Phil Robertson: The inspirational life of Phil Robertson Duck DynastyCall him what you like. Call him television star. Call him an expert hunter. Call him sexist, Call him millionaire. Whatever title the public bestows upon Phil Robertson, his beginnings were humble and Phil Robertson experienced his fair share of struggles. Hailing from Vivian, Louisiana, a tiny town tucked gently in the right corner of the state, Phil Robertson made his humble beginnings work for him. One could say that Phil Robertson's love of hunting was born the same day he was: April 24, 1946. His parents, James and Merrit Robertson, raised seven children, of which Robertson was the fifth. Phil Robertson's family experienced trouble making ends meet: gardening for their vegetables, hunting deer and fishing for their meat, rarely making any trips to a grocery store as money was scarce. Thus began Robertson's passion for hunting. Phil Robertson attended North Caddo High School, where Phil Robertson earned local celebrity for his talents in numerous sports, later attending Louisiana Tech with a football scholarship in the 1960s. Phil Robertson became a celebrated quarterback for the team, eventually turning down a potential career as a professional athlete for one reason - it interfered with duck season and his ability to answer the call of the wild. After marrying Marsha Kay Carraway, Phil Robertson's high school sweetheart since 1964, and earning a couple of degrees in education, Phil Robertson settled into a quiet life as teacher. Eventually, Phil Robertson moved on to become a commercial fisherman, and then owned a bar. He and Kay had children: Alan, Jason, Willie, Jess, and Jules, but it was not the perfect family portrait many might perceive. Robertson experienced some marital trouble because of his rough-and-tumble way of living. For decades, Phil Robertson spent his spare time in a lean-to hut hidden among the swamps of Northern Louisiana, crafting homemade duck calls from the native timbers as the store-bought calls never satisfied him. He would offer to sell his crafts to nearby department stores, only to experience the rejection of his carefully carved product. Still, he whittled and experimented, carving and re-carving in hopes of creating a satisfactory call that would sing like the ducks he loved to hunt. If he could make just one, decent call, the Louisiana native could finally taste success, however simplistic.In 1972, Phil Robertson finally stuck gold with the Duck Commander. He patented the call, and started the Duck Commander Company a year later. Kay managed to feed their five growing sons with the mere $8000 profit he earned during that first year. The company snowballed from a small, homegrown establishment to a corporation whose extensive reach allowed America access to the best duck calls available on the market. Even through this rough start and meager earning, Phil Robertson eventually created his own empire, which now extends beyond the duck calls of the humid Louisiana swamps and into the televisions, magazines, merchandise, and books all at America's fingertips. Phil Robertson is a household name. His story, the good, bad, and ugly, makes for a fascinating tale of a pauper who chose to remain a pauper, despite his princely millionaire status. Call him what you will, but Phil Robertson continues calling the ducks. Phil Robertson still holds the keys to that same dynasty - the passion that kept him alive from his rocky start to his small-screen hits. Read more
