About Harold

As a small boy of about five or six, I was able to draw anything that I wished. As we were in the start of the Great Depression, we had no money for boy things like toys, so I borrowed my dad’s knife and started to carve boy things like guns, cars, chains, etc. This led into carving animals . . . dogs and birds. I was an Eagle Scout and later a Scout Master, so it was natural for me to drift into a study of birds and then the carving of birds.

At the start of World War II, I joined the Navy at the age of 16. I became a gunner in the Armed Guard, crossing the North Atlantic fourteen times at the height of the Battle of the Atlantic. Then I went over to the Pacific where we hopped from island to island taking back the islands the Japanese had taken from us, winding up on Okinawa. I changed over to the Marines in the late 40’s and was called up when the Korean War broke out. I served in the 2^nd Marine Division.

I started going to art shows as a pen and ink artist in 1966 and met my wife Ruby in 1967 at an art show in Gadsden, Alabama. Later in 1967 I began taking a few birds to shows along with my drawings. I also brought scratchboard drawings of cover bridges and old grist mills. They both became hits. After a few years the birds took over and I became "Birdman" almost entirely.

I have over seventy awards from shows where I have displayed my carved birds. Some are: The Decatur Wildlife Show; The Birmingham Museum; shows in Huntsville, Alabama, Shreveport Louisiana, Atlanta and many other places.

My birds have "migrated" to nineteen countries that I know of. The Australian Ambassador to the United States took one back to Australia when his family returned home.

As for RUBY, she has been my helper and soul mate for 40 years. I could never have done

the shows without her help and inspiration....HAROLD