Arkansas Waterfowler Hall of Fame Announces 2022 Inductees

The Museum of the Arkansas Grand Prairie has announced inductees for the 2022 class of the Arkansas Waterfowler Hall of Fame.

An induction ceremony will be held March 2 at the Embassy Suites hotel in Jonesboro.

The inductees include:

• Bill Byers, who settled in Hunter, Arkansas in the early ’40s and in 1953 opened the Hunter Club. Originally 1,800 acres of green timber, he continued to purchase adjoining land as it became available. The Byers Hunter Club still exists today and attracts thousands of waterfowl each winter.
• Gail Camp, a Memphis native, joined the OK Hunting and Fishing Club in Weiner, Arkansas with her husband Frank and built one of the first cabins there. She quickly became a renowned duck caller, going on to win the Women’s State in Tennessee and also competing and placing in other duck calling contests. In 1959 and 1960, Gail competed in the World Championships in Stuttgart and won the Women’s World Championship both years. She won the Herb Parsons International Championship Contest in 1962.
• Dave Donaldson, a former waterfowl biologist for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, was instrumental in the design and implementation of many of the agency’s Greentree Reservoirs, or GTRs, in east and northeast Arkansas. The GTRs include the Black River Wildlife Management Area, as well as Big Lake WMA and Shirey Bay Rainey Brake WMA. He was also a pilot and conducted the first aerial surveys for waterfowl in Arkansas, which provided the agency with a better understanding of waterfowl movements and patterns and helped to identify species and estimate their numbers. Donaldson retired in 1977.

Proceeds from the induction event will benefit the Museum of the Arkansas Grand Prairie in Stuttgart, which houses the Arkansas Waterfowler Hall of Fame. 

“The waterfowl industry in Arkansas is recognized as the best in the nation due to the time and talents these individuals have invested,” Jim Ronquest, chair of the Hall of Fame committee, said in a news release. “The Waterfowler Hall of Fame is an opportunity to highlight significant efforts and impacts of inductees while honoring their legacies.”

The full list of inductees is available on the Hall of Fame’s website.