Fly Fishing People: Alison and Jon Andrew

Dermatologist, cyclist, and fly fisher Alison O’Neill Andrew was inspired to provide a little extra happiness to seniors by the words of her father, who was dying of cancer in 2004: “‘I spent the last nine months of his life with him and my mother,’ Andrew said. ‘One day, we were working in the garden and he said to me, “Alison, beauty becomes you.” I’d never heard anyone say those words to me before. He meant it as a thank you and a message that what you do with your life makes you beautiful.'” Her Atlanta-based organization Beauty Becomes You is made up of volunteers who provide free haircuts, manicures, pedicures, massages, facials and makeup lessons to seniors in their residences. H.M. Cauley in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Alison’s husband Jon Andrew — also an avid fly fisher — was a pivotal figure in the establishment of habitat protections for the Florida Keys in the late 1980s an early 90s. Now chief of the National Wildlife Refuge System for the southeast and former head of the Office of Migratory Bird Management at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, earlier in his career Jon managed the Key West and Great White Heron refuges, which at the time was in danger of being overrun by commercial interests. (I was fortunate enough to give Jon his first tour of the Marquesas.) Jon led the development of a newer, stronger management plan that prevented the backcountry from being flooded with jet-skis and tour operators.
Quite a couple, indeed.