Couple top volunteers at Garvan Woodland Gardens
Couple honored as exemplary volunteers at Garvan Woodland Gardens
Bill and Annette Curry are ready, willing and able to do what they can at Garvan Woodland Gardens in Hot Springs. “They put in lots of time here,” said Susan Harper, visitor services director. “Each has a volunteer heart. They are our Volunteers of the Year for 2015.”
Bill, whose full name is William Hubert Curry Jr., was the No. 1 volunteer, logging in 655 hours. Annette was not too far behind with 470 hours.
Bill drives a golf cart and conducts tours of the 210-acre botanical garden located on Lake Hamilton; he also takes care of the model railroad in the Sugg Model Train Garden.
Annette is a greeter at the front desk of the Pratt Welcome Center.
“I was the most surprised person in the room when they announced I had the most hours,” Bill said. “I [volunteer] two or three days a week. The hours just piled up.”
Annette said she doesn’t even “think about the hours.”
“We get a yikes-o-gram from Susan, and we know we are needed,” she said. “It’s so pleasant to come out here. You can just leave your worries behind you.”
Annette said the volunteers “get wonderful support from Susan Harper.”
“She is one of the reasons many of us continue to volunteer there,” Annette said.
Annette was also instrumental in raising money among her fellow volunteers in support of Campaign Arkansas, the gardens’ capital campaign. Funds raised from this effort, which will continue through 2018, will go toward completing the Rose Garden and add an educational component featuring a treehouse to the Evans Children’s Adventure Garden.
“You have to donate $1,000 to get a plaque recognizing your contribution,” Annette said. “We could not donate that much money ourselves, but we could donate some. So I asked other volunteers to make contributions, and now we have donated $1,000 and have our plaque that says ‘Volunteers.’
“We are working on a second $1,000 and plaque now,” Annette said.
“I want to see that treehouse come to fruition,” she said. “I guess I’m just a child at heart.
“And I want the University of Arkansas to see what the volunteers and staff here have contributed.” According to the website garvangardens. upon her death in 1993, Verna Cook Garvan, founder and benefactress of Garvan Woodland Gardens, bequeathed the property to the University of Arkansas Department of Landscape Architecture through the University of Arkansas Foundation. Garvan Woodland Gardens is now an independent department of the University of Arkansas’ Fay Jones School of Architecture.
The Currys moved to Hot Springs in 1986 from Oakton, Virginia, which is a suburb of Washington, D.C.
“We came here for a week on vacation and just stayed,” Bill said with a laugh. The couple live on Lake Hamilton.
Bill, who said he has “80 years of experience,” was born in Pampa, Texas. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1957 with a degree in electrical engineering and spent 20 years in the Navy, including two years in Japan. He graduated from the Naval Postgraduate School in 1967 with a degree in communication engineering and from Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville in 1977 with a Master of Business Administration degree.
Annette, 76, was born in Arkadelphia, the daughter of the late Hallie A. and Frances Marian Matlock. Annette’s grandfather, the late W.T. Matlock, was sheriff of Clark County during World War II.
“I lived all over the country,” Annette said, adding, “I was an Army brat.
“My dad graduated from Ouachita Baptist University, and my mom attended there, too. My dad served in Alaska during World War II [and also served in Korea.]
“When he retired as a colonel in 1965, they returned to Arkadelphia and settled there.”
Annette graduated from Mount Vernon High School in Fairfax, Virginia, and attended The College of William and Mary, where she studied chemistry.
“She’s a heckuva good cook, so that chemistry wasn’t wasted,” Bill said.
The Currys, who have been married 56 years, met in Norfolk, Virginia, where Bill was stationed aboard the USS Intrepid aircraft carrier at the Norfolk Naval Base. Annette lived with her family in Norfolk, where her dad was an instructor at the Armed Forces Staff College, now known as the Joint Forces Staff College.
“We actually met on a Spanish sailing ship,” Bill said. “Juan Carlos, the future king of Spain, was onboard the ship, which was visiting Norfolk during the International Naval Review Week.”
Annette was on the Spanish ship with a “sorority of young women whose fathers were military officers at the college,” she said.
“I went home and told my parents that I had just met the man I wanted to marry,” Annette said, smiling.
The Currys have four children and seven grandchildren.
The couple’s son, William Hubert “Sport” Curry III, and his wife, Becky, live in Jonestown, Pennsylvania. They have a daughter, Rachel Carlson, 21, who also lives in Jonestown.
Bill and Annette’s daughter Anne Elizabeth Kuprenas and her husband, Michael, live in Annandale, Virginia. They have three children: Mikas, 24, Rachel, 22, and Luke, 19.
The Currys’ daughter Lillian Frances Hornberger and her husband, David, live in Marietta, Georgia. They have two children: Emily Annette, 22, and Jacob, 20.
The couple’s daughter Hallie Matlock Ragsdale and her husband, Ryan, live in King George, Virginia. They have one child, Quinn, 12.
In addition to volunteering at the Gardens, Annette is also a teller supervisor at Oaklawn Park.
“I work 30 meets each year,” she said, adding that the first meet will be Jan. 15.
“I love my customers and my tellers,” she said. “The same people come back to me every year. It’s a wonderful three months every year.”
Bill said he has had “several other careers” in addition to his naval career.
“I helped design and build communication satellites,” he said. “I have had something to do with all those TV channels that are on the air.
“I even owned my own business for a while. The Navy sent me to postgraduate school to become a communication engineer. That was my second career.”
Annette said her husband also learned to fly.
“We used to fly to see our children on the East Coast,” she said.
“After he sold the plane, he said he needed something to do,” Annette said as she recalled how the couple became interested in volunteering at Garvan Woodland Gardens.
“We both had visited the gardens, and he thought that he might like to volunteer there,” she said. “He came home that first day and said, ‘Annette, you’d enjoy it, too.’
“That’s pretty much how it happened,” she said. “In my job as a greeter, I get to tell people where to go,” she said, smiling. “She’s very good at it,” Bill quipped. “I drive a cart and run the model train,” Bill said, adding that it is a G-scale garden train. “It’s a wonder in itself.”
Annette said she enjoys volunteering at the gardens because of the people she gets to meet.
“I love visiting the people who come here from all over the world,” she said. “One day, I had two groups from England. It’s fun to meet and greet them.”
Bill said he likes the people who work at Garvan Woodland Gardens.
“I like everybody,” he said. “The staff, the volunteers … they are all in a good mood. They want to be here.
“The staff doesn’t come here for the pay; they come because they love it. It’s a wonderful environment.”
Annette said she sees something new every time she comes to the gardens. “It’s constantly changing,” Bill said. Annette said that in addition to volunteering at Garvan Woodland Gardens and working at Oaklawn, she enjoys cooking and reading.
“I’m a big Amazon customer,” she said, adding, “I read on a Kindle. I also have a 12-foot bookcase full of books.” Bill said he enjoys reading, too. “I enjoy nonfiction and biographies,” he said. “I also enjoy flying, and I’ve been a ham radio operator for years. “Variety is the spice of life.” The Currys are among 375 volunteers at Garvan Woodland Gardens.
“New volunteers are always welcome,” Harper said. “There is a wide variety of things to do here — digging in the dirt, planting, weeding, watering.
“We need people to run the train, help in the gift shop and drive the golf carts,” she said, adding that docent classes are available to those who want to learn even more about the gardens.
“The Currys are signed up for docent classes,” she said. “They are real go-getters.”
For more information on Garvan Woodland Gardens or volunteer opportunities there, visit garvangardens.org or call (501) 262-9300 or (800) 366-4664.