John Crenshaw of Santa Fe was raised on cattle ranches around Las Vegas, N.M., where his dad schooled him in mule deer hunting and trout fishing. A journalism major at New Mexico Highlands University, he worked as a reporter, then associate editor of New Mexico Magazine before joining the Department of Game and Fish in 1974. He dedicated the next 23-plus years to the state’s wildlife and sportsmen, learning about game and fisheries management and adding elk, antelope and muzzleloader hunting to his interests. Now retired, he got into the politics of wildlife management in 2011 to fight bills that would have eliminated the State Game Commission and kicked the door open to partisan political hiring in the game department. He subsequently joined the NMWF board and has actively lobbied the Legislature on behalf of wildlife and sportsmen ever since.