Former AGFC Director Hugh Durham Dies

LITTLE ROCK – Former Arkansas Game and Fish Commission director Hugh C. Durham IV, 51, died June 6 at his home in Ruston, La. Durham left International Paper Co. in 2000 to become AGFC director. He also was a member of the governor’s cabinet and on the state Pollution Control and Ecology Commission.

Durham left state government in 2003 and became a co-owner of Hornet Limited Liability Co., which provides fire-suppression and fire-management services to the forest products industry. He was general manager of operations, development and human resources at Devine Wine and Spirits in Ruston at the time of his death.

Hugh Durham was born in Natchitoches, La., Jan. 25, 1963. He graduated from Louisiana Tech University in 1987 with a bachelor’s degree in forestry, concentrating in wildlife management. He joined The Crawford Forestry Group in Shreveport in 1987 as a consultant developing and implementing forest management plans for non-industrial landowners in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas.

Durham went to work for IP in 1990 as a timberlands wildlife biologist in Arkadelphia. He managed the wildlife and hunting lease business on 500,000 acres of industrial forest. He was promoted to a leadership position in the environment/wildlife section of IP’s Natural Resources Group. He was responsible for endangered species management, inventory and policy for more than 6 million acres of company land throughout the U.S

In 1996, Durham was promoted to regional manager of public affairs in the company’s Jackson, Miss., office. He was responsible for lobbying the Mississippi and Tennessee legislatures and congressional delegations on labor, tax, land use, forestry and environmental regulatory issues on behalf of IP.

Durham is survived by his spouse, Carol Dreyfuss; sons Reed Michael Durham and Mason Lawrence Durham; daughters Leanne Rozelle and Carley Jill Bowman; grandchildren Colby Bowman and Casey Bowman, and his sister, Sharon Tunney Durham. He was preceded in death by his parents, Hugh C. Durham III and Charlotte Tunney Durham.