Bobby Glover

Delta donor Bobby Glover is the definition of self-made success. During high school, he worked summers for a ready-mix plant in Beaufort, South Carolina. After graduating from the University of South Carolina, he began his career as a certified public accountant and saw an opportunity to buy the plant where he had worked. He put together a group and bought it in 1985. Through the next 20 years, he added 15 more operations to his portfolio. In 2006, he sold the company and found his way into real estate, specializing in timber and conservation lands. All considered, he's enjoyed tremendous business success.

Yet today, at 62, Glover is most proud and enthusiastic about his avocation as a "pond builder." He started building waterfowl impoundments in 2002 and continues today. In fact, the interview for this article caught him at his cabin in Strauss, Kansas, waiting out the weather so he could get back to work.

Glover has created and reclaimed duck habitat in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri, and Kansas. He estimates he has worked on dozens of projects resulting in more than 5,000 acres of wetlands - and the total is still growing. In the past year, he says he put in more than 1,000 hours each in the seat of his excavator and his tractor. Project areas he donated to the South Carolina Waterfowl Association have become wildlife management areas - one bearing his name.

Glover's passion for waterfowl hunting and conservation was largely self-made, too, in his teen years in Beaufort. No one in his family hunted, but he joined his buddies hunting in high school and became hooked for life. Today, he has two grown sons with whom he enjoys hunting as often as he can.

Looking ahead to the future of waterfowl hunting, Glover said, "It's worrisome that kids seem less oriented toward the outdoors. I think that's the biggest threat to waterfowl and waterfowl hunters because it's the hunters who care about changes that impact the birds and all wildlife. When you don't have hunters or people tuned into the outdoors, no one is monitoring it and eventually you don't have any funding to address problems when they are spotted. That's the biggest headwind."

His favorite duck is the mallard, and his dream day of hunting is typical of many greenhead fans.

"Make it a day that's sunny, light winds, in the timber with enough mallards trickling in over four or five hours," Glover said. "That's perfect for me."

The day also likely includes his favorite hunting companion, Dave Wielicki, a waterfowl biologist and executive director of the SCWA. Wielicki was a Delta student in the 1980s and is responsible for introducing Glover to Delta Waterfowl.

Glover's generous support of Delta Waterfowl is primarily directed toward Predator Management.

"I asked Dave (Wielicki) where I could put a donation that would do the most good to at least put back the ducks we're taking or, better yet, make even more ducks," Glover said. "He pointed me at Delta's Predator Management as the best bang for the buck."

He likes the tangibility of Delta's Predator Management and its positive impact on all kinds of wildlife.

"It's something I can really get my arms around. That's what I like about Delta," Glover said. "They are proactive about making things happen. Everybody can't just talk about it. Somebody's got to do it!" - Bill Miller