Where Are They Now?

Gene Whisenant’s career has taken him all across the country driving trucks and led him to a job at a game ranch observing the secret lives of animals. “I’ve done a lot of things that most people wouldn’t have on their resume,” he said.

Whisenant graduated from Dublin High School in 1985 and joined the military. He hurt his knee during training, though, and was honorably discharged in 1986.

Back home, Whisenant got married and started driving for Circle J Backhoe in Stephenville, as well as a truck driving company. He liked the work, and especially enjoyed taking long trips in his 18-wheeler. “I love traveling because you meet people that you never thought you’d ever meet in this life,” he said. “It’s such a unique experience and taught me more than I learned in school.”

The people he met through his travels provided a valuable perspective for Whisenant’s life. “I met a lot of different people from different cultures over my life, and I’ve learned to work and associate with different languages and respect different people’s beliefs,” he said.

Whisenant drove full time until 2000, when he met Tom Brooks of Brooks Real Estate in Stephenville. Brooks owned a game ranch called Paloma Blanca near Dublin, and asked Whisenant to come work for him. Whisenant started out building fences or other things Brooks needed, but soon he got more involved with some of the biological work Brooks was doing.

“I went further into studying how crops grow and how deer grow, and how to care for animals,” he said. “We’d tag deer and install cameras on them, and I could watch how they fed and watered. I’d see everything from the day a deer was born until the day it turned five years old.”

Whisenant started going to livestock shows and sharing what he was learning, and Brooks launched a website called deerchannel. com (the website is no longer active), where they would stream the views from the cameras, letting viewers see the world through the eyes of a deer.

The service was used by hunters or zoologists hoping to gain insights into the secret lives of deer, or by professors who wanted to show the footage in their classrooms. The project led to some surprising insights — for example, “I never knew that deer could eat moss from under the water to survive,” Whisenant said.

The project was such a success that Brooks, Whisenant and the rest of the team at the ranch launched basschannel.com, meaning that Whisenant spent hours figuring out the best way to position cameras to see into the world of fish.

The team also worked on other ecological projects. “We studied grass from Australia and from Africa and how it grows in Texas,” he said.

Spending time closely observing plants and animals was an enriching career, said Whisenant. “Getting to study animals and their habitats has been a great experience,” he added.

Whisenant left his job at the game ranch in 2007, after he had two knee replacements. Since then, he’s been on disability. In August of last year after his father passed away, and he and his wife of 26 years, April, moved into his family ranch to help care for his mother. “I take care of the place, we garden, raise cows and pigs, and we’re helping my son get his [construction] business started,” Whisenant said.

When he gets free time, Whisenant enjoys fishing, hiking and taking trips with his wife. “We go up to Colorado and pan for gold, just anything to brighten the day up and make you think,” he said.

He also spends time at the Comanche County Cowboy Church. “It’s nondenominational, and we don’t discriminate against anyone’s beliefs,” he said. “We ain’t gonna look down because you’re one religion or the other. We’re here to represent God and be with God. And it’s come as you are — if you’re in your work clothes come to church in your work clothes.”

He has four children, two from a previous marriage, and 11 grandchildren. “I spend a lot of time with them, going back and forth from baseball and football and basketball games,” he said. “Family is my priority.”

One of Whisenant’s sources of inspiration throughout his life was the wisdom of his high school coach, Bill Bryant. “He pushed us to the limits where you thought you’d break but he knew there was more in you,” he said. “He showed us there was more to life than just football or math or whatever — he showed you how to be a person.”

Whisenant’s advice to Dublin graduates is to keep an open mind as they go through life. “Learn everything you can, because you never know what you’re going to use,” he said. “And learn from the elders. My dad always taught me that man’s only as good as his word – without that he ain’t got nothing.”

Editor’s Note: This column chronicles what Dublin graduates have done since high school. If you have any suggestions for other grads, email publisher@ dublincitizen.com.