Legendary Arkansas environmentalist Joe Nix died last month at age 86. In thinking about Nix's life, I realized how fortunate I was to grow up where I did and when I did. When I was a boy in Arkadelphia, the town was populated by people who were Arkansas newsmakers--Lt. Gov. Bob Riley, world-famous composer Francis McBeth, political analyst and pollster Jim Ranchino, college basketball coaches Don Dyer and Bill Vining, college football coaches Buddy Benson and Sporty Carpenter.

It's amazing to look back at the people who worked at Ouachita Baptist University and Henderson State University in those days. I took them for granted; they were simply family friends and neighbors back then. It was only as an adult that I realized how remarkable it was to have this many talented people call one small south Arkansas town their home.

For several years, Nix was my Sunday school teacher at Arkadelphia's First Baptist Church. We loved it when he would say: "Wear your jeans and tennis shoes next Sunday. We're going to worship in nature."

That meant Nix planned to take us to the Caddo River and not bring us back until noon, just in time for our parents to exit the main church service. I've long said that the Caddo is to the south half of our state what the Buffalo is to the north half, even though the Caddo doesn't receive as much attention as our first national river. I know of no one who loved the Caddo more than Nix.

In August 2018, I attended the funeral service for another of my mentors, Ben Elrod, a former Ouachita president. I even wrote a book about Elrod's life and leadership principles. The main speaker at the funeral that hot Saturday was Nix. He didn't talk about higher education or leadership. He talked about the Caddo and the many days he and Elrod spent together on the river.

"Every man should have a river," Nix said.

I found it fitting that Nix's official obituary ended with a quote from Norman Maclean's "A River Runs Through It." Like Nix, Maclean was a college professor. Following his retirement at the University of Chicago, Maclean became a major figure in American literature.

The quote goes like this: "Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the........

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