Latest / Ducks Unlimited Podcast / Remembering John Gordon: A Legacy in Waterfowling, Storytelling, and the DU Family (Ep 747)

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Remembering John Gordon: A Legacy in Waterfowling, Storytelling, and the DU Family (Ep 747) · Ducks Unlimited Podcast

• 0:00
  Mike Brasher: Everyone, welcome to the Ducks Unlimited podcast. I'm gonna be one of your hosts on today's episode, Mike Brasher. I'm joined in the studio by Katie Burke.
• 0:07
  Katie Burke: Hey, Mike.
• 0:08
  Mike Brasher: Doctor Jared Henson.
• 0:09
  Jared Henson: Hey, Mike.
• 0:10
  Mike Brasher: And Nathan Ratchford.
• 0:11
  Nathan Ratchford: Hey, Mike.
• 0:12
  Mike Brasher: We are here to pay tribute to a fallen friend and colleague of ours, John Gordon, who passed away in a very untimely situation, tragic situation. He was on location doing what he loved best, working for Ducks Unlimited, hunting ducks, spending time in the field with his friends, with his dogs, the way we all knew John and and thought of him, and a tragic accident that occurred on January 17. John was transported to the hospital and was and passed away a couple of days later, and, of course, was a huge shock to to all of us in the Waterfowl community, and and we wanted to take a few minutes to share some of our memories, pay tribute to John, what he what he was, what he brought to to this profession, share some of maybe a few stories or or the ways in which we knew him, and also remember his tremendous accomplishments. I I think a lot of which people probably didn't realize unless you took time to to talk to John, and it's very, as I've described and thought about him over the past couple of weeks, very unassuming in the amount of knowledge he had, the experiences he had.
• 1:29
  Katie, we were reflecting on how long John had been with DU and just a little bit shorter than than you had been here. Right?
• 1:37
  Katie Burke: Yep. And he came a couple years after me.
• 1:39
  Mike Brasher: And we all had an opportunity to work with John through various various ways. I I worked with him on the podcast, got to talk with him about a number of things related to episodes that we were planning. I worked with him on all the different TV shows that that he was producing, video shows that he produced for Ducks Unlimited. He was a manager of media productions.
• 2:09
  But, Jared, you got to know and I think, Nathan, you did as well, got to know John maybe bef well, you before even coming here to Tax Unlimited.
• 2:18
  Jared Henson: Right? I'd actually met John. I don't know if he was still at Avery or just shortly after he'd left because he worked with Avery Outdoors for a while. And so I'd met him through through some connections through Avery early on, and then John had reached out, he was a freelance writer as well. And he was writing, and I think, Nathan, that's how you you knew John was through Wildfowl.
• 2:41
  And so he interviewed me for a whistling duck article a while back. We got to ride around the truck and go look at some whistling ducks and talk about that. So, yeah, really enjoyed that. So and then once we we got here, one of the other things about John is, as you mentioned, there was a lot unassuming, but not a lot. He was a goose guide for a long time in in Texas, and he and I bonded over a love for for hunting a white geese over way too many decoys and the amount of work that that is because it's not for everyone.
• 3:14
  It takes a special kind of crazy person to to wanna do that. And John and I actually finally we talked about it a whole bunch. We got on our first hunt together last year on a snow goose hunt. Had a blast. Really enjoyed it.
• 3:29
  It was really fun to hunt with John because John hunted before the conservation season, before electronic calls. He was a guide in that system. So, like
• 3:36
  Mike Brasher: The epicenter of where snow goose hunting
• 3:38
  Jared Henson: took off. That's it.
• 3:39
  Mike Brasher: Yeah. Katy
• 3:40
  Jared Henson: Katy Prairie, El Campo, Texas. Like, that was where he was. And my dad used to go down there and goose on every year in that area, he brought some of skill sets back. Like, we still have somewhere in the basement, my dad has 1,200 Texas rags.
• 3:55
  Mike Brasher: Wow.
• 3:55
  Jared Henson: Like, those old school decoys. And John found out about that, and he was like, did your dad ever use those? I was like, no. I like, was I might need those because I
• 4:02
  Katie Burke: don't have any.
• 4:03
  Mike Brasher: I wonder how
• 4:04
  Jared Henson: many I wonder
• 4:05
  Mike Brasher: how many things he's put
• 4:06
  Jared Henson: out in his life. Oh, he said that's what he said. He said all the time. That was he loved them. But listening to John talk about it, you could tell he was before all of the the cool toys, the electronic collars.
