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Former Plant City Resident May Head Conservation Group

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By GEORGE WILKENS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 16, 2009

PLANT CITY Former Plant City resident John R. Pope is poised to be elected president of Ducks Unlimited when the volunteer-based conservation organization holds its national convention in Denver in May.

A University of Florida graduate, Pope, 61, lives in Jacksonville and works as a financial advisor with Raymond James Financial Services.

Born in Tampa, Pope and his family moved to Plant City when he was a child. He relocated to Jacksonville in 1976 where, in 1983, he began his long affiliation with Ducks Unlimited.

He is now the organization's first vice president, the post used to groom the organization's president-elect. The council of state trustees and national delegates of Ducks Unlimited traditionally elect and install the organization's senior vice president as president during their annual convention.

"If everything goes according to plan, I'll be the 40th president of Ducks Unlimited," Pope said of the organization which was founded in 1937.

The Memphis, Tenn.-based group has nearly 800,000 members in the United States, Canada and Mexico. As of 2008, the grassroots organization's efforts had conserved 12.2 million acres in North America.

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