TRCP Fellows & Friends
Over his 40 years of work to insure better conservation of
We at the TRCP are very sad to have lost our champion but heartened by the knowledge, and very proud of the fact, that TRCP embodied Jim’s vision for how we get to conserving this nation’s fish and wildlife resources with more foresight. We believe that by keeping TRCP moving forward with our partners on its successful path we can fulfill Jim’s most ardent wishes. He entrusted us with a mission we must fulfill - to guarantee every American a quality place to hunt and fish. We can't get there without continuing to change attitudes and open new doors in
TRCP is a partnership. We all came together seven years ago because we believed in the strategic imperative articulated by Jim and our founders. Below some of our founders and many others inside TRCP or connected to TRCP have shared their thoughts on Jim and his life. We are not just partners united in policy initiatives to get better results from government decision makers -- we have been united because of a shared vision and our friendships with each other and with our hero
Jim often spoke with me and our staff and board about the future of TRCP. My conversations with Jim frequently and took place during drives to distant bird hunts, on the water waiting for fish to bite, or at a table as we enjoyed the fruits of our sporting endeavors (man will I miss his cooking!). His words always sank in with me regardless of where we were, but they sank in even deeper when we were talking about TRCP out in the open spaces he and I loved so much. TRCP brought us together into one of the strongest friendships I’ve ever had. The fellowship engendered by TRCP has brought a lot of us together. It’s a wonderful thing to be a part of and our connection to each other through Jim and TRCP is one of the biggest things we’ll always have Jim to thank for.
George Cooper
President & CEO
Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership
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Chip Collins
Managing Director
The Forestland Group
"While Jim had the formal training of biology and law he never practiced either profession but parlayed that training and knowledge with his remarkable skills as a craftsman of public policy. What distinguished him from everyone else was his ability to take natural resource management concepts and transform them into enacted laws & funded programs. His considerable intellect & magnetic personality enabled him through his fierce loyalty to science based conservation to be the most important "outside" influencing factor on what goes on in the "inside". His ability to see around political corners was epic. Jim pursued the chase of the best interests of the American sportsman in the halls of government with the same gusto, passion & determination he did when chasing after sharp-tailed grouse on the golden Autumn hills of the
Matt Connolly
President Emeritus
TRCP
"Jim was one of the most remarkable men I ever met. He had a passion for hunting, fishing, and wild places that was beyond measure, and that passion was contagious. He made you want to fight for conservation, and like any great general, he made you want to follow him into battle. It may be a long time before we truly appreciate the impact he had on our lands and waters, but for now it's clear that hunters and fishermen have lost a great friend, and so have I."
Sid Evans
Editor
Garden & Gun
"The measure of any man's life is did he leave things better than he found them. There is simply no debate that
Matt Hogan
Executive Director
Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies
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Jim Martin
Conservation Director
Berkley Conservation Institute
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Christopher Merritt
General Manager
Beretta
"Anglers and hunters everywhere owe a debt of gratitude to
President & CEO
American Sportfishing Association
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Marc Pierce
Founder
Big Sky Carvers
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Charles S. Potter, Jr.
President and CEO
Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation
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Don Rollins
Citizen Conservationist
TRCP Board of Directors
"Jim saw a changing world in which the voices of hunters and anglers were being overshadowed by people and interests who don't hold the same reverence for ducks in flight at sunrise or elk bugling in the Fall. With his characteristic energy, he convinced colleagues and friends to form the TRCP Partnership in the tradition of Theodore Roosevelt to speak with a louder voice to assure the future of fish and wildlife and hunting and fishing. This will be one of Jim's most enduring legacies."
Dr. Rollin Sparrowe
TRCP Board of Directors
"Jim was an active an influential member of the Ducks Unlimited Board for over 13 years. He helped establish DU as an important player in the world of conservation policy. Jim was a great friend to me for over 25 years, he will be missed."
Alan Wentz
Senior Group Manager
Ducks Unlimited
Jim embodied the true conservationist every sportsman and sportswoman aspires to be. But if that is the only thing you saw, you were missing some of his best qualities. Jim was a lover of life and people. He loved having old and new friends over to his home above the
Jim was also someone who always wanted to share life’s best, and simplest, moments with others. I believe this poem by Robert Frost captures Jim's generous nature.
THE PASTURE
I'm going out to clean the pasture spring;
I'll only stop to rake the leaves away
(And wait to watch the water clear, I may):
I shan't be gone long. -- You come too.
I'm going out to fetch the little calf
That's standing by the mother. It's so young,
It totters when she licks it with her tongue.
I shan't be gone long. -- You come too.
Jim – Christy and I weren’t done with you while you were here. But while you’re up there, look up another Birdsong with your first name. He’ll be happy to show you around, and take you to the pasture, as you did for us. Thank you for everything. We miss you.
There's not enough time, nor are there enough men who stand up and stand out when the environment and the outdoors need that advocate.
Loosing this sort of special man, means others now must work just that much harder to pick up the work left behind by such a loss. But after reading, understanding, and feeling the words of those that knew and love
Again, as someone who never met the Man, I will increase my efforts, to impact my corner of this outdoor world. To allow those of us who live and love the same things that Jim loved, the ability and the capability to pass and to protect it on to those that will someday carry it forward.
Dave Babcock
Though I never had the pleasure of meeting Jim, I feel as though a part of his passion will live on in all of us. Its because of people like Jim that we can share our own stories and fondness for the outdoors with others, whether they are sportsman or not. Jim's dedication to his way of life has helped to make it possible to show our children the joys of hunting and fishing.
