Stuart Obermann and family beautify Aldridge Creek Greenway in memory of son
Published on May 30, 2025
The story began in 2020, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying uncertainty.
Five years ago, the City of Huntsville dedicated a portion of the Aldridge Creek Greenway in memory of Eric Obermann, a 28-year-old Huntsville native who died of ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. His family’s foundation donated funding for Green Team to plant about 270 trees and shrubs in the shade-deprived area of the greenway.
Five years later, the Eric Obermann Linear Forest needed a little tender love and care. And his family, again, went to work.
Eric’s father, Stuart, contacted Green Team earlier this year and offered to put together a team of volunteers to do some maintenance on the trees.
“They needed weeding in some of the beds and a lot of pruning and mulch on all of them,” Stuart said.
The Obermann family has organized three workdays this year on the trees, joined on one occasion by the Grissom High School football team and Cub Scout Pack 357 on another. The project also worked alongside the Friends of Trees, a grassroots organization that advocates for preserving and expanding Huntsville’s tree canopy.
“I was really happy that we finished it off, so all those trees now have a good coat of mulch, and we weeded quite a bit and pruned nearly all the trees,” Stuart said. “It was heartening to have people come up to us when we’re out there moving our wheelbarrows, and they would thank us for keeping it beautiful. It was gratifying to know the public understands the amount of work it requires to keep things nice. They appreciated what we were out there doing.”
Aldridge Creek is a special place for the Obermann family, which lives nearby.
“We’ve been using the greenway recreationally for biking and running and just walking for about 30 years,” Stuart said.
It was special for Eric, too. As he fought ALS, a neuromuscular disease, Eric engaged with people and sought to raise awareness about the disease.
“He was in a power wheelchair for many years, and he would motor up and down the greenway,” his father said. “And there was one stretch where it was particularly hot in the morning because there were no trees on either side. So that’s the part where we built the linear forest. I run in that area and I actually get some shade now from those trees because they are now 20 feet tall or so.
“We thought it was a fitting tribute to our son to try to beautify that area and we were really happy that the City worked with us and noted that to be the Eric Obermann Linear Forest.”