• 4:17
  And then hunting with him, we had an electronic collar on the conservation season last year. But he's sitting there on a goose call, and he's talking with the geese. And he's you can tell he's working that lead goose, and that goose is talking to him the whole time. He kept the thing on a string till they're fanning it 30 yards. So it was really cool to have that bond over that as well.
• 4:35
  So yeah. Yeah. Lots of things like that we could talk about, John.
• 4:38
  Mike Brasher: And Nathan, you got to know John, spend some time with him. You're in the in the same department as Some of your impressions and and memories. Obviously, dogs, you guys recorded some podcast episodes with dogs. Tavy, you could really mention his incredible love for dogs.
• 4:53
  Nathan Ratchford: Yeah. That's where John and I really have we became close was over our love for dogs. His office space is next to mine, so most afternoons and mornings when John was in the office, we'd be talking about dogs in some capacity. And I was a part of him picking out Mickey. He was doing this new upland journey.
• 5:17
  He, you know, he's seen it all as you guys mentioned. He's seen it all and done it all in the waterfowl world, but he was really curious in the upland hunting, and he got Mickey, this little English cocker spaniel, so he was looping me into that that process. He had the breeder, how he found him, and, you know, all the new gear and all that, so we had we had plenty to talk about with that. But John, yeah, he's a he was a guy who just always he always sees the day. He always wanted to be doing something.
• 5:51
  He always wanted to be getting into something, and his job was perfect for that because he was always on the go. He was seeing new places, hunting new species. You know, one thing that stuck out for John is he's a great camp cook. Didn't know that until I shared camp with him and he yeah. Very but again, like, simple dishes.
• 6:14
  He did this he called it buck and duck chili when we were up in Minnesota. We we hunted up in the North Dakota this year together. It was our first experience together on wild roosters, and we had a blast. Seeing John in that setting was cool because I hear all the stories on how he was for snow geese. He was just so hardcore.
• 6:36
  But I think because this was new to him, all the upland stuff, was very I I got to see a lot of John just taking it in and just really soaking in a new thing for him. And I was really honored to be a small part of that for him. And we went over to Minnesota and first time for me hunting in wolf country with the dog, was an experience for us. On one morning in particular, we had I was doing all my my scouting on On X, had everything picked out, and we went way back into this logging road, you know, way back there hoping to beat the pressure. And we got out and right in the middle of the road, you know, it's a sand road, there was a smoking hot wolf track, and I saw the video of me and John just, you know, we got beat we got beat by another hunter.
• 7:29
  Right?
• 7:29
  Jared Henson: Yeah.
• 7:29
  Nathan Ratchford: And sure enough, just just down the road, there was some grouse tracks, you know, that I don't know if the wolf was was looking for them too, but yeah. Our dogs, we trained we trained frequently at lunch together, the three of our dogs together. So they were they were really close to my new pup, Huck, and and Buster, in particular, were really their pals, just like me and John were.
• 7:57
  Jared Henson: You know? So And Buster was was John's field golden, which was a fantastic dog. Yeah. John over the the personality. That dog was great.
• 8:08
  John had him extremely well trained. He was Darwin's buddy. He was. But when you get him in the field, don't know if y'all got to hunt with John or ever got to hunt with
• 8:17
  Katie Burke: Buster. But place.
• 8:19
  Jared Henson: That dog, like, you send him on something, he's he's a nut. Mhmm. Like, he's gonna bring bird back. He'll come back, and he's all high strung. And then, like, a second later, can just turn it off, and he's, like, laying at John's feet.
• 8:29
  Like Okay. This is great. You know? Happy to
• 8:31
  Katie Burke: be here.
• 8:32
  Nathan Ratchford: Wear Mickey on the other. Yeah. Well, that's the difference
• 8:34
  Jared Henson: between a retreating dog and
• 8:36
  Katie Burke: Well, and that's and that's one thing that John I love I had a golden that I had for fourteen years. And last few months, I've been talking to John about we're ready to get a new one, and we loved Goldens, and we talked about Goldens all the time. And it's hard not to love a Golden for that rate. Just Yeah. I mean, Buster was the perfect is the perfect example of why you love Goldens.
• 8:54
  Jared Henson: Yeah. So, like, John for waiting John's room or John's office. He sat on the corner of John's desk.
• 8:58
  Nathan Ratchford: Yeah. He was very dogs were central to John's whole picture. You know? Yeah. So that was yeah.
• 9:08
  I'll miss talking dogs with him. That's for sure.
• 9:10
  Jared Henson: Yeah. I think we all will.
