To most SASS members, around the World, Brian Howard was known as Jess Ducky, Washington State Champion, Regional Champion, National Champion, and two-time World Champion Cowboy Action Shooter. For those of us in the Northwest, Jess Ducky was the father of Cowboy Action Shooting in this region of the country. He was our friend, our mentor and our leader. Jess has helped countless people change their lives because Jess took the time to bring them hope and give them value. Jess Ducky will be missed by all of us, more than words can express. Jess had a degree in Journalism with a minor in Mathematics. He loved reading, writing poetry, and he had a marvelous creative mind. His genius was exhibited as a writer of Cowboy matches. He was married in November of 1968 to Diane. They had two children, Alexis and Rachel, and all were at his bed side when he headed for the big round-up in the sky on the 4th of July. Jess was not always a Cowboy shooter. In his early years, he was an Information Specialist in the U.S. Air Force. He spent time in Viet Nam writing articles and reports for the military magazines, including Stars & Stripes. While having a myriad of jobs after the Air Force, Jess finally found being an Insurance Adjuster suited him best.
During the late 70s and into the 80s, Jess enjoyed shooting IPSC competitions. But, one day a friend took Jess to a Cowboy Action Shooting event and Jess was hooked. Like so many in his age group, he had grown up watching westerns on TV and western movies in the theaters. He was enamored with the era and he was drawn to a shooting sport that was more family oriented with less emphasis on competition (compared to IPSC and IDPA). As he used to tell new shooters, ?It?s hard to get too serious about yourself when you?re dressed this way.? He returned, from that match, to his home in Renton, Washington, and with the help of the folks at the Renton Fish and Game Club, he started RUCAS (Renton United Cowboy Action Shooters). In those early years, he was known as Fandango Frank. Over the years he used other alias?s, but in the end, to all of us, he was Jess Ducky. In 1992, he hosted the first Westmatch. Westmatch would later become the Washington State Championship match. With the creative and fertile mind of Jess Ducky, writing the stages, Westmatch became known as one of the best, most interesting, and exciting matches in the region. Jess served as its Match Director for 10 years before turning the reigns over to Elder Katie. Meanwhile, Jess was instrumental in introducing Cowboy Action Shooting to anyone interested. He was the ultimate ambassador for the sport. He encouraged the creation of other Cowboy Action Shooting Clubs and soon, the Northwest had a number of them that still operate to this day. If he spotted a spectator or visitor checking out a bunch of guys and gals dressed like they just stepped off a B-western movie set, shooting shotguns, rifles and revolvers, he would walk up to them and talk about the sport and explain what they were seeing. He would invite them to come back to the range on Friday night and do some actual shooting. If you don't have the guns you need right now, lots of shooters around here will lend you some, give you some ammo, and loan you a gun belt. All you need to do is get a pair of boots, a cowboy hat, and an old shirt and you can start shooting in our matches, was a phrase heard by most of us.
Those Friday night practices provided a starting point for a lot of shooters that are now familiar names to the SASS family, World-wide. He would teach the new shooters how to shoot and after they learned how to hit the targets, he would teach them how to get better and faster. He lived the SASS axiom of passing on knowledge and not worrying that the new shooter might be faster than you are. The practices also provided Jess an opportunity to try a new gun and a new load (he kept meticulous records of every loading combination he tried). He would often express how pleased he was with his latest formula, only to show up the following Friday with another concoction. At Winter Range in 2016, he started feeling poorly. He had bad cramps in his legs and his ankles started swelling. His camping partner, Doc Sievers, being a tad bigger, loaned him a pair of boots so he could compete in that last round of stages. Several months of testing and a couple of hospital stays after he returned home, finally pointed to a liver that was giving up. In April of this year, Jess received a new liver and was on the road to recovery. His doctors gave him a good prognosis for recovery and Jess could hardly wait to get back to the range (probably to try out another new load). But the good Lord had other plans for him. Brian Howard, Jess Ducky had a bad fall at home and passed away on July 4th, 2017.
Submitted by Cedar County Sheriff
