The below article was sent to LSON by our friends at Texas Hunter Products.
In 1970, when gas was 36 cents a gallon and the outdoor industry looked very different than it does today, Emiliano “Emelio” Gonzales went to work for his first day at Texas Hunter Products.
And he never stopped.
After 56 years, Gonzales is retiring, closing out what is the longest tenure in the company’s history since its founding in 1954. Those who know him will tell you this isn’t just a retirement. It’s the story of a man who built a legacy simply by showing up.
For more than half a century, Gonzales was often the first to arrive—through every season, every challenge, and every chapter of the business. His approach was simple: show up, do the work, do it right, and take pride in it.
“He didn’t just do the work, he honored it,” said Paul Sides, the company’s former owner. “Fifty-six years isn’t just a milestone, it’s a legacy built through perseverance, discipline, and quiet strength.”
Gonzales worked across countless roles over the years — packing and building deer blinds, setting them up on ranches as far south as Mexico, solving packaging challenges for new and odd-shaped products, and finding ways to get the job done no matter the obstacle.
But his impact didn’t stop at the warehouse doors.
Over the decades, tens of thousands of customers have purchased Texas Hunter deer feeders, fish feeders, deer blinds, and fish habitat products. What most of them don’t realize is that Gonzales likely had a hand in the product they use today.
He packed every deer blind the company produced in its early years and later helped build many of them as the company expanded into assembled units. He packed the feeder kits that went into every feeder—each one containing the battery and timer that powers the unit. He handled fish habitat products and served as a final set of eyes on quality before products ever left the building.
If you’ve ever filled a Texas Hunter feeder or sat in one of their blinds, there’s a good chance Emelio Gonzales had a hand in it.
“I worked alongside him for 23 years, and he was a big part of what made that time special,” said Chris Blood, former marketing and operations leader at Texas Hunter Products. “He showed up every day, often before anyone else, after riding the bus to work every day and walking that extra mile. Literally ‘going the extra mile’ to help build the company as a team.”
He was also known around the company for something else — his uncanny ability to predict the weather. Long before apps and alerts, Gonzales was the team’s unofficial meteorologist, regularly giving coworkers a heads-up on what to expect the next day or over the weekend—and more often than not, he was right.
That phrase ‘the extra mile’ wasn’t just a saying. It was how he lived.
Through decades of change, Gonzales remained a constant. He didn’t seek attention, but his impact was felt across the company—in the products, in the people, and in the culture he helped shape.
More than anything, coworkers remember who he was: genuine, kind, and dependable. The kind of man you could count on—every single day.
After 56 years, Gonzales leaves behind more than a career—he leaves behind a standard. A legacy of showing up, doing the work the right way, and taking pride in it… one day at a time.
