William Barrett Burleigh

Born December 2, 1934. My first eight years in Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi. (My father was a nationally prominent ornithologist and collected and wrote books about birds everywhere.) The Moscow, Idaho, through high school. The first year of college at University of Idaho, a beautiful school. Then my best friend, then and now, Lunch Land, talked me into joining the U.S. Marines. After three years I took my sergeant stripes and graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder, cum laude.

Time to get serious; Law School at the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall, where I worked very hard. Married Alison. Won Moot Court and gave the class commencement address, and passed the Bar Exam in 1963.

A new chapter: Opened a solo law practice in Carmel, California, in 1965. Fell in love with Big Sur. Appointed Carmel City Attorney, 1967, a part-time job.

Volunteered to take on a case to defeat the nationally important California legislation. Won case in California Supreme Court, in record time (31 days,) which led to being named City Attorney of the Year by the League of California Cities, and invitations to speak all over the country.

Volunteered to be a leader of the Five Cities Committee to defeat the construction of the Humble Oil Refinery, which had already started in our county. I was on National TV and in the newspapers. I was called prominent in their defeat in a book on the subject; Humble, said my lawsuit was the reason they quit.

I liked long-distance running (but I ran so slow I had the nickname Continental Drift) which led to starting the Big Sur River Run. This raised over $1M for Big Sur non-profits in the last 35 years and named Best Marathon in the US several times. The demand for entries since the third year is so great we conduct a lottery.

I wrote the weekly Almost Tolerable Fitness column in the Monterey County Herald, the local daily newspaper, for almost two years of fitness and humor. I wrote a book based on the columns, and my publisher, the publisher of the Henry Miller books, liked it and published it: "Fitness Lite." He said it was a best seller in the health section. All I know is that I paid $9,000 in taxes. Ten years later I wrote a second edition that completely updated the first editions, for a very large health insurance company. Married Anne. Jackpot. Then I wrote my third book, "Life in the Past Lane," a book about everything with smiles and, someone said, wisdom. People that read it liked it. It was not a bestseller. This book is book four.

Thrills: Sky-dived twice; bungee jumped in New Zealand; owned and flew an Ultralight airplane (twice; almost died); Las Vegas: Almost flew over the airplane engine, 1,000-foot drop start; owned and rode a 750 cc motorcycle many years, all over California and Nevada; owned and rode a Tennessee Walker horse, Lassie, about 6 years, fell off her 14 times, broke three ribs; ran the first marathon on my 50th birthday, then 4 more, including in Boston and New York. All slowly: PR (Personal Record) 4 hours, 21 min, 10-minute miles; did three dangerous and really stupid things in the Marine Corps and will never disclose them.

Almost made it to my 95th birthday!