When I met Butch Richenback many years ago, the first thing I noticed was the throng of children that always seemed to surround him.
They hung on his every word, and they jostled to be closest to him.
For everything Richenback meant to competitive duck calling and to custom duck calls, his devotion to the youth of Stuttgart will be his most enduring legacy.
"He helped raise a lot of kids out at the youth recreation center, including my three," said Linda Nosler, a former Stuttgart resident who now lives in Holly Grove. "He was important to so many people."
Richenback, founder of Rich-N-Tone calls, died Monday at age 68 after a long battle with cancer. He'd had portions of lung removed and could no longer undergo chemotherapy or radiation treatment, said Bill Free, the longtime executive director of the Wings Over the Prairie Festival. He also had a heart transplant, which seems fitting in a way because one heart couldn't hold all the love he had for the young people of his community.
"He was on his second heart, but his first and second heart both were bigger than the whole Grand Prairie," Free said. "He had a unique personality. He was pretty gruff, but he was always special with kids."
Brad Allen of Judsonia was one of Richenback's proteges. He won the World's Championship Duck Calling Contest in 2010, 2012 and 2013. He said he didn't much like Richenback at first, but they became very close.
"I didn't like him for a long time," Allen said. "After I started using his duck calls and I started working with him and got to know him on a personal level, Butch was kind of like the big brother I never had. I can't put into words what he meant to me. He was like family."
Richenback was salty with a pool cue. When he was younger, a shark came to town and tried to hustle the guys at the pool hall.
"It wasn't long before Butch pretty much had all his money," Allen said. "The guy decided to push Butch a little harder, and soon Butch had his car, as well.
That left the hapless hustler stranded, so Butch gave him back his car back and some of his money. Some, not all.
"The guy thought he was a better pool player, and Butch had to prove him wrong," Allen said. "He was tough on the poor guy on the front end, but in the end he was all heart."
Shelby Free, Bill Free's daughter, was another Richenback protege. Long after Rich-N-Tone became an industry standard, young Shelby once asked Richenback if he could still make a call the old-fashioned way, by hand. Bill Free was there.
"Why, hell yeah," replied Richenback, according to Bill.
So he made a call on the spot, the same call with which Shelby won the last two of her four Women's World Championships.
"There were a couple of championships where guys just begged her to at least let them use that call, but she never gave it up," Bill said. "I'll bet there's a thousand stories like that about him."
Jimbo Ronquest of Stuttgart won the World's Championship in 2006 and was very close to Richenback. In fact, he was writing Richenback's obituary for the Stuttgart newspaper when we talked Tuesday. Ronquest said Richenback was a natural teacher who had the ability to make an individual sound distinctive with a duck call. Individuality is key to impressing judges.
"He had these drills he'd make you do," Ronquest said. "He'd wear you out when he turned the heat on. I made the mistake of saying I couldn't do it one time. He popped me on the head with this big stick of acrylic and said, 'Don't ever say you can't!'"
For all his prowess with a duck call, Ronquest said Richenback wasn't much of a duck hunter.
"I hate to say that, but he wasn't," Ronquest said. "He hunted with some of his friends from DeWitt quite a bit, and he hunted with us a few times. He wasn't much of a hunter, but he was one heck of a duck caller."
For many years Richenback coached youth baseball, a sport in which excellence depends on precise eye-hand coordination. When Ted Williams was at bat, his eye was so sharp that major-league umpires wouldn't call a strike if Williams didn't swing.
Richenback had that gift, too. If Richenback said he shot a duck, then he shot the duck.
Nobody argued.
Sports on 07/02/2015