SPANISH FORT, Ala. — Though he grew up in Loxley, Hank Burch said he had no idea that the Mobile Bay Delta held such wonderful surprises. 

“I’m still trying to explore it,” he said. 

He had moved away from this area when he went to college; his first job after school was in the mountains in North Carolina.

“I was drawn back to this area. I am still finding things to do around here that we haven’t done before.”  

Burch has been the manager of the Five Rivers Delta Resource Center, located on the Mobile Bay Causeway, since 2006. 

Burch said he was attracted by the concept of Five Rivers and was particularly drawn to the educational aspect, including having school groups come on tours of the facilities. He now supervises a staff of 11 full-time employees in the complex that has seven buildings. Though special events bookings have exceeded expectations, he said there would be more focus on educational exhibits and education programs.

“That’s the really cool part,” he said. 

Burch, a graduate of Bayside Academy in Daphne, earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of the South, popularly known as the Sewanee in Tennessee; he majored in natural resources with forestry and geology.

Burch received a lot of “real world experience” when he worked in a technical theater in a work-study job at Sewanee, building sets, doing stage lighting and sound.

“I lived then and now by the old adage of ‘the show must go on,’” he said. “Sometimes it doesn’t matter if the paint on the set is wet … the curtain will open at 8!” He attended graduate school in the Auburn masters program in forestry and received his master’s degree in 1995.

Out of college, he worked in a North Carolina research lab with the University of Georgia and performed work for the states of Virginia, Alabama and Minnesota. 

“I was doing field research in different forests,” he said.

After moving back to this area, Burch realized that despite having two degrees in forestry it would be difficult to find a job in his field. He started selling industrial supplies, though he really wanted to be back in an environmental field. The best career advice he received from a friend’s mother was when she told him to “get a job and see where it takes you.” 

The first door that opened was when he was hired at Lewis Communications/ Bellweather, where he was an associate who provided public affairs support. Because the agency dealt with environmental public affairs, he learned about media relations, event planning and the natural estuary. 

“I met so many people in that job, and did so many things I never thought I would do with a forestry degree.” 

He later became a natural resource planner for the Baldwin County Commission and later, a natural resource planner for the State Lands Division, Coastal Section, for four years. 

“I was in the right place at the right time or it was blind luck, but doors here opened up as well.” 

He has been married to Anne Ruffles Burch for 16 years. The couple have four children: Reuben, 7; Silas, 6; Edlyn, 4; and Abner, is 1.  The family has one dog, one cat, two mice, two fish and one snake — which seem to be plenty for now.

“I’ve learned I can’t take my children to pet stores anymore,” he said with a laugh.

Burch’s parents live in Loxley and his three brothers all live nearby.

Free time for Burch includes swimming in the family pool with his children and mowing the lawn, his favorite chore.

When the children are older, the family will probably travel more, he said.

In addition to his job at Five Rivers, Burch is a member of the Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce board of directors and the Baldwin County Environmental Advisory Board.  He is a former co-chair of the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program and former member of the Alabama Clean Water Partnership Board of Directors.