Hendee: Marcotte happy how far Ducks Unlimited has come

Back in 1957, Bob Marcotte traveled Nebraska for Mutual of Omaha.

He also was state chairman of Ducks Unlimited.

So when he received a letter from a western Nebraska duck hunter inviting him to get together sometime with a few other North Platte River hunters in Bridgeport, Marcotte easily accommodated the request.

"There were six of us," he said. "We sat in chairs in Jack Edwards' garage, drank coffee and ate cupcakes made by his wife, Charlotte. The guys tossed in $5 — and that was it."

The stopover was Marcotte's first solicitation as state chairman. He collected $25 for Ducks Unlimited's waterfowl habitat projects.

"Everybody left feeling like they did something good," Marcotte said. "They didn't do it for themselves. They wanted to give something back."

The Edwards' coffee and cupcake gathering was typical of the motivation of many sportsmen. They had a passion for hunting and a desire to restore and protect wildlife habitat.

It remains true, and it's the conservation model that Ducks Unlimited celebrates Sunday on the 75th anniversary of the organization's founding.

Ducks Unlimited was incorporated during the Dust Bowl era on Jan. 29, 1937, by a few hunters who wanted to safeguard the future of waterfowl, wetlands and waterfowl hunting.

Two decades later, Marcotte was keeping the legacy afloat and ducks in the air — even at $5 a pop.

He has been a DU member and part of its history for six decades. In 1980-81, he was DU's national president. He was a national officer for 28 years.

Ducks Unlimited now is the largest nonprofit organization dedicated to conserving North America's continually disappearing waterfowl habitats. Since its founding, the organization has raised more than $3.3 billion and contributed to the conservation of more than 12.4 million acres in every state, Canada and Mexico.

It was accomplished thanks to contributions from more than a million supporters across the continent, such as those Bridgeport hunters more than 50 years ago.

Marcotte traced DU's success to its volunteers from all walks of life. The tradition of watching a flight of ducks buzz a pond at sunrise is a great equalizer in a duck blind.

The DU saga is about the tens of thousands of volunteers who cannot escape their passion for the outdoors, for wetlands and for the wildlife that inhabits them, said Dale Hall, DU's chief executive in Memphis, Tenn.

"They give their time. They give financially. But most important, they give their hearts," he said. "Without heart, there is no passion. Without passion, there is no volunteer. And without volunteers, there is no Ducks Unlimited."

Marcotte, now 86 and a retired insurance executive who lives in Yutan, started hunting in 1933, the last year waterfowlers were permitted to use live decoys. He is DU's oldest living ex-president and has hunted ducks on five continents.

Local DU chapters across Nebraska host about 85 dinners a year that raise about $1 million for habitat critical to waterfowl breeding and nesting. That money is pooled with funds from other sources to put $16 million into Nebraska habitat projects.

In the late 1950s, DU raised $4,500 to $5,000 a year in Nebraska.

"It was a small organization, but people got together, swapped stories and had fun seeing old friends and making new ones," Marcotte said. "We were dedicated to doing good. If you set about creating wetland habitat that's good for ducks, you create habitat for deer, turkey, fish, frogs, turtles and all kinds of other birds, too. You're creating habitat for all wildlife."

Paul Floersch of Omaha, who was state chairman in 2002-03, used to hunt ducks near Grafton in the Rainwater Basin of south-central Nebraska. He would end up shooting just as many pheasants as ducks before the day was done because the habitat was good for both species.

Floersch said DU has come a long way since the 1960s when he was frustrated by hunters' inability to raise enough money for Nebraska habitat conservation.

"We didn't feel like it did much good," he said, "but it's beautiful to see what's going on in Nebraska now."

As DU took wing, Omaha hosted large fundraising dinners at the Livestock Exchange Building ballroom, Sokol Hall and other venues.

Marcotte recalled stopping to see a major DU contributor in Scottsbluff during the late 1950s. He was clothing store owner L.B. Murphy, who gave $25 a year.

Murphy was at his farm, where he raised exotic birds, when Marcotte visited.

"He's in a pen with the birds and says, 'Well, take off your coat and tie and get in here and help clean out the pen and water and feed the birds, and I'll talk with you,' " Marcotte said.

"He gave me a $25 donation."

Twenty-five years later, Murphy mailed Marcotte a $68,000 gift designated for Ducks Unlimited.

"What we did was make people aware of the importance of wetlands," Marcotte said. "Cleaning out a bird pen can produce results."

Contact the writer:

402-444-1127, david.hendee@owh.com

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