Kilgore man honored as local DU man of the year

The Gregg County Ducks Unlimited chapter held its 36th annual fund-raising banquet last Tuesday at Longview’s Maude Cobb Activity and Convention Center. During the event, Dereck Borders of Kilgore was recognized as the Gregg County Ducks Unlimited Man of the Year for his accomplishments as a leader of this chapter.

A member of the Gregg County Ducks Unlimited committee since 2000, Dereck Borders has established a firm reputation for his loyalty to DU, his commitment to this banquet, and his leadership abilities.

During his early years on the committee, Dereck began an expanded Greenwing program for the Gregg County DU Banquet. For three years, he served as Greenwing Chairman, bringing new ideas and new energy to this position. He organized games and contests for the children attending the banquet and created a raffle system exclusively for them.

In 2004, he accepted the job of Area Chairman for the Gregg County DU Banquet, a position he holds in 2005 also. As Area Chairman, he has guided the Gregg County DU committee through both of the last two banquets and has continued this committee’s status as one of the top DU events in Texas.

Born in Overton in 1962, Dereck is the son of Tulley and Billie Borders of Kilgore. He attended Kilgore schools for most of his youth and graduated from Kilgore High School in1979. Following his high school graduation, he applied to and gained admission to Texas A & M University in College Station. There, he earned his Bachelor of Science, graduating in 1985.

Aggie to the core, Dereck elected to remain in College Station following his graduation and began working for Tenaska, where he remained until 2000. While living in College Station, he met Beverly Macik, and in 1986, they married. They have two daughters, Chelsea, aged 13, and Sidney, aged 7.

In 2000, Tenaska build a facility at Brockfield. Dereck saw the opportunity to return to East Texas, and he and Beverly moved their family to Rusk County.

Growing up in the country outside Kilgore, Dereck developed a love of the outdoors as a child. But he did not begin top hunt until he attended Texas A & M, where friends took him on deer and duck hunts. He developed the love of duck hunting that brought him to Ducks Unlimited.. He worked with both the Bryan-College Station DU committee and the Texas A & M Ducks Unlimited committee for 15 years. When he returned to Kilgore, joining the Gregg County DU committee was a natural move . Besides working with The Gregg County DU committee, Dereck also supports and works with the Kilgore DU committee and the Rusk County DU committee.

In addition to carrying him into DU, Dereck’s love of hunting introduced him to a favorite hobby and part-time business, taxidermy. He began studying taxidermy while in high school, and in College Station, he worked for Palermo Taxidermy, one of the best-known taxidermy studios in Texas. Now, he owns and operates Hunter’s Memories Taxidermy, where he has developed a reputation as one of the finest taxidermists in the state.

Ducks Unlimited is the world’s largest wetland conservation organization. Since its founding in 1937, DU has restored and conserved more than 11 million acres of wetland habitat and associated upland habitat.

These areas benefit both wildlife and man by providing clean water. Ducks, geese, bald eagles, deer, elk, buffalo, moose and more than 900 other documented wildlife species find available habitat on DU projects.

For more information about Ducks Unlimited, visit the organization’s web site at www.ducks.org. For information about DU activities in Texas, visit www.tx.ducks.org.