Among the qualities that Dan Thompson most appreciated about his former boss Scott Talbott was his guidance to openly champion the furred, feathered and finned inhabitants of Wyoming.

“When he became director, he made a point for us to be advocates for wildlife,” said Thompson, who supervises large carnivores for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. 

It was a direction that everybody appreciated, and a trait Thompson looks back upon especially fondly, he said.

Talbott, 63, died April 25 after a battle with pancreatic cancer. Appointed by former Gov. Matt Mead, he helmed the Equality State’s wildlife management agency from 2011 until 2019 — the second-longest tenure in Game and Fish’s century-long history.

Longtime colleagues remember their former director as being devoted to and genuinely interested in their lives. For Janet Milek, he changed the arc of her career. She’d been an educator, teaching kids to fly fish and the like, but Talbott encouraged her to apply for a public affairs job. The new role had her working with the media and representing the agency about broader, statewide issues.

“He recognized skills in people that maybe they didn’t recognize in themselves,” Milek said. “He would say things like, ‘Go do public speaking, because you’re good at it,’ or, ‘Go apply for a fishery supervisor job because you have the skills.’” 

Known for showing up at random regional meetings, Talbott would take a seat with no purpose other than to sit, listen and learn what his staffers were up to, Milek recalled.

Talbott had a way of presenting himself as an equal. 

“He was a superior throughout my whole career, but it was never hung over my head,” said Scott Edberg, who worked as a deputy chief of wildlife under Talbott. “Even socially, it never was an impediment.”

Although the former director came out of the warden ranks, he treated everyone the same, whether a fellow warden or a biologist. 

“It doesn’t mean I didn’t get my ass chewed,” Thompson said, “but you always knew he had your back.”

Talbott attended Sheridan College and earned an agriculture degree from the University of Wyoming. 

“He came from a ranching background, and so he understood both sides of it: agriculture and wildlife,” said Terry Cleveland, a former Game Fish director who mentored Talbott throughout his career. “I think that made him very successful.”

Joining Game and Fish in 1985, Talbott worked in a variety of roles: as an elk feeder, game warden, wildlife investigator, regional wildlife supervisor and deputy chief of the wildlife division, according to his retirement announcement. Over the decades he developed many close friendships with colleagues that deepened through a shared love of outdoor pursuits.

“He lived that wildlife way, whether it was hunting, fishing, wildlife watching,” Milek said. “He knew about everything in the state, and every animal in the state.” 

After retiring from Wyoming employment, Talbott kept working and eventually held a post as Safari Club International’s guide and outfitter liaison. During the first Trump administration, he was a rumored pick to lead the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — a post his Game and Fish director successor, Brian Nesvik, is now in line for.

The late agency director isn’t the only Game and Fish retiree to have succumbed to pancreatic cancer in recent weeks. The same condition also claimed Steve Kilpatrick on Sunday. The former Wyoming habitat biologist also worked stints for Teton Science Schools, the Wyoming Wildlife Federation and Wyoming Wild Sheep Foundation. 

“Steve’s 45-plus year career restoring, enhancing, and conserving bighorn sheep, wildlife and habitats in Wyoming is exceptional,” the National Bighorn Sheep Center wrote in a remembrance post. 

Kilpatrick racked up honors for his conservation work over the course of his career. He was named the “conservationist of the year” by the Wyoming Wildlife Federation in 1997, was awarded the Craighead Wildlife Conservation Award in 2003, and in March was inducted into the Wyoming Outdoor Hall of Fame.

“While Steve’s absence will be deeply felt, perhaps the most fitting tribute to his legacy is our continued dedication to advocating for our silent constituents, the wildlife,” the Wyoming Chapter of The Wildlife Society wrote in a death announcement.

Services for Talbott are being held at 2 p.m. May 30 at the Albany County Fairgrounds in Laramie. Services for Kilpatrick have not yet been announced.