The phone call initially seemed the same as countless others, but it was the beginning of my relationship with a remarkable man who I would never have the honor to meet in person.
I received a call from David McCormick on April 24, 2007, regarding his desire to do a conservation easement on his recently purchased 1,200-acre ranch on the western flanks of Wyoming’s Bighorn Mountains. After only a few minutes on the phone, it seemed as though I had known David for years. This was not an individual who wanted to know all the tax ramifications of a conservation easement. He didn’t ask what was in it for him from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. No, he was very clear about his intentions in that first discussion. He wanted his ranch protected forever.
The protection was not just for his wife Debra and children: Caleigh, Joshua and Reilly. It was also for many other members of the McCormick family who shared his passion for the wildlife and open ranges of the West. It was for future generations that could share the land he had been able to acquire through hard work and conviction in both his private and business life.
I jumped on this project with a vengeance, as I could tell the person on the other end of the telephone was in this deal for all the right reasons. We had several phone conversations about the easement, and I set all the wheels in motion. David was very organized in his intentions and punctual in sending me the information needed and we were proceeding fast and furious. I felt we could wrap this easement up by late summer. Then David abruptly quit returning my phone calls.
After several calls, I decided to send an email instead. Almost immediately, the telephone rang. It was David’s wife Debra. With a broken voice and heart, Deb said that David had been killed in a plane crash. He had been on a business trip, and it appeared that a structural problem with the plane led to the disaster. Deb also said there were several very close friends and business associates in the plane at the time of the accident, with no survivors.
What do you say at a time like that? I have a woman on the other end of the line with a very young son who will never know his dad, and a family that has lost someone they love in the prime of his life. With a huge lump in my throat, I stammered out an apology. A very close friend of mine died at a similar age 20 years ago, almost to the day, so I had some inkling of the feelings Deb was about to go through.
After I hung up the phone, I was overwhelmed. I reflected on what I do for the Elk Foundation in the lands and conservation department and how special the landowners are who I work with on a daily basis. The work of protecting land involves mostly happy moments, with dedicated people trying to conserve a piece of country they love and to pass on their vision for it into the future.
In that first conversation with Deb, she indicated with solid conviction that she wanted to complete this conservation easement, regardless of the current circumstances. She left no doubt that the feeling her late husband had about the land and Wyoming was jointly held.
A few weeks after our conversation, Deb and I toured their ranch. At each stopping point along the north and south forks of Beaver Creek, she told stories about how she and David had so enjoyed the hands-on effort of ranch activity. She laughed as she related that he had actually taken the hands off the clock in their ranch house so time would not dictate their daily events.
Deb said that she and David were high school sweethearts who went their separate ways for many years until a death in her family and a high school reunion brought them back together almost two decades later. We talked about David’s belief that it wasn’t necessarily a college degree that defined a person, but honesty and hard work. He was an entrepreneur, starting his own very successful company McC Inc., McCormick Construction in 1992. As his business endeavors flourished, he supported the shop programs in local high schools and trade schools by purchasing and donating new welders, plasma cutters and band saws for kids to use in those classrooms. David was a man who lived by six simple words: Always give more than you take. Deb plans to continue this commitment to the community and friendships which were vital to both of them.
As we walked the ranch it became clear that Deb and David were a team in every sense. Accomplished in her own right, Deb had worked for years in Belgium at the NATO offices, where she dealt with military and civilian personnel all the way up to the Vice President of the United States. Her organized and determined personality allowed the Elk Foundation to complete the process of protecting the McCormick’s ranch with a donated conservation easement in 2007. Along the way many of us got to know a very special woman.
Trying to pick up the pieces after a tragedy like this is overwhelming, but Deb’s strength has allowed her to run a complex, multiple-business entity, keep a family grounded and complete this project, come hell or high water!
But Deb and I didn’t travel the path toward completing her easement alone. After I hung up from her first call, I started toward a goal that would not be possible without help from many key people. First Kelley Hodges and Courtney McCormick, David’s sister and brother who I met at the ranch, gave me a deeper sense of what this family was all about. This only grew when I met Sam, Kelley’s youngest son, who has three brothers currently serving in Iraq and one who was severely wounded there and was medically discharged.
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David McCormick 1962 - 2007 |
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Then came my first contact with Deb’s friend Amy Agricola, who has been an understanding heart on the other end of conversations with Deb, and who also has helped me through “heads up” phone calls in trying to make this complex easement process as easy as possible on the family. In addition, there are the silent partners we work with on the many elements of a conservation easement who literally put this project at the top of their lists once they understood the circumstances. Included are Jennifer Bahnfleth, Sally Johnson, Eldon Ayers, Gretchen Hurley and Janet Urlacher, all of whom have helped beyond the call of duty to protect another great piece of Wyoming. It is these kinds of quietly dedicated, big-hearted people who make it possible for the Elk Foundation to fulfill its mission.
Land projects with folks like David and Deb McCormick are permanent efforts for which our children, grandchildren and generations to come can be thankful long after all of our names are forgotten. David will now always be part of the hawk on the wing soaring above Beaver Creek and the bull’s bugle ringing out over the spot where he has found his final resting place.
For more information on Conservation Easements, click here.