• 9:12
  Mike Brasher: John grew up in or was was born in Mississippi, born in the Mississippi Delta, moved to Texas when he was, I think, 10 or 12 years old. I've I've heard other people talk about him, and and they described him as say, he would always say that he he was born in Mississippi, but he considers himself as much a Texan as anything else. He'd loved Texas. He and his his they moved to Texas when he was a kid, grew up just outside of Houston, and fell in love with the duck and goose hunting culture there along the Texas coast. And if anybody wondered where John was during the hunting season, there was probably a 50% chance he was in Texas.
• 9:52
  Yes. Yep. He loved he loved Texas for its people, for its landscape, for its birds. You know, John is is has has spent a ton of time making connections all across the industry, whether before coming to Ducks Unlimited or since being here with us. In the days after, you know, John's passing, I was contacted by several people from different states, a couple people from Canada saying they had heard about, you know, John's unfortunate passing, and they were passing along their wishes, best wishes to us and keeping us in their thoughts.
• 10:31
  And he had he made so many connections, legitimate friendships with people that he that he spent time with in the field setting up hunts for DU Nation, for DUTV, for the Ascend series. He was involved in so many different aspects of what people see as being part of Ducks Unlimited, the the Ducks Unlimited podcast as well. Just really remarkable skill set, and then it didn't stop there. He was we were talking about he he was like the the guest host on a a Saturday TV show, radio it's not TV show, radio show, the Larry Ray Outdoor Show or something of that nature. You've been on that a couple of times.
• 11:12
  Right?
• 11:12
  Jared Henson: I've been
• 11:12
  Nathan Ratchford: on there once.
• 11:13
  Mike Brasher: Okay.
• 11:13
  Jared Henson: Yep. Yeah. We got home and talked about some Whistling Duck stuff.
• 11:16
  Mike Brasher: Just a a remarkable person, a a tremendous friend. Katie, when you think about the time you've spent around John, what how you remember him? What are the things that come to mind?
• 11:28
  Katie Burke: I was thinking about this while y'all were talking because and I didn't and I just reminded me of something that I completely forgot about. But when I think of John, and I think that it kinda comes across, like, with the people he's met and the job he's done for you at DU, is he was also just really open to listening to people and hearing their story and their perspective because I remember about the time he came here was when my daughter was diagnosed with autism, and they asked me to do, like, for, like, autism, like, to talk about, like, I don't know, share my story with that and it was not. And if anyone's ever gone through that that whole process of, like, I mean, it's fine now, but just when you find out for the first time, it's really hard. And so they made John do the interview with me, which was really, like, very strange now that I think back about it. But he was so kind and willing to learn about it, and he never, you know, he never really put any perspective from himself or anything or had any judgments about it.
• 12:35
  He just listened. And I and when I think back about that, that's one thing I think about him that is so special and why he had so many great connections is he was always open and willing to hear what people had to say.
• 12:50
  Mike Brasher: Very genuine.
• 12:51
  Katie Burke: Yeah. Very genuine person.
• 12:52
  Mike Brasher: He loved his ducks. He loved his dogs. He loved his Mississippi State bulldogs.
• 12:56
  Katie Burke: It's the way you buy a dog. Wore I wore a brood, and that is
• 13:01
  Mike Brasher: That's right.
• 13:01
  Katie Burke: As an Ole Miss person, that was hard. Wow.
• 13:03
  Mike Brasher: That's special. Thank you for that, Katie. It's one of those episodes that none of us ever wanna do, but we feel an obligation to to give our friend and colleague some additional time and and sort of pay share some of our memories, pay tribute. So I think what we have coming up here in a moment are some clips from some of the podcast episodes that John appeared on. Before we do that, any final final thoughts, parting words?
• 13:35
  Nathan Ratchford: All I could say is John squeezed every last bit a lot of life in his years, and you never know when the good Lord's gonna call you home, so you might as well go hunt because John certainly did.
• 13:49
  Jared Henson: That's it. Yeah. Take advantage of of the opportunities you have. You never know when it's your time. Yeah.
• 13:55
  And and anytime you meet a good person, you have an opportunity to meet someone and learn a new story and connect with someone, take advantage of that. It's amazing the connections you can build and the the friendships you can build in those situations. I think that's something you can definitely learn from from John's story. And, Nathan, I have to comment on one of the things you said earlier. He traveled all over the world and everywhere.
• 14:18
  He drove. He did. Did.
• 14:20
  Mike Brasher: By the
• 14:20
  Nathan Ratchford: way, I wanna point that out.
• 14:21
  Jared Henson: He did. Because he was taking those dogs with him everywhere.
• 14:24
  Katie Burke: So Yep. Uh-huh. Classic the rock. Shortest way.
