NOTABLE ARKANSANS

He was born in Little Rock in 1923. Although he did well in school, he preferred being outdoors and spent a great deal of time enjoying the wonders of the Natural State. While attending the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, he worked parttime for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.

After graduation in 1945, his job became full time, and he compiled a major inventory of Arkansas wildlife, culminating with the publication of A Survey of

Arkansas Game in 1951. His work with the commission soon caught the eye of Edgar Monsanto Queeny, son of the Monsanto Corporation’s founder. In 1957, Queeny offered him a management opportunity with his 11,000-acre Wingmead Farms, a world-famous preserve and duck hunting retreat on the Grand Prairie in east-central Arkansas. He managed Wingmead for 20 years and, after Queeny died, returned to the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission where he was soon named assistant director of the Real Estate Division, overseeing the future acquisition of land and lakes for the state, until his retirement in 1987.

His passion for preservation and conservation, along with love for photography, led to the 1984 publication of his book, Wildflowers of Arkansas, a 300-page guide with full-color photographs, documenting more than 600 varieties of wildflowers native to the state. A companion volume, Trees, Shrubs and Vines of Arkansas, a comprehensive, illustrated guide to Arkansas’s woody plants and nonwoody vines, followed in 1989. Who was this man from Little Rock, who had a lifelong passion for the beauty of Arkansas?

Who was this man from Little Rock who had a lifelong passion for the beauty of Arkansas?