In Memoriam: Bill Hirt, stalwart supporter of the anti-nuke movement in the Great Lakes

Bill Hirt (in radiation suit, holding "Chernobyl 1986" placard) with assistance from Alice Hirt, protesting the industry's first "Nuclear Renaissance" event at the Palmer House, Chicago, late 2001. Photo by Kathy Barnes.We are very sad to report that our dear friend and colleague, Bill Hirt, has passed on. He died surrounded by his loving family on Monday, March 30, 2015, more than eight years after being diagnosed with ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), more commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig's Disease.

Bill was very multi-faceted (the Toledo Blade's remembrance focused on his historic preservation and low-income housing efforts), but one of those facets was his generous support for, and deep involvement in, the anti-nuclear movement in the Great Lakes region. Along with his wife Alice (see the obituary she and their son Nick wrote, here), who serves on the board of directors of Don't Waste Michigan and the Toledo Coalition for Safe Energy, the Hirts vigilantly watch-dogged nuclear risks from Lake Michigan to Lake Erie, from Palisades to Davis-Besse, traveling to meetings and events across the Great Lakes for years and even decades on end, in opposition to atomic reactor and radioactive waste risks.

But a few of countless examples will give some idea of Bill's deep involvement. Moved to action by the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe of 1986, the Hirts helped lead the challenges to the storage of high-level radioactive waste in defective dry casks on the Great Lakes shorelines at Palisades and Davis-Besse. From 1999 to 2000, as part of the international Nix MOX campaign, Bill and Alice generously supported a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Energy, seeking to block the risky truck transport of weapons-grade plutonium bound from Los Alamos, NM to Chalk River, ON, Canada (the case is entitled Hirt v. [Energy Secretary] Richardson). In 1999, 2000, and 2001, the Hirts took part in the Nuclear-Free Great Lakes Action Camps in Michigan and Illinois. In late 2001, Bill donned a radiation suit and, along with Alice (see photo of Bill and Alice, taken by Kathy Barnes, above left) and colleagues from Illinois and Michigan, protested the first "Nuclear Renaissance" event held by the industry, at the Palmer House in Chicago (his hometown). In 2002, with his neighbors on a towering sand dune in Holland, MI, looking out over Lake Michigan to the west, Bill educated them about the high-level radioactive waste barge shipments proposed from Palisades to the Port of Muskegon, that would travel right past where they were standing, unless they were stopped (and thus far, they have been!). From 2005-2007, Bill and Alice generously donated towards the largely all-volunteer and pro bono environmental intervention against the 20-year license extension at Palisades; in the midst of that difficult campaign, the Hirts warmly opened their lovely home in Holland, MI, with its magnificient vista of the freshwater inland sea called Lake Michigan, for a much-needed morale boost: a holiday party, to celebrate with friends and colleagues involved in the fight.

Bill's generous support and deep involvement will be sorely missed, as will his vivacious spirit and love of life.