INNERVIEWS: ; Coal River guru means business

We know him best as co-father of the Coal River Group, anonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and cleaning up theriver he loves.

He lives along that river, of course, at Currey's Landing, in theeclectic home he created from a camp. The house brims with books,photographs, his paintings and sculptures (testimony to his artisticside) and awards galore for professional and community service.

He grew up as the son of "Bicycle Bill," a colorful bike shopproprietor with the promotional savvy of P.T. Barnum.

A degree in art and business from Marshall and a work ethicinstilled through necessity laid the groundwork for a flourishingcareer in public relations that included a national post with FMCand a successful firm of his own.

At 66, committed to a second career in real estate, he thrives onbrokering high-dollar industrial property deals.

He just wrote a book with his college buddy about their wild 1965trek through Europe. Wow. Was he ever that impetuous?

"I was born in Ordnance Park in 1944. My dad had a bike shop inthe back bedroom and a storefront on West Washington Street. Wemoved to the West Side after the war and lived over and under thebike store. We were pretty poor.

"Dad rented a store building on Central Avenue. He put a curtainup, and we lived in the back.

"I had five aunts and none had any children, so I had a lot ofsupport and attention. My aunts were all really big on books andeducation. My grandmother lived at Littlepage Terrace. I spent a lotof time there.

"Being the son of Bicycle Bill was interesting. All the kidsthought I was rich because I always had the best bicycle.

"At 5 years old, I stood on a carton at the cash register andlearned to make change. When I was 15, Dad took me to Chicago on thetrain to the Schwinn Bicycle Co. repair school, and I was certifiedas a Schwinn bicycle repairman.

"I met so many salesmen coming to the store, and they were allsuch flashy, worldly people. In the ninth grade, we had to writeabout what you wanted to be. I said I wanted to be a professionalsalesman.

"Dad had me managing the store when I was 16. I understoodbusiness. Seems like all my life, I've managed something.

"I was always drawing something from the time I got a Crayola. Iwas good at relating images, not words. But you didn't show anyoneoutside the house that you were artistic. Walking the streets ofWest Charleston, you had to be athletic and manly.

"When I went to Marshall, I flunked out. I took off a year andhitchhiked to Florida. I came back and went to West Virginia Stateto make up some quality points. I can never be thankful enough tothe teachers at State.

"When I went back to Marshall, I got serious. I majored in artand business. I had to work. I was toy department night manager in adiscount store. I was the house manager at the TKE house, and Ipainted signs for a signmaker.

"Between my sophomore and junior year, I traveled in Europe withmy fraternity brother, Bob Amick. We joined the German Club atMarshall, which automatically qualified you for the Germany trip. Wenever went to a meeting.

"I had $60. I sold a '56 Chevy to pay my airfare, and I had a $25-a-week stipend from Dad. When we got to Germany, they figured out weweren't true German Club members. They sent the rest of the kids toresorts to work. They sent us to the post office in Frankfurt tounload mail sacks at night.

"We worked for four weeks. Then we bought a station wagon with a25-horsepower motor and took off. We were on the road for 10 weeks.We camped with a blanket, a cot and a black tarp.

"We went to Munich, Venice, Italy, the Austrian Alps, Rome andthe Mediterranean. We did the beaches from just outside Rome toCannes and on to Barcelona. When we got back, we probably didn'thave $5 between us.

"I kept a journal. I didn't look at it for 40 years. My buddycalled and said if I still had that journal, we should write a bookabout it. We've been doing that for the past year.

"I think our friends will enjoy reading the book. We're going topublish it on the Internet. It makes me think I have other things towrite. I'd like to do a book on the whole Coal River thing.

"I finally graduated from Marshall in '68. I got married the yearbefore I graduated. I've had two wonderful wives, 23 years to Jeanand six years to Paige. I had all my kids with Jean, twin girls,Sarah and Elizabeth, and a son, Mat.

