The PKC Staff Welcomes Brad Durham
Evansville, IN -
Tuesday January 17, 2017
Due to the recent health issues of Jarvis Umphers, I felt that we needed to add an additional representative to fill the position and duties normally handled by him. Jarvis is still having some major health issues, but hopes to rejoin us soon. I’d like to take a moment to ask that everyone please keep Jarvis and Mrs. Joyce in your prayers and ask for his speedy recovery.
I would like to take this opportunity to introduce to the PKC Family the appointment of Brad Durham, as a PKC Field Representative. Brad has graciously agreed to accept this position and all of the PKC Staff and I feel that he is a welcomed addition. Brad lives in Madison, Alabama with his wife Laura and their two daughters; Kiley (7) and Ada (4).
Brad became a member of PKC in 2000, and has been very active as a member and Hunt Director for many years. He is a member of the Good Springs, AL club that hosts the Sunshine Jamboree annually and has been very instrumental in the success of that event. Brad has also helped out with judging many major events, and we all feel that the respect he has earned from his fellow members is very well deserved. Please feel free to contact Brad and congratulate him on his new endeavor and if he can be of any help to anyone, please feel free to contact him at (256) 206-6770. If he is busy at his “daytime job” at the time of your call, please leave a message and he will return your call at his earliest opportunity.
~ Roger Dale
The following is a brief introduction from Brad Durham:
First off I’d like to thank Roger Dale Carnegie and PKC as a whole for asking me and trusting me to be a bigger part of the organization. I would also like to thank Jerry Moll and Tony Secoy for helping me understand the process of the Pro Hunts and for their advice. I look forward to working with all the PKC Staff and also helping the members of PKC.
I, Brad Durham, grew up in the very small community of Lester, Alabama located in the north central part of the state along the Tennessee state line. My childhood was spent roaming the hills, hollows, and creek bottoms of Sugar Creek. We had a dairy farm and milked about 60 Holstein cows until the mid-90s, when my dad took a job at the hospital in Florence, AL. Most of our time was spent working and not going a whole lot of places.
I was introduced to coon hunting at a very young age by a man named Johnny Russell; he has now been coon hunting for almost 60 years. Johnny would come by the house and get me to go hunting on our farm or the adjoining farm. Then my two older brothers, Brent and Todd, got into hunting a lot when I was probably 11 or 12 and I would tag along with them. As they graduated high school my brothers stopped hunting but I continued. One of my good friends, Jeremy Wilkes, and I had two good dogs but didn’t really know what we had at the time. We hunted probably 60 nights in a row in the summer of our senior year in high school, only missing one night when we attended a friend’s funeral. Another person that I hunted with a lot growing up is Drew Schrimsher. Drew and I have known each other pretty much since he was born. Both Jeremy and Drew were influential in my love for hunting in general. With respect to competition hunting, the most influential person to me is Matt Poff, he carried me on my first hunt and he started the club at Good Springs, AL in the mid-1990s. Matt and his brother Trent (Bubba) had some nice hounds when we were younger and they hunted the hunts a good bit, so I was able to tag along with them to those. Then Jeremy Wilkes introduced me to James Wright III at the UKC Winter Classic one year. He eventually trusted me to hunt the best dog I’ve ever unsnapped off of my lead, Wipeout Chiller. We did a good bit of winning with Chiller and probably could have done a lot more if we would have pushed him more when he was younger.
Once I graduated high school I left home to attend Auburn University, where my two older brothers were at the time. All of us graduated from Auburn and so did all of our wives. My wife is not from a similar background as mine but she has adapted very well and now we have two great daughters, Kiley (7) and Ada Louise (4). She has put up with me being gone a whole lot and has done a great job helping me with the dogs. Kiley is at the age now were she is wanting to go hunting a lot, she helps me most everyday feeding and watering, and now we, together, are trying to train a small pup.
I worked part time while I was in school for USDA and the College of Agriculture. I received my degree in Agriculture Economics and Business and a minor in Agronomy and Soils. Upon graduation I was offered a job at a Research and Extension Center back close to home, so I took it and I have been at that job ever since. It is an 800 acre research station that I help manage that includes: research on all row crops and row crop systems grown in the Tennessee Valley region, precision agriculture machinery, precision irrigation systems, and an educational herd of cattle. I also help many local farmers with irrigation systems and improve water efficiency to reduce the amount of water that is being used. I am a certified Agricultural Irrigation Specialist through the Irrigation Association along with a Certified Crop Consultant. Along with all of that I still help my father and his brother with our beef cattle herds and approximately 200 acres of hay.
I have continued to hunt and plan to for a long time. I have been blessed to have good partnerships with Justin Murphy and Charlie McMeans on a few dogs recently. Our current dog is Wood Whiddlin’ Wipeout Cloey, she finished in the top 4 of the state hunt this last year and we have won a few pro hunt casts with her. She will also be competing in the senior truck hunt next month.
There are so many people, that if I started naming people I would miss someone, that have helped me and I have met so many great people through this sport. I want to continue to develop those friendships and make many more. Again thanks to everyone for helping me.
Sincerely,
Brad Durham