The sounds hailing waterfowl of Stuttgart's own pied piper, Harry Milton "Butch" Richenback, will forever be a part of the history of the Grand Prairie and the world.
Too-ka, tick-a, dig-ga, doo-ga, kit-ty, get, ty. Hut, hoot, ooot, quick, quit, doit, dwit.
Richenback -- a multiple world championship duck caller, tireless youth coach and world-renowned duck-call artisan -- died Monday at Baptist Health Medical Center in Stuttgart after a long battle with cancer. He was 68.
Born in Stuttgart on July 11, 1946, Richenback was 11 when he became the junior champion duck caller in 1957. In 1972, he took the world championship, and in 1975, he took home the top honor of becoming the champion of champions duck caller, an award given every five years.
Richenback also sat on the southeast Arkansas town's City Council for eight years before serving as the elected mayor from 1994 to 2006.
Thousands from around the nation and the world converge on Stuttgart each Thanksgiving weekend for the World Championship Duck Calling Contest, which began in 1936 and has grown to be the culmination of preliminary contests from around the nation and Canada.
Richenback's handprint on the institution is indelible.
Since he initiated the Stuttgart Youth Duck Calling Clinic in 1969 and the Youth Duck Calling Contest in 1975, Richenback spent thousands of hours mentoring young boys and girls in the sport, many of whom went on to claim world championships themselves.
"It was often the first introduction a young person would have to blowing a duck call," said Stephen Bell, the president and chief executive officer of the Arkadelphia Regional Economic Development Alliance.
Bell first met Richenback when Bell was in high school, then worked with him for 18 years when Bell was the executive director of the Stuttgart Chamber of Commerce.
"Most of the kids were scared of him when they would start the class because he wanted the kids to learn to respect their parents and other adults. But by the end of the class, they realized he cared about them and he was teaching them a valuable lesson -- one that would influence many of them for the rest of their lives," Bell added.
Richenback's influence was iconic, said Bill Free, a friend of Richenback's who has led the Wings Over the Prairie festival for 14 years.
"I've stepped back and watched these folks who aren't even from Stuttgart. They would only see him about once a year, but they just idolize him. They think he can walk on water," Free said.
Free's daughter, Shelby -- a two-time women's world champion with numerous youth titles in the sport -- was coached by Richenback for most of her life.
"I can't tell you how many times we would go over to his house. He would sit in his recliner while Shelby blew the call from the back room," Bill Free said, laughing. "He'd holler out, 'Do it again!' over and over again. She would get so frustrated. Then he'd say, 'All right, you do that, you'll win tomorrow.'
"It was the little things. It's basically blowing a musical instrument. He would break it down and make it simple."
Will McBride, a former student and friend of Richenback's, said the youths whom Richenback took under his wing were "his children." Richenback never married and did not have any children.
"Butch was one of the most unique people I've ever met. He knew the dynamics of a duck call and how to use it to make sounds no one else could," McBride said. "There is no way to adequately pay tribute to such a great man. He was a deeply cherished friend and a true legend, the last of a dying breed. Duck calling will never be the same."
In 1976, Richenback picked up a block of wood and whittled it into Rich-N-Tone Duck Calls, which today sells more than 70,000 duck calls a year. He sold the business in 1999 to his former student and multiple-time world championship duck caller John Stephens, but Richenback was a daily presence in the business until his death.
"The greatest thing he liked to do was teaching kids the art of duck calls," Stephens said. "He always said that kids' minds were like sponges and weren't full of bad habits yet. I think he enjoyed working with kids more than he did duck calling."
Stephens said he and John Ronquest, also a world championship duck caller, will continue Richenback's legacy of the six-week youth duck-calling clinic each fall.
"Butch could just get into a kid's head, and they would just love him," Ronquest said. "I try to use the same techniques, but it doesn't work as well for me as it did for Butch. Continuing the clinics is carrying on Butch's legacy. That's a tradition that we can't let go. There's just going to be a big hole with Butch gone."
State Desk on 07/01/2015