Volunteer for Ducks Unlimited

A Louisiana Conservation Legend

Courtesy of Richard Lipsey (From left) Dr. Luke Laborde, Jay Dardenne, Richard Lipsey, and Scott Gunning at the 100-year-old Oak Grove Hunting Club in Creole, Louisiana.   Richard Lipsey is one of the founding members of the Baton Rouge, Louisiana, chapter of Ducks Unlimited, established in 1961. Richard has lived a very full and rewarding life. A former military aide and first lieutenant in the Army, he was part of the team that stood guard during President John F. Kennedy’s autopsy and while the slain president’s body lay in state. An avid hunter, Richard is also a survivor of a close encounter with a polar bear while on a hunt in northern Siberia. He is patriarch of the country’s largest independently owned, single-location firearms distributor, aptly named Lipsey’s. Besides his family, his greatest passion is spending time at Oak Grove, a legendary duck hunting lodge in Creole, Louisiana. Richard’s father, Joe Lipsey Sr., moved the family from Alabama to Baton Rouge in 1943 to run the family business, Steinberg and Company. Business frequently took them to southwest Louisiana, where Joe became an avid duck hunter. During their hunts, Richard and his family often stayed with friends in Creole, leading them to meet Win Hawkins, a prominent businessman from Lafayette. In the 1950s, after a hurricane destroyed the Oak Grove camp, Win rebuilt it, and in the process he and the Lipseys became great friends. Win was so proud of Joe and