30 years ago today...

...Bill Pogue, father/husband/friend/brother was killed along with his friend and coworker, Conley Elms. My sister Jodi has done 30 days of tributes to him, funny stories and pictures and notes and drawings...things to help us remember him and to teach the grandchildren who their grandpa was.



So many horrible things were said about him after he was murdered; that was the tactic of the defence attorneys: to "justify" his murder. It was sickening and infuriating and so wrong. Yes, he was a hard-ass as a Game Warden, but only because he cared so deeply about the conservation of wildlife. To those who knew and loved him, he was wickedly funny, a gifted artist and a teacher of all things wild. He taught us to pay attention when we went out into the woods: to listen to the wind, to identify birds, and to notice where deer had bedded down for the night. He was also prone to practical jokes and wild exaggerations.



I so, so wish he and Anna had known each other; she is so much like him: a wildly funny little nature-girl who always, always has a pencil in her hand, drawing. When we drive in the car, she notices the clouds and the trees and from the time she could point and talk, she has always been the first one to spot wildlife on our hikes.

Jake was the only grandchild dad met, and he was SO proud:




The above photo is of dad with his best friend Jerry. They were camping in the Jack's Creek area of S. Idaho, one of dad's favorite places. On the back of the photo, in dad's writing, is this quote:

"If there is a future for wild things, then it is the burden of those who have reached farther than me, to save them for the rest of us. It will be done by those whose convictions were forged in campfires."
-Bill Pogue

Dad, you made the world a better place. You are missed.