Simpsonville, South Carolina
Harold “Hal” Jones Starr, Jr., 79, of Simpsonville, South Carolina, loving husband of Sharon Reed Starr, passed away on Monday, January 13, 2020 at his home.
Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee on Oct. 16, 1940. Hal was a son of the late Dr. Harold Jones Starr, Sr. of Winder, Georgia and Adele Newell Starr of Newellton, Louisiana. He graduated from the McCallie School in Chattanooga before attending Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Ga. It was in Atlanta that Hal met the love of his life, Sharon Reed, an Atlanta native whom he wed in 1963. Hal transferred to the University of Tennessee in Knoxville where he graduated with a Degree in Civil Engineering in 1964.
Upon graduating, Hal went to work for Daniel Construction Company, which later became Fluor Corporation. Fluor took Hal and Sharon around the world engineering and constructing large infrastructure projects. They moved nearly every two years for the first 25 years of their marriage living across the United States, in Belgium, and Saudi Arabia. Throughout Hal’s successful career with Fluor he served on numerous projects consulting and negotiating in places like Malaysia, Chile, and India, with up to 3500 people working for him. His projects spanned from copper mining facilities in the Andes Mountains to airport construction in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to renovating United States embassies in the former Soviet Union. He enjoyed the challenges of an exciting, international career working for Fluor for over 40 years and retired in April of 2005 as Vice President of Operations.
When not traveling for Fluor, Hal and Sharon enjoyed traveling for pleasure with their three children and visiting more than 40 countries. For Hal – the more remote or unique the place the better. He loved spending time in places like Nepal, Africa, and Patagonia. His sense of adventure has inspired the entire family to continue his travel legacy. Last year he took the family, with eight grandchildren ranging in age from 1 1/2 to 21 years of age, on a two-week journey through Morocco to top off his visits to the major deserts of the world. Hal treasured the outdoors and was a true adventurer, hiking and camping in the Alaskan wilderness, canoeing the Boundary waters of Minnesota, and studying wolves in Yellowstone park. He loved his family in which he included all his dogs, cats, and the other animals (horses, llamas, and donkeys) on their small farm in Simpsonville where he and Sharon lived after retiring.
Hal was unique in his unending kindness to people and animals. His longtime friend and coworker Jack West described Hal well when he said, “If you don’t like Hal Starr, you just don’t like people.” He was the kind of man who quietly made an impact on people, and touched all those he met, even those he knew only briefly. His humility was inspiring and matched in equal measure by his ruggedness. He was most at peace outside, walking or paddling his canoe quietly, or traveling with his wife of 56 years. As Sharon has said of Hal many times, they have lived a magical life together.
Hal and Sharon had three children. Dr. Laura Edwards and her husband, Jim, have three children (Ansley, Allie, and Jake) and live in Forsyth, Georgia. Kristy Yashinsky and her husband, Joel, live in Barrington, Illinois with their two daughters (Gabrielle and Sabrina). Their youngest child, Scott Starr lives with his wife, Cristina, and three children (Berkeley, Sawyer, and Tessa) in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Hal is also survived by his sister, Joan Starr Lindop, of Honolulu, Hawaii, and her three children, and brother, Dr. Kirk Newell Starr, and wife Janie of Vashon Island, Washington, and their two children.
A visitation and celebration of Hal’s life will be held from 10:30 AM until 12:00 PM on Saturday, January 18, 2020 at Mackey Funerals and Cremations on Century Drive in Greenville.
Flowers will be accepted or memorials may be made to the International Wolf Center www.wolf.org – (Hal was an Alpha Wolf Supporter) or the American Diabetes Association www.diabetes.org
Mackey Funerals and Cremations is assisting the Starr family.
www.MackeyMortuary.com
