William Alan "Al" Maas

William Alan `AI' Maas, born April 26, 1954, died unexpectedly from a massive heart attack on February 19, 2025, leaving behind his wife of 46 years, Karen Sholten Maas and his sister Roberta Maas Chrestensen.. Information regarding memorial donations and Celebration of Life will be furnished at a later date. Al lived in the wrong place and time. A charismatic combination of extremes and contradictions, he was a Renaissance man, and a barefoot farmer; a student of human constructs, while dubious about actual humans, preferring the company of plants and animals, books and invention, music and metaphysics. His skill set was expansive, ranging from computer savvy to repairing fences. Al's passion for music began as a kid, singing with his dad in the family station wagon, and soon thereafter, learning to play several reed and brass instruments in the school band. On his own, he picked up medieval instruments, and bagpipes from different countries, ceasing only when arthritic hands limited him to listening to ancient folkloric songs from other cultures. Enjoying classical music was about as contemporary as he could get, with Beethoven being his favorite composer. Built like a tackle, but eschewing sports, he rejected violence, or even competition, opting for solitary pursuits, like making homemade paper, bread, and beer. Mostly mum in human society, he taught himself languages, including German, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Norwegian, Mandarin, and even Ojib'way; and his acute empathy with pets ironically needed little language at all—likewise with plants, whose silent company became his favorite form of communication. Al's love of botany began as a child, when a native woman taught him the properties of swamp plants to cure or kill; and after graduating from MSU with a degree in horticulture, he worked in greenhouses, grew garlic, collected orchids, strung up hops, snipped bonsai, and fell under the spell of an exotic tropical plant—the brugmansia—whose blooms emit fragrance only at night. Ever drawn to the unusual, Al began growing them, joined Brugmansia Growers International, eventually becoming VP, and created four new cultivars. Preferring to barter rather than profit, and generous to his core, Al gave away most of his garlic crop each year, and he has also donated several brugmansia specimens plus sacred tobacco to the horse stable and medicine wheel at the Botanic Garden at the Historic Barns Park. Underscoring AI's preference for solitude, he learned samatha vipassana, or mindfulness meditation, which appealed to his fascination with ancient eastern spiritual traditions. He credited his daily meditation and his weekly sangha practices with bringing peace and equanimity to his mind and spirit, though he bore constant physical pain without complaint. Al exuded the aura of a monk, and people saw in his calm countenance, an acceptance of What Is. A proponent of both science and mystery, Al believed in the conservation of energy, and that upon the cessation of living in a body, one's consciousness (Source energy) disperses once again into the pure potential that is the Universe. So go outside. Observe growing things. Listen to birdsong. Pet your dog. Plant some seeds. Read a challenging book. Repair something broken. Feel gratitude. Look skyward and breathe deeply. Al will be there.

William Alan "Al" Maas

April 26, 1954 - February 19, 2025