 Many Tennesseans will never know the name or the man Jim Range, and that is their loss. Jim's career and impact on conservation in America has been enormous. Jim was born in Butler, Tennessee and grew up in Johnson City. He attended Tulane University, Tennessee Technological University where he received his Masters in Fisheries and his doctor of Juris Prudence from the University of Miami. This upbringing and education, along with Jim's passion for the outdoors, allowed him to successfully champion major conservation achievements during his lifetime. Rarely does passion, education and ability come together in a person - it certainly did for Jim. For those of us who knew Jim, I feel it safe to say he made our lives better. Jim, you will be deeply missed.
Michael A. Butler, CEO
Tennessee Wildlife Federation
For more information on the incredible contribution Jim made to our nation's conservation efforts, please click the read more below and read the press release from Jim's friends at TRCP.
Release courtesy of the Teddy Roosevelt Conservation Partnership - for more information please go to www.jimrange.com
WASHINGTON – With supreme sadness, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership today announced that its Chairman, James D. Range, passed away yesterday morning at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., after a brief battle with cancer. He was 63.
Throughout his career, Range was a tireless champion for the America’s fish and wildlife resources. Perhaps best known as a long-time advisor to former Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker who helped shaped several of our country’s landmark environmental laws, Range also was known personally to countless people as a beloved confidant, friend and mentor.
“Jim Range was a dedicated, loyal and trusted member of my staff who helped to fashion some of this country's most vital environmental legislation,” Sen. Baker said. “I will miss Jim’s counsel, but more importantly, I will miss him.”
At the time of his death, Range worked as senior policy advisor in the law firm of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz. Apart from chairing the board of the TRCP, an organization he helped to found, Range’s involvement within the American conservation community was monumental. He served on the boards of directors of Trout Unlimited, Ducks Unlimited, the Wetlands America Trust, the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation, the American Sportfishing Association, the American Bird Conservancy, the Pacific Forest Trust, the Yellowstone Park Foundation, and the Bonefish and Tarpon Trust.
“Jim Range was the most ardent conservationist I’ve ever known, as he never restricted problem solving to traditional means,” said TRCP Board Member Marc Pierce. “Jim was about producing results for the American sportsman, period. And you never had to guess what he was thinking!”
An original board member and Chair of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Range also was a White House appointee to the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin, the Sportfishing and Boating Partnership Council and the Valles Caldera Trust.
In 2003, Range received the U.S. Department of the Interior's Great Blue Heron Award, the highest honor given to an individual at the national level by the Department. He was also awarded the 2003 Outdoor Life Magazine Conservationist of the Year Award and the Norville Prosser Lifetime Achievement Award presented by the American Sportfishing Association.
Range was profiled by Time magazine in 2005 for his efforts to expand the availability of conservation easements, and a Wall Street Journal story that same year highlighted Range’s successful efforts to engineer the rollback of an excise tax that was unintentionally placing American fly rod manufacturers at a huge competitive disadvantage.
Range enjoyed a wide variety of outdoor activities, but loved hunting and fishing the most. He pursued both passions all over the world but ended up falling in love with Montana and its trout and game birds. He spent as much time as he could at his property on the Missouri River in Craig, Montana, the Flyway Ranch. Range graciously hosted many important events over the years for leaders from political, business, non-governmental organization and media circles. It was his personal bastion of respite as he found relief from his many commitments and busy schedule on the waters of the Missouri River with a fly rod in his hands.
“Jim Range has given me so many such rich and wonderful memories afield,” said Matthew B. Connolly Jr., president emeritus of the TRCP. “He’s also helped give American sportsmen cleaner water, more habitat and greater opportunities to pursue the joys of the chase than one can find in any other nation on earth.”
“The measure of any man’s life is did he leave things better than he found them,” said Matt Hogan of the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies, a TRCP board member. “There is simply no debate that Jim Range has left things far better than he found them. The conservation community has lost a giant and we have lost a dear friend.”
“Jim saw a changing world in which the voices of hunters and anglers were being overshadowed by people and interests who don't hold the same reverence for ducks in flight at sunrise or elk bugling in the fall,” said TRCP Board Member Dr. Rollin Sparrowe. “With his characteristic energy, he convinced colleagues and friends to form the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership in the tradition of our 26th president to speak with a louder voice to assure the future of fish and wildlife and hunting and fishing. This will be one of Jim's most enduring legacies.” |
Conservation Giant and Tennessee Son James D. Range Dies at 63
