Fellows and Friends
Unfortunately I did not have the opportunity to meet Jim until I visited his
Montana Ranch with the TRCP last October. Though I was a complete stranger
Jim made me feel as welcome as a long lost friend. Listening to his insights
and stories of conservation fights in
much more I had to learn, how much more we all have to do. The respect shown
Jim by the other guests is a tribute to the man who lived his love for wild
things in wild places. Words cannot express the hollowness I feel in my
soul. The outdoors has lost a valuable ally, and we have all lost a teacher
and mentor.
May God bless him and those he left behind. And may God give each of us the
strength to continue the fight in his stead.
Doug Nielsen
As the word of Jimmy's passing winged it's way across the
many of us sat in stunned silence. How could this happen to our friend
who was still so young, vibrant, and full of passion. Matt was kind
enough to share an incredibly personal with me that he had sent to
Jimmy on Monday, and reminded me of Coy Johnson's adage "God always
takes the prettiest flower". Matt captured to a tee the Jimmy that we
know and love. Wednesday morning I read it to my husband Jim while
sitting by the fire having coffee, surrounded by our dogs. It's such a
reminder that life is so short. Coy is spot on about the "prettiest
flower". Jim and I had Peter Carton from
New Year. Peter had not had the opportunity to meet Ranger, but he
knew of the legend. As the whiskey flowed, Jim regaling him with
wonderful stories about Ranger and his escapades at WAT (Wetland
America Trust) meetings. It seems they were often housed away from the
rest of the group due to their propensity for "living life to the
fullest". Jim always admired Ranger because he could "drink more,
snore louder, and be more profane" than him (no small feat). It's with
heavy heartsthat we will load the dogs and guns in our suburban, and
head to the ranch for our last days of the season. As we trudge
through the countryside, we will quietly remember the last 25 years of
friendship with a most extraordinary man. Follow Jimmy's lead and live
life to the fullest. One never knows when God may need a bouquet from
Coy's garden. We'll miss you Jimmy. Love, Jean and Jim Hulbert,
Jeanhulbert@hotmail.com
Dearest Jimmy,
You were and always will be the salt of this very earth you have fought so fiercely and passionately to protect. Your dreams were painted in broad strokes, in bold, vivid colors, just as you lived. And boy did you dream, but YOU made those dreams come true...allowing so many to enjoy the fruits of your labor, as will generations to come. Next to you, we were all a little braver, a little bit taller, a little more invincible..and hell you even made some of us cast a little further while in your company! Some could even drink more...or so they thought! If I could count the number of times the word passion has been used to describe you, the total just might ignite this page! But there is no way to talk about you without using the word. It was your passionate spirit that fearlessly drove you, no matter what your pursuit. And it is that passion that made so many of us want to bask in the warmth of your friendship.
Jim, I am not sure you ever met a stranger. It was almost as if you knew what it was like to walk in everyone's shoes just for a day, so therefore you knew them. Whether they lived in their car by the river or on an estate, they were all equal in your eyes. This quality is so rare today, that I think it is one of the things I have admired the most about you. No matter what your achievements, and as we know there are many, you were always a humble southern guy from TN, who wore his heart on his sleeve, allowing us all to be human around you. Loving people unconditionally, as friends should.
When I met you DC, you and your "fraternity" embraced this girl with open arms, all because I shared one of the same passions, I loved to fish. In a flash my world became, shall we say "bigger"! Then we realized your mother and my grandmother came from the same small town and had gone to school together, it was an instant bond. Jim, your life took you on one wild ride and I was lucky enough to be part of one of the stops along the way.
I moved from
You will be greatly missed.
Heather Templeton
I first met
We’d taken
I had a trail’s-end picture of myself, the Siskiyou Project’s Steve Marsden (who
What a fine mentor and friend
Thank you,
Dave Willis
Life in fly fishing terms can be paired down to the fractional yet important moments that friends share in the rivers they wade together. My time with Jim was brief. It happened in a celebratory event with others in rural
Thanks Jim,
Jim Russell
I was making dinner tonight and tears were falling in the salad
dressing, as I thought about
wonderful meals we shared. As a chef, Jim always yielded to me in the
kitchen, needlessly as he was such an accomplished cook himself. He
would always ask me to check this or taste this. Everything was good.
Well almost...There were some mystery meats and many stories of
experiments with wild game that I never got to taste. Like the crane.
Pete said, “even Jim didn’t know what to do with it... and the coffee
grounds didn’t help either.”
