Memphis retirees advocate Russell Hurley dies at 65

Jan. 13--As the Memphis City Council debated cutting employee benefits in 2014 and 2015, Russell Carl Hurley and wife, Kathy, were often there, sitting in the audience, watching and worrying about the implications for his pancreatic cancer treatments.

Mr. Hurley, who alongside his wife vocally opposed the benefit cuts, died Thursday in hospice care. He was 65.

Mr. Hurley, who retired on disability from the Memphis and Shelby County Airport Authority in 2013, battled against cancer even as he battled for retirees, said former mayoral candidate and Memphis Police Association President Mike Williams. The City Council voted to eliminate health insurance subsidies in 2014 to relieve pressure on city finances, provoking employees to protest at City Hall and pack council meetings for months.

"They loved their city," Williams said of the Hurleys. "They just wanted to see the right thing being done for the retirees."

The airport authority participates in the city's pension plans, so the cuts also affected Mr. Hurley. After the initial cuts, the council opted to continue offering subsidies to pre-65 retirees through 2015, and used Mr. Hurley's case history while designing the plan for disabled retirees. He was scheduled to lose his health insurance subsidy through the MSCAA this year, Williams said.

Driven partly by her husband's illness, Mrs. Hurley -- a real estate agent -- managed Williams' unsuccessful 2015 mayoral campaign. Williams made full restoration of city benefits a central plank in the campaign.

Mr. Hurley, who liked to stay out of the limelight, took the job at the MSCAA for the benefits, hoping to financially secure Mrs. Hurley's future, she said. Instead, because the MSCAA is a public agency, the benefit from the social security contributions he'd made in the private sector gradually shrunk, leaving his wife and him heavily reliant on the city's depreciating insurance plans.

Now a widow, Mrs. Hurley said she may need to sell her house.

"Not only am I losing my husband -- I'm having to figure out how I'm going to change my lifestyle," she said.

She said her family's struggles as a result of the cuts aren't unique among the city's retirees.

"I don't think we've even seen the fallout yet," Mrs. Hurley said. "I think we're just on the cusp of the fallout."

In a starkly contrasting forecast, Mayor Jim Strickland -- who supported the benefit cuts as a council member in 2014 -- said Wednesday the city is on the "cusp of a renaissance" with about $7 billion in the economic development pipeline inside the city limits. He's previously acknowledged the cuts drove some police officers and firefighters to leave the city, creating staffing shortages, but has consistently said the city can't afford to pay the comparatively rich benefits of past years.

At the end of a council meeting in December 2014, after recounting her husband's health issues, Mrs. Hurley took aim at council members -- including then-chairman Strickland -- for a vote earlier in the year to cut health insurance subsidies for pre-65 retirees. The council was more interested in giving incentives for economic development than in taking care of its people, she said.

"Shouldn't the Memphis leaders take care of our children, the rape of our women, the health of our elderly?" she said, referring to the city being sued for not funding schools, not testing rape kits and cutting benefits. "Shouldn't that be more important than building monuments in our city? The citizens are the city, not the buildings."

In addition to Mrs. Hurley, Mr. Hurley is survived by son Clayton Hurley of Memphis; daughter Rachel Hurley of Denver, Colorado; and two grandsons.

Visitation begins at 4 p.m. Tuesday, followed by services at 6 p.m., at the Pollard Chapel at Bellevue Baptist Church. Internment is at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Forrest Hill Cemetary-Midtown, 1661 Elvis Presley Blvd. Flowers are appreciated, but donations can be made in lieu of flowers to the National Pancreatic Cancer Foundation.

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