Martin Frank “Bubba” Wood was honored by Park Cities Quail Coalition with the T. Boone Pickens Lifetime Sportsman Award in 2021. An avid hunter and fisherman, Wood changed Texas with his numerous conservation efforts.

I lost another friend recently. If you hunt or fish in Texas, so did you, you just may not realize it.

Martin Frank Wood, Bubba to everyone who knew him, passed away from the cruel effects of dementia. The Dallas resident was 84, but what a glorious life it was for someone who loved fishing and hunting.

Raised in Wichita Falls, Wood started his adult life as a banker in Dallas before transitioning to a wildlife art dealer as owner of Collector’s Covey. The latter led to his support of conservation efforts from local wildlife banquets to some of the biggest causes in the state.

Wood’s introduction to the outdoors was inevitable. His father, Frank, was an avid hunter who became a Texas Game & Fish commissioner in 1957 and was eventually named chairman. In fact, he was on the commission when the department built a quail hatchery in Tyler with the goal of restocking the birds in East Texas.

He introduced his son to the outdoors early. He had his first limit of quail when he was 9. He was also an avid duck hunter, having studied and learned every North American species as a child. He was a great with a shotgun not only in the field, but also on the range. In the 1970s he joined the Texas-based Cosmic Cowboys along with Tyler’s Carroll Bobo and others, that became one of the top skeet shooting teams in the country. Wood earned several All-American rankings and in 1992 was named into the National Skeet Shooting Association Hall of Fame.

With what he described as an obsessive behavior, Wood went full-bore into everything from quail to wild sheep hunting, fly fishing for trout or bream and bass fishing. He once joked that because of that personality trait there were things he did not take up because he would go broke doing it.

He also played golf, but we can excuse him of that.

But for all he enjoyed hunting and fishing, it pales compared to his selfless record of helping hunters and fishermen starting in 1983 with the Texas Wildlife Conservation Act. Prior to its passage hunting and fishing regulations were set by county commissioners or state legislators in 116 counties resulting in a patchwork of rules, including different regulations on Lake Palestine depending on the county waters you were fishing. Those rules were often determined by politics, not biology.

Working with sympathetic legislators like Ted Lyon, a former state senator who represented Smith County and the bill’s author, Wood traveled around the state drumming up support and walked the halls of the Capitol pushing the plan to passage.

He was also the person behind the Texas duck stamp and print program that raised more than $7 million for waterfowl habitat and research around the state.

Wood was a key force behind the creation of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation, an organization that allows the agency to use privately raised funds and donations as exceptions to its regular state budget.

Most recently Wood was involved in the creation of Park Cities Quail Coalition.

Wood did not start PCQC, but it was his vision that changed its trajectory to an organization that is the major force behind quail and upland habitat research.

“I came up with the idea of Park Cities Quail Unlimited. He convinced me to leave Quail Unlimited because they took 50 percent of the proceeds, and to create a (non-profit charitable organization) that kept all the money raised. Then he brought in Boone Pickens, and we have raised more than $30 million across the state,” said Joe Crafton, founder of PCQC.

Crafton said with Wood’s guidance behind the scenes bringing in great wildlife artists and their works along with other innovations, the organization went from raising $80,000 its first banquet in 2006 to $400,000 a year later. In 2022 the organization awarded $1.3 million in grants, and its 2023 Dallas banquet raised more than $2 million, to go along with proceeds from chapters in Houston and South Texas.

Wood never held a title with PCQC, but Crafton said he had a role as an idea guy and conscience of the organization and has always listed him as Spiritual Advisor. In 2021 the organization presented him with T. Boone Pickens Lifetime Sportsman award. Wood was undoubtedly the most reluctant recipient claiming he really did not do anything to deserve it. Anyone who knows what he did over his lifetime would argue otherwise.

Wood was a man of many stories and always had a funny tale, often at his own expense. His nickname may have been a bit of a misnomer because while he had friends, lots of friends, in all walks of life, his ethics, intellect and social status allowed him to stand toe-to-toe with industry and political giants around the state like Pickens and governors from both sides of the spectrum.

“He was one of the most ethical people I have ever seen. He didn’t care if he ruffled feathers. He didn’t have an agenda, and what upset him the most were people that were self-serving with an agenda,” Crafton said.

Looking ahead I am not sure there is another individual with Wood’s characteristics, drive and love of the outdoors around that can do what he did for Texas.

“He was a giant, and he will be missed. A lot of what he did will be remembered for a long time and it’s up to us to pick up the flag,” Crafton said.

— Knight can be reached at outdoor@tylerpaper.com