family. I never cared for hunting or fishing and I had no money for a camera, but I loved to walk in the woods," said Hair.
Because of his love for the great outdoors, in 1976, Hair took his family on a vacation in Colorado. While climbing a mountain to see a waterfall, one of Hair's daughters, who suffers from asthma, started having problems breathing in the thin mountain air.
Hair cut her a walking stick for support and to ease her way up the hill.
That walking stick grew into a kind of hobby that has endured to this day. In fact, Hair is rarely seen without one of his unusual staves.
Indeed, a small, rustic barrel in Hair's living room is filled with an abundance of gnarled and twisted branches from as near as Salyer Lake in Caddo County and as far as the Blue Ridge Parkway in the Appalachian Mountains that Hair has sanded and varnished to a golden sheen, each a unique walking stick with its own story. The end of each stick is woodburned in Hair's fine hand indicating the type of wood, location and year found as well as Hair's name.
On the mantle above the barrel of walking sticks is a wall-to-wall gallery of family photos, including one of Hair's paternal great grandmother.
"There are seven generations in those photos and I have met all of them," said Hair.
A collector, Hair began collecting postage stamps in the 1950s and continued through the 1990s until they became too expensive.
"It got to where I could not afford it, so I quit," said Hair.
However, Hair soon started collecting coins instead.
Each year when Hair visits his daughter in Georgia, he brings coins home from the Philadelphia Mint for several people, including some bank employees. According to Hair, coins from the Philadelphia Mint are not frequently found in Oklahoma as ours are usually from the Denver Mint.
"I collect old American coins, but nothing very valuable - pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters and a smattering of fifty-cent pieces," said Hair. "I did bring some back from the Dominican Republic when I went to help rebuild the church training facility after a hurricane. I picked up a bunch of their coins."
To date, Hair has coins from 54 different countries, many of them being collected on mission trips.
In addition, after three years of Monday night art classes, Hair became an artist, as evidenced by a number of oil paintings in several rooms of his home.
"I've never sold one, but I had one stolen," quipped Hair.
Despite his growing talent for painting, Hair stopped painting after he stopped taking lessons because he did not enjoy painting alone.
In addition, Almeda, his wife of almost 50 years, became ill and he devoted all of his time to her until she passed away in 1995.
After 25 years with the Boy Scouts, Hair went into business for himself doing household repairs, carpentry, painting and the like.
In the 70s and 80s, many of Hair's black friends who lived in dilapidated homes on the east side of Chickasha called on him for help.
"I had lots of friends who called me to come fix their houses and I did whatever they needed me to do," said Hair. "I have met so many people and I've always met them in areas where I could help. That has been so meaningful to me."
However, because his daughters were concerned about his safety while climbing ladders and doing other possibly dangerous jobs, Hair finally retired at 79.
Now at 86, hair is still active in his church and recently participated in an official proclamation signed by Chickasha Mayor Greg Elliott proclaiming Sunday, Oct. 5 as First Church of the Nazarene Faith Day in Chickasha in honor of the church’s 100th anniversary.