• 14:28
  Jared Henson: Yeah. He was already that route. Yes. The scenic route. Yeah.
• 14:32
  With
• 14:33
  Nathan Ratchford: with Rush on his satellite radio. Yeah.
• 14:40
  Katie Burke: And he is, like, the example of doing what you love for your job. I mean
• 14:45
  Jared Henson: Absolutely. Yeah.
• 14:46
  Katie Burke: He did like, no one could have done a better way of putting that together.
• 14:49
  Mike Brasher: We know many of you are are know knew John or John's friends. Consider him, have hunted with him. We 're certain that you have your own stories and hope you find an opportunity to share some of those with folks. As this teaches us and reminds us, tomorrow is never guaranteed. So as we've said here, make the most of it.
• 15:11
  John certainly did. Join us as we remember some of the best of John Gordon.
• 15:23
  John Gordon: Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Ducks Unlimited podcast. I'm your host, John Gordon, and this is a episode that when I first heard that I was gonna be able to host it, I got really excited about it because anybody who's listened to a lot of my podcasts in the past knows that I'm a dog guy. Right? Specifically sporting dogs.
• 15:42
  Sporting breeds, spaniels, retrievers, I love them all. One that's really near and dear to my heart is the golden retriever. My my personal dog buster has traveled all over The US and part of Canada with me and has really been my constant companion now for for over three years. So I just, I really am a fan of this breed. I'm John Gordon.
• 16:10
  I'll be your host for this episode. We're gonna be talking dogs again, retrievers specifically, and what you can really do in the spring and summer months to keep your dog in shape for the fall. It's challenging, right, to to keep your dog in shape and condition throughout these months. I just I love to talk sporting dogs. The English Cocker is really a really dynamic little hunting dog, and they're just a lot of fun to be around, a lot of fun to watch work.
• 16:43
  Great little breed. Hello, everybody. Welcome again to the Ducks Unlimited podcast. I'm your host, John Gordon. It's my triumph and return to the DU podcasting role.
• 16:54
  Been away for a while. I think it's been about a year. And opportunity came up. We really would love to dedicate a lot of podcasts to dogs. Today is the Boykin Spaniel.
• 17:08
  The Boy kin is a is a really unique little dog. From what I've done in in just a little bit of study to being around some of the dogs, I I really like their personalities. I like their size. I like their their spirit. This is John Gordon.
• 17:24
  I'm your host. It's, it's good to be back here in the DU Studios, and I'm continuing my breed dog breed profiles with the Chesapeake Bay Retriever. Right? That's what you picture in your head when you think about Chesapeake. Just a big dog that's full of life and and just one heck of a retriever.
• 17:47
  It's a hall of fame just like anything else, you know, pro football, baseball. I mean, these dogs are the top dogs of all time. So it's it's really a special place. You know, I I produce Ducks Unlimited television and and our DU Nation series on YouTube, which is really aimed at the same demographic, we're trying, you know, trying to reach the younger audience, who's not necessarily a waterfowl hunter or conservationist, really showing them that Ducks Unlimited is what we do is just a lot more about just that, and clean water and wetlands are are extremely important for all kinds of wildlife and people too. You know, the migration is an incredible thing anyway, and to be in the middle of it is really special.
• 18:29
  I got to see these mallards working those cornfields in South Dakota. It's just it's hanging with me, you know. When you're underneath that as a waterfowl hunter, those memories, you know, last a lifetime. Tell people, man, you just gotta get out there. You gotta go.
• 18:43
  And I'm fired up right now. I just wanna throw on some waiters and run out the door. It's all it's all good. So the first thing I really wanted to talk about is building endurance. Right?
• 18:54
  And the and the fact that you really and, you know, you need to warm dogs up, I think, right before you really start running, you know, long marks, try it's too easy to just pull a dog out of the truck and and go. Right? I mean, I just think people would would benefit from really kinda warming the dog up first. People listening out there, think about it. And think about the fact that you might be cutting his life short because we all love those dogs you know, to pieces and man, it's it's a it's a blow Yeah.
• 19:20
  When you lose one. Right? I mean, it just it it really hurts you, you know, to your core. I've learned a lot and I hope the listeners have learned a lot. Y'all y'all have been, you know, fantastic, really supporting our mission and, being real just, you know, a part of what we do.
• 19:40
  Alright, folks. We can sit here and talk about dogs all day long, but, we're gonna we're gonna wrap it up. Thanks everybody for once again for listening to the Ducks Unlimited podcast and supporting wetlands and waterfowl conservation. I tell people, man, you just gotta get out there. You gotta go.