We are saddened to share that J. David Bamberger, renowned Texas conservationist and longtime Travis Audubon supporter, passed away at the age of 97 on January 17, 2026. J. David, our 2013 Victor Emanuel Conservation Award Honoree, inspired many people during his life, including our 2011 Conservation Hero Andy Sansom. Below, Andy shares his memories of J. David.

I first met J. David Bamberger in the early 1980’s when I began efforts to protect Bracken Cave. The Nature Conservancy was very weak at the time, having only 35 or so donors who gave us $100.00 a year or more.

I heard that there was this corporate tycoon in San Antonio who was giving money to environmental organizations, but I could not get in to see him. I sent him a note inviting him to visit Bracken with me and he called me immediately, and the first thing he said to me was “I’ll bring the chicken.” As Founding Chairman of Church’s Fried Chicken, he was known as a maverick innovator, and this characteristic and the purchase of what he called “the most worn-out ranch in the Hill Country” helped make him an icon of conservation in Texas.

At the time of his purchase of the land in Blanco County he called Selah more than 50 years ago, there was no live water on the ranch and it was totally overgrazed. Using what at time were unconventional practices, he cleared thousands of acres of Ashe Juniper, commonly called Cedar, and lo and behold the springs began to flow throughout the property, filling lake streams and replenishing the exhausted landscape. He became a close friend and mentor to me, and following that first visit to Bracken Cave, he joined the Board of Bat Conservation International and help purchase the property and protect it forever for the 20 million Mexican Free-tailed Bats who summer there.

In fact, he became such a proponent of bat conservation that he built the world’s first man-made bat cave at Selah and, in his typically creative manner, coined the term “chiroptorium” to describe it. Though it was called “Bamberger’s Folly” in the press, today it is home to 500,000 bats who come there each year.

And Selah, which is Hebrew for “pause and reflect,” is now visited by thousands of mostly underprivileged children each year and even more landowners from across the United States who come to learn from his stewardship. I am privileged to have counted him as one of my closest friends, to have been inspired by his dedication and creativity, and that he named my precious daughter April as CEO of Selah Bamberger Ranch.

He passed away peacefully at Selah at the age of 97, and though I and many more will miss him very much, his conservation legacy will last for generations.

– Andy Sansom