Remembering Marion McCollum owner of Stuttgart's Mack's Prairie Wings

STUTTGART, Ark. - Many around the nation know Stuttgart Arkansas as the duck capital of the world.

"When duck hunters come to Arkansas they want to come to Mack's and they want to meet Marion as well," said former Arkansas Game and Fish commissioner, George Dunklin.

For that reason, many are morning the loss of Marion McCollum, the owner of the famous Mack's Prairie Wings waterfowl store.

McCollum passed away Thursday, June 22 from cardiac arrest at the age of 81.

With tears in his eyes, Dunklin says "Marion was a guy you thought would live forever. He was bigger than life."

Dunklin is the owner of Five Oaks Lodge and says he met Marion McCollum in 1988 as he needed assistance with work.

Dunklin remembers vividly the first words McCollum said to him. They were "What can I do to help," with a smile followed by a firm handshake. That was the state of Dunklin and McCollum's 40-plus-year relationship.

Dunklin says this was the way McCollum was all the time, to his family, friends, employees and customers.

Chuck Lock is the manager of Mack's Prairie Wings.

Mr. McCollum gave him a job when he was 15 years old, and he's been here for 47 years.

Lock says McCollum was the most generous man he'd ever known.

"He loved me like a son, and I loved him like a dad," Lock said.

The store was founded in 1944 by McCollum's father M.T., with Marion joining the enterprise in 1961.

Along with running Mack's, McCollum served as the Game and Fish commissioner from 1995 - 2002.

Dunklin says it was McCollum that encouraged him to become Game and Fish commissioner in 2005

The family is asking for gifts in lieu of flowers to Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation, the Marion McCollum endowment fund at the foundation to support Arkansas youth shooting sports, or the First Methodist Church in Stuttgart.

"He leaves an amazing legacy here on the grand prairie, Stuttgart for all of us to live up to," Lock said.

from KARK https://ift.tt/m9pqZz2