Face of the Day

Phil Robertson, the patriarch of hit reality television show Duck Dynasty who founded a successful Louisiana hunting business before making a second career for himself on the Christian speaking circuit, died on May 25 at 79.

His family announced the death on social media but did not provide further details. In an episode of the podcast Unashamed with the Robertson family that aired in December, Robertson’s son Jase said his father had been diagnosed with a blood disease and early-stage Alzheimer’s disease.

Robertson was born on April 24, 1946, raised in northern Louisiana as part of a large family with seven children and little money. After attending what is now Louisiana Tech University on a football scholarship and then teaching and coaching for several years, he decided to pursue a business making and selling duck calls for hunters, patenting his first call in 1972.

NZ Herald