The Legacy Award will be posthumously presented to Andy Simmons, a lifelong outdoor enthusiast who made history when he named the Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation in his estate, resulting in one of the largest single gifts ever received by AGFF. As a lasting tribute, the Foundation turned the gifted property into the Andy Simmons Outdoor Skills Farm, which opened in October 2023, as a way of perpetuating Andy’s legacy of conservation and outdoor recreation to future generations of Arkansans.

The Mayfly Project was founded in 2015 in Arkansas by Jess and Laura Westbrook, with the vision of using fly fishing as an important tool to support children in foster care. In 2016, the project evolved into a national program when Jess and Laura partnered with Idaho-based mental health professional Kaitlin Barnhart, who shared the same passion for helping children heal through fly fishing. Together they developed the National TMP program. The Mayfly Project’s mission is to support youth in foster care through fly fishing, helping them build confidence, find healing, and connect to their local waters. 

Lochmann has been a professor of Fisheries Management and Ecology at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff for 30 years. Dr. Lochman’s teaching and research efforts have produced many biologists for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Fisheries Division as well as AGFC Chief of Staff Chris Racey and Deputy Director Ben Batten. In 2016, he was recognized with the Joe Hogan Award for outstanding leadership and strong commitment to Arkansas’s fisheries and aquatic resources by the Arkansas Chapter of the American Fisheries Society.

Daniel is the executive director of Darby’s Warrior Support, providing a lifeline for countless post-9/11 Special Operations combat veterans dealing with the physical and emotional aftermath of their service to the nation. DWS delivers all-inclusive Arkansas hunting and fishing opportunities in a safe environment fulfilling its mission of giving back to these heroes by giving them a place to heal with camaraderie and Understanding.

A lifelong outdoorsman and well-known entrepreneur, Ronquest has helped develop two of the mid-South’s Arkansas’s most iconic outdoor brands. Following a long and distinguished career with Rich-N-Tone duck calls of Stuttgart, he’s now vice president, development with Mississippi-based Drake Waterfowl, a manufacturer of technical hunting and fishing apparel. Ronquest also won the World’s Championship Duck Calling Contest in 2006.

Both country kids from Missouri, Larry and Brenda Potterfield turned their passion for shooting sports into a career by opening a small gun shop in 1977 that would eventually become MidwayUSA (midwayusa.com). Built on family values like honesty, integrity and respect for others, they strive to maintain this culture with each employee added to their growing team. They take a similar approach in their philanthropic efforts through the MidwayUSA Foundation, established in 2007 to provide sustainable funding to youth shooting sports teams across the nation.

The family behind the highly successful Morrell® Targets, the Morrell name has come to mean quality, innovation and above all, community-mindedness and commitment to the sport of archery. Recognized as the gold standard of targets in the U.S., the Morrell Corporation is relentlessly focused on investing in future generations of archers through the National Archery in the Schools Program and Archers USA’s Varsity Archery. In addition, Dale Morrell created Archers USA, which is taking root across America.

For years the state’s foremost ecologist, Tom Foti is widely credited with bringing science to the natural area preservation movement in Arkansas. His career with the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission resulted in the creation of several important natural areas in the state, particularly in the West Gulf Coastal Plain of southwestern Arkansas and served as a model for similar efforts nationwide.

Recognizing the problem of hunger in the state, Barringer founded Arkansas Hunters Feeding the Hungry in 2000 to help connect a portion of harvested deer with those in need. Shortly thereafter, Ritter signed on to lead the mission-driven organization. Today, Arkansas Hunters Feeding the Hungry has processed and distributed tens of thousands of pounds of meat to needy families.

Wimberly, a Louisiana native, moved to Arkansas in 1980, buying the iconic Turner Bend Store in Mulberry a year later. Since then, he’s worked tirelessly to preserve the area’s natural resources, co-founding the Mulberry River Society which promotes outdoor conservation, appreciation, recreation, education and stewardship.