Abstract
In aviculture people come and go as their lifestyle or health leads them down different paths. It is most impressive how some people find ways to stick to their passion and stay the pace, avoiding biases and cliques which all too often create ill feelings, which leads individuals to stray and abandon a passion such as aviculture. Another challenge that leads to leaving a passion is the ability to stay neutral. On average, most of us start out as a pet owner, and then some fall in love with the birds so much that they attempt hobby breeding. Every so often that hobby of breeding turns into full-blown professional breeding. As life has it, all things must someday come to an end, thus the breeder retires. At that point, the breeder usually returns to becoming a pet owner once again. That common pattern sometimes suffers emotional challenges from society which makes it difficult to steer clear of the controversies between rescue pleas to adopt older birds versus store or breeder availabilities to buy baby birds. Being able to live in the neutral zone and encourage aviculturists with opposing views to unite, stay the course and support APA comes easy for past president (1987-1989), retired breeder, proud parrot pet owner, APA member of 35 years, Tom Marshall.
Marshall joined APA in 1979 and has remained dedicated and vety involved with APA ever since. Marshall served as an APA officer starting as the Virginia State Coordinator (1980-1981), Mid-Atlantic vice-president (1981-1982), second vice-president (1983-1985), first vice-president (1985-1987) and finally, president (1987-1989). Marshal served as committee chair for the Ethics Committee as well as Convention Chair in Washington, DC (1982) and Crystal City, Arlington, Virginia in 1990. Marshall remains active with APA by attending annual conventions; and he is a frequent writer who has submitted many articles which have been published in APA's award winning Watchbird journal When asking others about Marshall, it was reported that his "claim to fame" stems from his tenure as APA president. During Marshall's presidency, APA saw its most successful years to date. Marshall was notorious for his fund raising capabilities, which through his enthusiasm, as he described his methods, were obviously challenges that he enjoyed immensely.
The most successful fundraiser that Marshall and team pulled off was a letter that he wrote about the concerns about the creation of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), explained Marshall. This particular fund raiser letter was so impressive that Bird Talk magazine picked it up and published it also. A remarkable amount of $18,000 was raised from that joint fund raising effort. The second major fundraiser
was of a national campaign requesting membership donations for APA. During those years, CITES and Wild Bird Conservation Act (WBCA) had pending issues that riled up the members of APA. There was a constant lurking fear of the unknown threats to aviculture, which to this day still continues. Marshall reflected on his time of serving the Board of APA and mentioned how he and past president, Lee Phillips, used to send out letters to the APA membership highlighting new things taking place in aviculture and the importance of donations. These types of messages were well received by most and very helpful with raising supporting donations to the American Federation of Aviculture, Inc.
As past president, Tom Marshall shared stories of his years in office, he made a point to mention that he is still very supportive of the organization and is a life member. He shared some fun stories of working alongside Dr. Benny Galloway and having the honor of getting to know Dr. Susan Club and Tom Ireland (a few of the many names that he mentioned). Marshall also talked about how important it is for people to attend the annual educational conventions, as he also tries to do. He says he enjoys seeing old friends and meeting new friends. Marshall made it a point to highlight how important it is to mingle with the newer and younger members, because they are the future of aviculture.