Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Another outdoorsman is gone

Jack Ford has passed away.

Mark sent me this from work today, and Jack Ryan, a wildlife rehabber, left a message for me today. Jack Ford was another of the old guard outdoorsmen. Hunter, trapper, and likely to be there if someone needed help getting a critter out of a pinch. It may seem odd to call a trapper to aid an animal, but there you go. Trappers were (and often still are, although they are now often involved in "wildlife control") the only people with the calm understanding to get a wild animal out of trouble, and the connections to find a rehabber who could help it, if need be. Or who had the resolve to humanely kill the injured creature and the legal authority to do it, if needed. While I have found myself in more than one spirited debate with local fur trappers, I have never been treated with anything other than respect and great kindness.

I never knew Jack had been a Marine, but I'm not surprised. Perhaps we should all write our own trial obituaries now, so our friends might learn about us before we pass on.

Jack retired from wildlife control about...what...twelve years ago? He was primarily a phone acquaintence. A person I called for help or for answers. My thoughts go out to his family, and to his friends and colleagues. And a special thanks to whomever wrote his obituary. It was clearly written with love and the hope that anyone who read it would remember the words, and remember Jack.

It says something special about this family that they listed Jack's close friends as survivors.

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