Love of River Life Prompts Substantial Donation to Hancock Station

Captain Bob Cherry bestows $500,000 on Murray State University’s Kentucky Lake research facility   

A leading conservation advocacy and environmental research institute in Southwestern Kentucky is commemorating its 50th anniversary this year, and a local man with deep ties to the region is helping celebrate with a substantial gift.

The Hancock Biological Station on the banks of Kentucky Lake in Calloway County has for five decades provided a year-round base of operations for studying the lower Tennessee River’s water quality and aquatic habitats.

For Captain Bob Cherry, a retired salvage vessel operator who was born and raised in Paducah and graduated from Murray State University – with which the Hancock Station is affiliated – the work and research performed at the facility are of such significance and importance that he decided to help fund it to the tune of half a million dollars.

Even though he’s “been around the world twice,” and worked in more countries than he can easily count, the rivers of the Tennessee Valley and waters surrounding the Land Between the Lakes are still his favorite place on the planet. 

“I can tell you anything you want to know about the Tennessee River,” said Cherry, 73, who in 2020 piloted a pontoon boat expedition with two of his buddies along all 650-plus navigable miles of the great waterway in order to help promote and showcase the river’s vast and affordable recreation potential.

Cherry said he’s especially fond of Kentucky and Barkley lakes, noting that together they constitute the largest body of water between the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. 

“To me, that is pretty stunning – but that’s how big they are,” he said. “And I have been all over them.” 

Cherry believes sharing some of his personal wealth with the Hancock Station – which is dedicated to monitoring and improving the region’s water-dependent ecosystems – will help share river health appreciation and habitat-protection knowledge with future generations.

“I have grown up around here, and improving water purity is important to me,” said Cherry.

The research facility grounds at the Hancock Biological Station cover more than 70 acres of woodlands surrounded by vast tracts of publicly owned forests and grasslands. HBS offers opportunities for graduate-level university students and scientists to study all facets of river health, including the environmental impacts of wetland restoration, agriculture, strip mining, petrochemical processing, shipping, and electricity generation.

Hancock also serves to educate kids about conservation by offering outreach programs and providing an exciting field trip destination for youth groups and classroom outings.

One of the most notable functions of the station is the nearly 35 years of precise lake-condition monitoring that constitutes “one of the longest continuous water-quality data sets for a reservoir in the country,” said Michael Flinn, who has served as director of HBS since 2019.

“What we collect is pretty standard — that’s not necessarily what is special about it,” said Flinn. “What’s special is that we have collected it for so long. That’s been a powerful tool for us to evaluate things like the effects of invasive species or climate change, or harmful algal blooms and things like that.”

Cherry’s $500,000 donation will be used to purchase new equipment like boats and vehicles, as well as defray maintenance and day-to-day upkeep costs at the facility, in addition to funding a perpetual endowment.

“This is going to be tremendous for us,” said Flinn. “It is very hard to come up with money like that from scratch. So this is an amazing gift.”