It took a lifetime of perseverance, determination, resourcefulness and salesmanship, not to mention some agility in politics and finance. Arkansas's status today with deer, bear, and wild turkey are Gene Rush's legacy.

His father was killed in a flood when Rush was a toddler and school was a struggle, but Rush made it, working his was through two years at Arkansas Tech then two more and a biology degree at the University of Arkansas in 1940.

He started to work for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission than had to take time off for service in the Army Air Corps in World War II. He participated in the Commission's survey of Arkansas wildlife, even taking his wife and children with him on dawn dove counts (5a.m.), before the youngsters went to school.

Rush was a key player in the deer restoration which began in the late 1930's, then he was a leader in the restoration of turkeys in the 1940's, 1950's, and 1960's.

Bringing the black bear back may have been his high-water mark. He developed the idea, sold it,  than led the hands-on work, including arduous truck trips to Minnesota, Wisconsin and Ontario to trap and bring bears to the Ozarks. Today Arkansas's bear program has been hailed as the nation's best rebuilding of a large animal population.

The benefits to sportsmen are not the only mark Gene Rush left on Newton County, however. He was long active in Boy Scout work and helped create Camp Orr west of Jasper on the Buffalo National River, a Boy Scout camp that remains a popular center of summer activities for the entire region. Rush was given the Silver Beaver Award in recognition of his years of service to scouting.

He became chief of wildlife management for the Game and Fish Commission and instrumental in acquiring land for management areas and public use in all parts of Arkansas. The wildlife management area on the Buffalo River in the Hasty area adjoining the Rush Family lands carries his name.

Rush died in 1989, a month short of his 50th. wedding anniversary. He is survived by his wife Jeanne, of Jasper, three children, seven grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.