Former Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Director Loren Hitchcock dead at 70
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – An Arkansas Game and Fish Commission leader who had served the agency for nearly two decades has died.
AGFC said in a Wednesday release that 70-year-old Loren Hitchcock died May 28 in his Cleburne County home.
Hitchcock began his career with the agency in 1985 as a game warden. In 1989 he was named enforcement division chief, then adding a dual role as deputy directory in 2001.
He became exclusive deputy director in 2003 before being appointed interim director in 2010 after the retirement of then-director Scott Henderson. Hitchcock was appointed director in 2011 and held the position until his 2012 retirement.
During his AGFC service, he led the enforcement division in the 1996 passage of Amendment 75 to the state constitution, which provided one-eighth of 1% sales tax to support AGFC, Arkansas State Parks, the Arkansas Heritage Commission, and the Keep Arkansas Beautiful Commission, with 45% of the funds going to AGFC.
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He was the lead administrator as the commission acquired a 16,000-acre Moro Big Pine Natural Area Wildlife Management Area in Calhoun County and 4,000 acres in fee-titled property in Searcy County for elk restoration in 2006.
Hitchcock also negotiated with Chesapeake Energy in its acquisition of mineral rights and natural gas exploration on WMAs in the Fayetteville Shale play, bringing $32 million to the commission.
Loren “Gib” Hitchcock was born to Margaret and Gilbert Hitchcock on Oct. 9, 1953 in his hometown of Batesville. He graduated from Arkansas State University in 1975 with a bachelor’s degree in business management. He is survived by his partner, Shawna, two sons, two stepdaughters, and eight grandchildren.
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