Robert Reed married his high school sweetheart (Sudie Stuart) soon after we graduated, and they will celebrate a forty-fourth anniversary this year. They have two children; a daughter, Robin, and a son, Bob Jr. They also have three grandsons.

After high school, Robert worked for a while at the Maples Company, and then in construction. However, he found the direction for his future when he went to work at the coal mine in Fabius (on Sand Mountain across the river from Stevenson). In 1973, he began working as a supervisor with Drummond Coal Company in Walker County, and moved his family there. He has been in the coal business ever since. He has worked only in surface mining, where there is less danger of injury to miners, and the regulations to reclaim the land are stringent.

From 1990 until 2000, he and Sudie lived in Ft. Smith, Arkansas, still in the coal industry. Their children were still in Alabama, and when Bob and Sudie returned to Alabama, their plan was to retire. However, the New Acton Mine was for sale and Bob bought it and he has been busy ever since. Since then, he has acquired two other mines and started a hauling company. He has no plans to retire any time soon because he enjoys working. He enjoys a challenge, lives about ten minutes from work, and both their children work in the company. As a class project, high school students from Oneonta came to the New Acton Mine property to explore, and found fossil trackways (animal footprints). The teacher recognized the significance and a paleontologist from the University of Alabama concluded that the prints very old and very rare. In fact, no tracks like these had been recorded before. Robert’s company donated thirty-eight acres to the state to be preserved. The site is open to the public on specific days for fossil hunting.

For fun, Robert bird hunts and raises a big garden. He feels very blessed to have family that is close and work that he enjoys.