All in all, he was down home with his cooking, always browning and
braising and simmering away in his faithful cast iron. You could tell he
loved sharing the garden, his larder, and spirited conversation with
others. When it was time to eat, more often than not he was the last to
serve himself, if at all. Rather, he would watch to see if everyone was
enjoying their food.
Jim had a way with words.
remembers when he first met him, Jim said to him, “You know the problem
with all you westerners is? You think there’s two kinds of ducks, green
heads and the other ones!”
Pat and Patsy O’Connell, owned a local store in Craig and have fond
memories of Jim. “He come down to the store quite a bit,” said Pat. “He
loved his Fat Boy ice creams and the sausages. He was a good friend.
He’s do anything for me if I asked.” The O’Connell’s met a lot of Jim’s
family in subsequent years, including Estelle, Bud, John and Jake. “He
had a real nice family. Jimmy was the one that brought it all here.”
Mamie warmed up to Jim pretty quick too, but she’d put him in line every
time he would try to get her to take his dogs for a sleep over. And,
he’d watch his cussing in her presence. After every dinner, he’d walk
her to her truck and give her a kiss on the cheek. “He was a gentleman.
He never got fresh or nothing,” said Mamie. “I’ll never forget when my
husband Albert was dying of cancer in 1998, Jim brought his fly tying
materials down to the house and taught him a few flies.”
Making a big pot of comforting Spaghetti Sauce with canned tomatoes and
oyster mushrooms,
his agenda out here. His steamed until tender duck legs, lightly coated
in flour and fried in butter and served with mustard sauce were
legendary. He made a great chess pie. He made sauerkraut, canned
tomatoes green beans, wild mushrooms, rhubarb chutney, beets and even
choke cherry jam. He loved sharptail and blue grouse. He loved food. He
loved
loved that tender side of Jim.
And, as I sat down to dinner with a lump in my throat a bottle of Jack
Daniels with one good shot left in it fell off the refrigerator and
landed standing up on an ottoman. Pete said, “that’s Jim talking to us.”
One of his friends Jim Green said, “you know the movie Dancing with
Wolves, when Wind in His Hair was on a horse at the top of the hill
screaming ‘Dancing with Wolves is my friend!’ that’s how I feel.” Jim
Range, we feel the same way. You will always be our
we hope your legacy continues.
Sandee Cardinal,
Hey, Jim;
You may have slipped away to fish, hunt, run the dogs and wait for
your friends in that other Big Sky country, but you're still and
always will be with us.You taught us a lot about commitment, living
in the moment and squeezing a full measure of enjoyment out of every
experience. Problem is we'll miss your warmth, intelligence,
vitality, colorful and blunt turn of phrase ("We've got to stop
fouling our nest"), and ability both to cut to the core of
environmental issues and build coalitions to address them. We'll also
miss your Southern hospitality and starry nights sitting in the
Flyway house after a sumptuous dinner talking about things that
matter over a splash or two of sour mash. It's a damned shame that
you left us just as it seems possible that so much of what you fought
for so valiantly may come to pass over the next few years. Every time
another acre of land gets saved from corruptive use or a good piece
of water runs clean and clear instead of polluted and dirty, we'll
remember you and the good fight you fought on our behalf. Take care,
friend, until we hopefully meet again. One suggestion: please try to
encourage your present host to ensure better access to responsible
anglers and hunters, particularly flyfishers, so more of us can have
the pleasure of rejoining you a bit down the road.
Jim Greene
Dear Family and Friends of Jim:
I met Jim a couple of years ago when he came into my art gallery on
I will always remember with pleasure the opportunity to share my enthusiasm for the river with one who knew it so well and cherished it so much.
Andrei Kushnir
As I write this it’s -16 degrees. Every tree, shrub and grass blade is
covered in a delicate coating of frost. Five-hundred-foot pillars of
steam frame the boundaries of one of Jim’s greatest legacies, the Flyway
Ranch.
Squadrons of Canada Geese, Mallards and Goldeneye gently parade past,
dipping slightly in the mist, perhaps paying tribute to their neighbor
who cared so much about preserving their home.
It has been my pleasure and honor to be with Jim pursuing the pastimes
he enjoyed most. Our time was spent afield chasing upland birds,
(usually we were chasing Jim), waterfowl and the trout of the
River.
