Summer 2011

Keen Eyes Save Lives
How FWC Officer Rich Wilcox uses exceptional observation skills to find missing people.

Ever since he was a little boy, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Officer Rich Wilcox has had a knack for finding lost items. EJust ask his mother, Kathy Wilcox, who vividly remembers Richard as a child who had eyesight that saw things no one else seemed to see. "If anything was ever lost around our house, we would put Richard on it," recalled Kathy. "And eventually he would find it. His successes got to be so regular that we nicknamed him 'Finder.'" Young Wilcox, heady from his triumphs as "the Finder," sought new challenges beyond the confines of home. "Surely," he thought, "there must be more." Indeed, once Wilcox started attending Lakeside Elementary School in Orange Park, the mile-long walk home from school opened up a whole new universe to explore. "He'd catch a patch of color lying in the tall grass along the road shoulder," said Kathy, "like an old baseball cap or a shoe, and stop to check it out."

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