"At Marshall, I was manager of the frat house and the PR guy forthe fraternity. That got me a job as PR director for Cabell-WayneUnited Fund in Huntington while I was in school. When I got out,Appalachian Power hired me as their PR director in West Virginia. Iwas 23. I learned to be a spokesman and lobbyist and to write newsreleases.

"I have a huge imagination. And I work hard. I'm not afraid towork a problem to death. I over-plan. But it worked well in the PRbusiness.

"I could see that it was going to take me a long time toprogress, and I got restless. John Hutchison said they needed apromotional guy to run the bus company. It was just forming as apublic organization. They had 130 employees, unionized. I had neverrun anything that big. I was 26.

"My job was to bring passengers to the system. We wrote a grantand got $7 million and replaced the whole fleet. Then the Arabianoil embargo hit. Nobody could get gas, and our ridership went from2,000 a day to 12,000.

"I got experience managing a large corporation and dealing withunions. Then the PR director at FMC, Al Anson, said he wanted toretire and could pretty much name his heir. I had turned the buscompany around, so it was a good time to leave. They made me publicaffairs director for FMC in West Virginia - five plants, 4,000employees.

"I got the job as East Coast public affairs director, thennational director for a $5 million company. When they wanted me togo someplace, they would send their $10 million Falcon down here andpick me up, just me.

"I spent 10 years with them as an employee and 10 years asconsultant, and I'm still broker of record for their properties. Wehad every environmental issue you could imagine. I was never apublicity guy. I was always an issue manager. It fit me. You had tobe creative and efficient and deal with really smart corporateexecutives.

"I had this wonderful farm down here. I commuted to Philadelphiafor six years. I would leave on Sunday to be at the 11 a.m. boardmeeting every Monday. The rest of the week, I traveled.

"Wherever I went, they called me the general. I wasn't just a PRguy. I was a team organizer. A plan was put together to deal withmedia, the crisis, the engineers. I enjoyed that.

"They wanted me to move to Chicago. I didn't like the big city. Istarted my own PR firm, Currey Communications. We picked up FMC as anational account, then DuPont.

"I also got my real estate broker's license, and FMC asked me torepresent them in the sell-off of all their industrial property inWest Virginia. The first deal I made, I walked out with a $140,000commission. So I started devoting more time to real estate andstarted Currey Associates Realty with my son.

"Industrial and commercial real estate is all I do. You have tohave a niche in the real estate business. My specialty is recyclingindustrial property. I love to do deals. I like the give and take.And I've been good at it.

"Bill Queen and I started the Coal River Group. He said we shouldfloat the whole Coal River. For the next year, we proceeded to floatin stretches the 88 miles of the Big Coal, Little Coal and LowerCoal. We fished every inch of it. It became a real adventure.

"We decided to start a nonprofit group, create a river trail andget people to help clean up the river. We put $400 in the pot andincorporated in 2004. Now we have 250 members and 500 on our mailinglist. And we have a Science and Education Center. It has become apassion of mine.

"We still focus on the question we asked when we started: Is theriver safe to swim in?' Until somebody can answer that question,I've got a job to do.

"I enjoy playing with sculpture and painting, but I'm toobusiness oriented for art. FMC's last 12 acres could be a big deal.I sold all their South Charleston property. Every time a big dealcomes up, I'm going to head for it."

Chip ellis | Gazette photos In the backyard of his home in St.Albans, Bill Currey is only a few feet from his beloved Coal Riverand his boat, Comfortably Numb. Co-founder of the Coal River Group,he said, Dont call me an environmentalist. Im a businessman whowants to clean up the river.

ABOVE: At McKinley Junior High School, Currey (center) hams it upwith football teammates. RIGHT: A family portrait shows a youngCurrey with his mother and father. A bike shop dealer, his fatherwas known as Bicycle Bill.

ABOVE: The 1962 St. Albans High School yearbook includes thispicture of Currey. LEFT: Future businessman Currey learned the ropesas a kid working in his fathers bicycle shop.