HUNT, Texas – Ron Duke spent his life fighting to protect the Guadalupe River, keeping it as a pristine paradise that so many Texans love to visit.
It could be argued that Ron spent more time on the river than anyone else. If you ask him, he’ll happily tell you there’s no bad day to kayak.
“Ron Duke is an 80-year-old preservationist,” said Cynthia Vlasek. “He’s a Vietnam veteran. He worked at a sporting goods company that his family owned in Houston, Texas. He was a true naturalist. There was never a day that you could not go kayaking.”
Hunt is a small river town in Kerr County.
Everyone knows one another here.
He built his sporting goods story, Mountain Sports, not just to be a part of the community, but a place for people to feel at home.
“It was like an open-air shop. There were no doors,” said Nicole Vlasek Taylor. “He wasn’t worried about money. No, he was here for the fun of it.”
What remains of his store and workshop is just a pile of wood, no kayaks, and one singular paddle.
While there’s still a little bit of remnant of the store, that’s not the case for his house.
Ron’s home was on the other side of the road, closer to the Guadalupe River.
The flash flooding on the 4th of July wiped away his home entirely. There’s not even a trace that he lives here.
Raging floodwaters swept Ron away, too.
Nicole: “His most loved and treasured thing in the world, he fought for the river.”
Gage: “Is it strange that it would be the river, something that he cared so deeply about?”
Nicole: “Isn’t that peaceful though, also? That the thing he loved so much, he went to be with it.”
Gage: “Is that how you look at it?”
Nicole: “Yeah. That’s the only way I can have peace.”
At this point in the story, you probably think that Nicole and Cynthia are Ron’s family members.
That’s not the case. They’re friends, who are as close as family, because that’s just who Ron is.
A friend that anyone would be lucky to have.
“We’re grateful that he was friends with my dad for so long,” said Nicole.
“And I believe in God. I believe he’s merciful, you know, and if Ron didn’t make it, I just hope and pray that it was very fast,” Cynthia added.