I am attracted to passionate individuals in my life, and Jim was always
at the top of the list in that department. Our interests were a perfect
match and also included gardening and dogs. To witness the outpouring of
love and respect for this man humbles me. Above all were Jim’s passion
for his family and friends, which he always toasted before dinner. The
he touched with his passion for conservation and the pursuit of the
sporting life. It’s been a pleasure to share Jim’s
many of his special friends from around the country. It was clear Jim
had profoundly enriched many lives, including mine.
Jim leaves a legacy in
fish and wildlife populations, and greater access for the common
sportsman in pursuit of such treasures. We will miss Range deeply. He
has left a void we can perhaps never fill. We can only do the best we
can to live our lives to the fullest and as close to his ideals as
possible.
place than what he found. There can be no greater legacy, and it’s one
that we should all strive for in our own lives. Thank you Jim for all
the memories and all the lessons, and your love. You have made us all
better for having known you, and we will strive to fill your shoes
however we can.
Pete Cardinal
Flyway Ranch,
To Jim’s Family and Friends:
I am going to miss the phone conversations and emails, but most of all I am going to miss Jim, the man. Like many of you I have not known Jim that long, two years as a matter of fact, but in that time I came to consider Jim as a good friend.
Jim and I first met at his ranch during the 2007 TRCP Media Summit. It did not take Jim long to find out that I was an expat Canadian who had, literally, just days before become a citizen of the
Jim and I found that we had a lot in common. Our love for
When I arrived at Flyway for this year’s TRCP Summit Jim was quick to find me and point out that we had a bipartisan issue to work out, “that son of a bitch Benelli shotgun quit working, do you think you could fix it some evening?”
One evening at the summit Jim quietly sequestered me and we retreated to the privacy of his home where we discussed how “our” party was going to fair in the upcoming Federal election and over a good single malt Scotch we fixed “that son of bitch Benelli” with me suggesting that a Beretta semi-auto might be a pretty good idea. He thanked me for being “gutsy enough to remind the media folk of the 70 year conservation legacy of the Pitman Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act while acknowledging the good of
Jim I am going to miss your friendship. If I could be granted one wish in life it would be to be able to have spent more time with the three men who have had a significant impact on my life and my ideology: my Dad who taught me to love the land, the hunt and the water; Floyd Wine who’s love for good dogs, guns and hunts was mutual; and you Jim.
On the death of my father, his life-long hunting and farming friend dedicated R.L. Stevenson’s requiem as a fitting tribute to the man who had spent a life loving the open spaces of the West, the lakes, the seas, and the hunt. I in turn feel it most fitting for Jim.
Under the wide and starry sky
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and glad did I die
And I lay me down with a will.
This be the verse you grave for me:
Here he lies where he longs to be.
Home is the sailor, home from sea
And the hunter home from the hill.
-R. L. Stevenson
Randy Bimson
To Jim’s family -
Please accept our heartfelt condolences for your loss. We knew Jim as a
Kristin and Jeff Dahl
Dear Kim and Allison:
We will all remain grateful and humbled by your dad’s legacy of hard work and passion for the outdoors. I am personally grateful for his love of Art and the brief time he was able to spend in shaping his life as his godfather. I laugh at how many times I wanted to put duck tape on Ranger’s mouth while Art was a little boy!
Your dad’s introduction to the outdoors and his respect for wildlife shaped his young life and I remain grateful for his tutoring. I am sure that he touched many young people’s lives and with them will go a piece of
His eyes welled with tears the last time we saw each other at Casting Call… now mine well at the loss of this mountain of a man who will be so missed. It’s comforting to know that he will now be able to share all of those words, lessons, instructions, and affection he wasn’t able to give Art these past 10 years… at our loss.
All my love and I hold you affectionately in my thoughts and prayers,
Mari Lou Livingood
Johnny Morris
Ce morceau de vie que nous avons pu passer ensemble comme voisins est
inoubliable. Tu es et restera un ami de toujours. Un ami qui nous a fait
decouvrir une autre amerique, et qui nous a fait adorer le Montana et aimer ce
pays. Un ami capable de nous laisser des orchidees, un saumon ou meme quelques
faisants au passage. Un ami avec qui il fait bon partager un verre de vin ou de
Jack Daniels !
It is difficult for me to share my sadness in learning that you have left us.
Stranded in
you, and invite you for a drink.
Garden birds will be sad . As we all.
Merci pour ton amitie
Ivan and Caroline, your neighbours.
I met Jim through our involvement on the Trout Unlimited Board of Trustees. He, as we say in the south, took a "shine" to me as a fellow Tennessean. We talked University of
Rick Murphree