Jimmie E. Wood (born August 14, 1934 - died March 20, 2023)

In the shadow of the American Dust Bowl, with the Great American Depression in full swing, Jimmie E. Wood was born in 1934 to a farmer and sawmiller, Leslie E. Wood and his wife Hazel Berry Wood in a two room house on the side of one of the most beautiful mountains in Arkansas.  Jimmie had two siblings; his older sister Emmelene Wood Kerr (deceased)(husband Dr. Harold Kerr - deceased) and his younger his brother; David Wood, who survives Jimmie still with the generous help of his loving wife and Jimmie's sister-in-law Helen Pfeifer Wood.  Jimmie loved his wife; Joy Green Wood (deceased) for 53 years, equally loved their daughters; Dr. Nanci Wood-Huels (husband Dr. Stan Huels) and Dr. Lesli Joy Wood (wife Ms. Sue Schrader), and his many nieces and nephews; Gina Wood Guerian and Michael Wood, Philip Kerr and Nathan Kerr, Tiffany Southard Hoffman and Dustin Southard, Robin Balloun Marple, and Lyn Partain Haralson and Robert Partain.  However, Jimmie reserved a special love for and shared a bond with his two grandsons; Marcus James Huels and Matthew Leslie Huels (wife Alexis Teichmiller Huels). Jimmie spent their childhood loading birdshot, baitin' hooks and grillin' burgers, but his most important lessons were the lessons on the importance of education.  He always emphasized that knowledge was something no one could ever take away from you, and Jim backed his words up with funds to seed their success. They have made GPJ proud.

Jimmie served in the Army Signal Corp for two years during the period 1957 -1959, sliding in between the Korean War and the Vietnam Conflict.  To Jim, timing was everything.  He fondly remembered his buddies in the service and was, for the first time in his life introduced to fellow service men of color working equally alongside him.  When riding back from training in Washington to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, the bus stopped to let on a black serviceman.  The bus driver told the man that he needed to "...go to the back of the back of the bus".  The young man took one look at all the seats in the front of the bus and the lack of seats in the back half and stood there.  Jim scooted over to the window, patted the seat next to his and said to the fellow soldier "You can sit next to me".  The bus driver was extremely unhappy with that, and glared at them refusing to move until the young man eventually went to the back of the bus. Thus began Jim's long career of pissing off people who thought that they were empowered to treat people as lessors.

Jimmie and his wife Joy moved to California in 1959 to train as a power plant electrician with Edison Power. He carried with him his love of huntin' and fishin', introducing many colleagues to his environmental enthusiasm. A position opened up with the Corp of Engineers in a newly built powerstation and dam in Dardanelle Arkansas and Jimmie moved back home in 1969 to the hills of Arkansas.   This move made his family very happy and his kids got to grow up in the fields and streams of the Arkansas mountains.

With Jim's arrival in 1969, he launched in to building an armada of friends and associates that would spend the next 54 years hunting and fishing their way across North America; from Alaska, to Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.  The Wood brother's Wood Sporting Good store opened on Highway 7 in the heart of Dardanelle and became the hangout for sportsmen from all around, and the initiation site of way too many fantastical rumors of giant fish, sightings of "Paul Bunyan-sized" deer, and discussions of flights of ducks and geese thick as mosquitos.  Jim climbed with Pelt to the top of the world to bag a Rocky Mountain Bighorn Ram, and tracked a Bear through the Wyoming snow that was trying to steal the Arkansas-Wyoming bunch's Elk meat.  Although most have passed away, I am sure Woodsey and his buddies are sitting around a campfire somewhere laughing at Joe McCurdy complainin' about the cold or wondering how Joe Murphy can snore the paint off a barn without his head exploding or gut-bust laughin' at Freddy's lack of Concho-handlin' skills .

A person's life is short and, as Dad would say "It is important that you leave the world better than you found it when you got here ".  Jimmie served the Yell County Wildlife Federation, the Arkansas Wildlife Federation and the National Wildlife Federation for over 50 years.  He engrained a love of wild things and wild places in his children, his grandchildren and all those around him.  He knew that someone needed to fight the battles for those who were unable to battle for themselves and he did not shirk from jumping into a good battle.  He came at problems confident that he had solutions and that his solutions were viable and should be heard.  Jimmie knew that the everyday man had the right to be heard and never let the institution of government tell him differently.  He fought institutional entitlement with a snapping turtle-like persistence that would wear the slickest lawyer to a nub.   He was always willing to put his time and money behind a good politician if he felt that their heart was in the right place.  Dad was always on call for Dardanelle Former-Mayor Caroline McGee or individuals from Washington to California if they were fighting the good fight for the environment.

Jimmie Wood was a Son of the American Revolution, a proud ancestor of Obiediah Wood and all those who came after him.  He had a deep respect for the history of his family and others because he knew what battles had been fought to make the life that he and his family enjoyed. He was a son, a father, a brother, and an uncle.   He was a husband to Joy and the one that she loved to her last breath.  He was a master and huntin' buddy to his dogs Windy, Breezy, Lizzy and Ana Bell, a friend to Princess and was an undeniable life long friend to Cleo.   He was a hunter conservationist, a friend to those who shared his love of the world around him, a humorist, a respecter of all human life, a historian and a thorn in the side of many a government lawyer and regulationist.  Jimmie left the world a better place than when he arrived 89 years ago.  We all need to take a page from his trappers journal.

Memorial services will be held at 2:00P.M., Saturday, July 1, 2023 at the Yell County Wildlife Federation Building.

Arrangements by Cornwell Funeral Home in Dardanelle. Online Guest Book and Condolences at www.cornwellfuneralhomes.com