We will keep Jim's family and friends in our prayers. Thanks Jim! The Garretsons Jason, Darla, Bailey, and Stetson
Dear Jimmy -
Thank you for sharing your warmth and smile, the endless stories, your passion for the things and people in which you believed and loved, for sharing your wisdom, and for cheering on those of us fortunate enough to share bits of life with you. Memories....the Dubliner, Fletcher's, Friendships,
Jim: I consider myself so lucky to have known you. I only knew you for a short time, but what a remarkable man you were to anyone who had the pleasure of your company. I shall cherish the memories I have of you on our "bachelor" trip to
With Love, Dick Bedell
GIANTS AMONG MEN
There are some columns one would prefer never to write. This is one of them.
Please indulge me as I reflect on two people who are no longer with us. Not to mourn their loss so much as to celebrate their lives.
On Tuesday morning one of my very closest friends lost his battle with cancer.
He was like a brother to me. The best man in my wedding, a hunting and fishing partner of many years and the voice on the other end of the phone keeping me strong when trouble came. And oh, the whiskey we drank.
Many of you have never heard of
One of my most cherished memories, from many years ago, is standing with him in my dining room one night. We got choked up looking out at the fields and woods where I lived.
He told me that not a lot of folks were willing to protect the things he, I and many of you love so much like fish, wildlife and the wild things of this earth. He said, “Tommy we have to protect the wild things. If we don’t do it, it won’t get done.”
Tears streamed down our faces. Big men do cry.
Range was a modern architect of natural resource conservation. A skilled bipartisan policy and political genius with an extraordinary network of friends and contacts.
Range had wonderful oratorical gifts, a way of always speaking from his heart, sometimes in language not fit for a family newspaper. You may not have liked what he said but you surely knew what he thought.
He was the personification of “if they don’t see the light, we can surely make them feel the heat.”
Range’s fingerprints are all over the nation’s conservation laws, including the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. His championing of conservation tax incentives earned him a profile in Time magazine.
He ably chaired the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership’s Board of Directors pouring his enormous energy into its resurrection.
He served with distinction and candor on the Board’s of Trout Unlimited, the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation, the American Sportfishing Association, Ducks Unlimited, the American Bird Conservancy, the Pacific Forest Trust, the Valles Caldera Trust and the Yellowstone Park Foundation.
Range was an original board member of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, helping to chart the outstanding course it is on today. He also held presidential appointments to the Interstate Commission on the
In 2003, Range received the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Great Blue Heron Award, the highest honor given to an individual at the national level by the Department. He was also awarded the 2003 Outdoor Life Magazine Conservationist of the Year Award and the Norville Prosser Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Sportfishing Association.
Range’s greatest love was the outdoors. He fished and hunted all over the world. I suspect he was happiest however, at his place on the Missouri River near
Beside his multitude of friends and admirers, Range is survived by his father, Dr. James Range of Johnson City, Tenn., brothers John Neel, Harry and Peter, twin daughters Allison and Kimberly, and loyal bird dogs Plague, Tench and Sky.
Range may be gone but we will be telling stories about him for the rest of our lives.
The Valley lost another friend recently as well. She was one of Range’s favorite people and the mother of his girlfriend Anni.
Jean Marion Gregory Ince, died on Jan. 12 at the University of Virginia Hospital in
Like Range, Jean Ince was a giver. She and Meg, a certified therapy dog, worked with patients at the Kluge Children’s
Anni told me her mom, like Range, loved the outdoors and animals, particularly horses and dogs. She said that love was passed on to her children and grandchildren as well.
Jean and Bud enjoyed a special relationship. They wrote about it in the December 1978 issue of GOURMET Magazine. The story chronicles the evening of their engagement.
It is a wonderfully engaging story of a young couple, a special hotel, and a time when doing for others was a common practice.
I hope you will take a moment to read it. It is a gift that will make any day a better one.
You can find a copy at http://www.usna.org/family/waldorf.html.
Tom Sadler
Dear Dr. Range, Harry, John Neal and Peter,
When I first met Jim, he had only one fly rod. It was a Sage, 7 weight, 9 foot rod which he bought to fish the Big Horn, which he had done the prior year in November, in the snow. He talked about how it was so cold that ice formed in the guides of his rod, and he had to dip it in the water to unfreeze the line. That was almost 20 years ago.
The following thanksgiving, we went out to the Big Horn. . . we each had a gun and a flyrod. The fishing was fair. Deep streamers in fast water. . . kind of unexciting, but then again, neither of us had much experience fishing in the west. The highlight of that trip was Thanksgiving morning when we took the two decoys we had borrowed from the chef of the only restaurant in town, and walked out onto one of the islands in the river, and set them out in a quiet back eddy as we hid under the bushes. The mallards loved it, and I remember being so astonished at how close they got to us I was too flummoxed to ever pull the trigger. As those of you who have hunted with Jim know, he wouldn’t exactly wait around for those who were trigger shy. . .
The search for the perfect Ranch began. We took short 3-day trips to the
Heading south on the dirt road, we drove over the rise that those who have been to the ranch know only too well, and saw what was the most beautiful piece of property either of us had ever seen.
Building the Ranch was a dream come true. The property was denuded from over-grazing. In year one, we added a small room onto the small cabin, and Pete moved in. We burnt the field below the road, and planted native grass. The gophers ate Albert’s entire crop in the lower field. In year two, we did the bank stabilization project, the first on the upper
Jim Range, 18 years later, at least nine broken fly rods that I can count, one lost and then found 12 gauge Beretta EELL, a Plague, a Jambo, a Tench, a Zeke (also lost and then found), another Plague, and the endless people you hosted and touched at the haven on the Missouri River, your spirit will always live on at Flyway Ranch.
With greatest respect and sadness, Lizzie
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