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Dick Hudgins remembers attending the Houston Fat Stock Show and Rodeo as a child, mesmerized by the light dancing around the arena as it reflected off a giant, hanging mirrorball.

There was a sense of intimacy at the Houston Rodeo then, Hudgins said, like the action was right in front of your face. Held inside the downtown Sam Houston Coliseum at the time, the rodeo could seat around 10,000 people.

In the decades since, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo – the name changed in 1961 – has grown exponentially. Today, the number of volunteers it takes to put on the rodeo each year could not even fit inside the coliseum.

Hudgins, however, has seen that growth up close.

Every year for the past 50, Hudgins has donated his time to the Livestock Show and Rodeo, working his way up the volunteer ladder from committee member to lifelong vice president. The organization considers him its longest-serving current volunteer, though a spokesperson acknowledged there may be some longer-serving “lifetime” members who continue to volunteer.

The son of a rancher, Hudgins recalls riding horses as early as 3 years old. He competed in youth rodeos, winning shiny belt buckles that he still has on display in his office.

It wasn’t his own competition background, however, that led Hudgins to volunteer at the rodeo.

In high school, Hudgins joined the FFA organization, then called Future Farmers of America, where he found his niche. Along with learning about agriculture, FFA also taught Hudgins leadership and public speaking skills.

He worked his way up the ranks in FFA, and became a statewide vice president of the organization by the time he was in college.

The role brought Hudgins to various galas, events and speaking engagements where he would promote FFA and share the things he had learned through the organization. It also brought him before a group of Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo officials, who encouraged Hudgins to become a volunteer on the rodeo’s speakers committee.

Saying yes was a no-brainer for Hudgins. He could parlay a passion for public speaking and agricultural education into a volunteer experience based on his family’s ranching and farming roots.

“It was automatic,” he said. “It was a natural progression for me.”

The rodeo, Hudgins explained, is unlike any other organization he has been part of. Largely a volunteer-based operation, nearly 35,000 people donate their time across 109 different committees to bring the three-week event to life each year. From designing graphics and signage, to organizing and hosting animal auctions, to providing directions and information to rodeo-goers, volunteer opportunities run the gamut.

In comparison, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo only employs about 150 staff, said Director of Volunteering Melinda Underhill.

“It's a machine,” Underhill said.

Underhill pointed toward the rodeo’s mission — to promote agriculture by providing a family-friendly live entertainment experience that educates the public, supports Texas youth, and showcases Western heritage — as a major recruiter of volunteers each year.

While the mission helps bring volunteers in the door, Underhill said, it's the connections volunteers make with one another that keeps them coming back each year.

“They build community, and they build a sort of family,” Underhill said. “So, people see it as their social environment where they can go and interact with people they love being around and work together to do something they are passionate about.”

Hudgins echoed that sentiment, adding that rodeo volunteers have a unique work ethic unlike anything he’s seen.

“There's no one wearing a (volunteer) badge that’s just along for the ride,” Hudgins said.

Hudgins’ own volunteer journey began as a member of the Speakers Committee. Most of this committee’s work is done before the start of rodeo season, sending people across the region to drum up interest in the event at various civic club meetings, community organization events, schools, and more.

Hudgins was a committee member for 15 years before he was appointed Speakers Committee captain. He then was appointed the committee’s vice chair, and in 1999, he was appointed chairman.

Each new appointment was an eye-opening experience, Hudgins said, offering him the opportunity to learn more about the rodeo’s inner-workings.

After chairing the Speakers Committee, Hudgins was elected to the rodeo’s board of directors in 2000 — the first time he had been voted into a position by his fellow volunteers.

Hudgins served on the board for five years before being nominated for a three-year term as a vice president, a move he called an unimaginable honor.

“I had some gentlemen want to nominate me for and support me to be elected vice president, which was unbelievable for me,” Hudgins said. “Growing up in a town of 450 people to being a vice president of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.”

As a new vice president in 2006, Hudgins was charged with overseeing the work of three different committees, ones he had not served on before. He also worked closely with Joanna Pedigo, a newly hired employee acting as a liaison between volunteer and staff operations.

Pedigo recalled the pair learning the ropes of their new committee assignments together, joking that they went through “baptism by fire.”

Pedigo lauded Hudgins’ leadership as a vice president. What stands out most, she said, is Hudgins’ ability to communicate with others.

She recalled a time when Hudgins had to deliver tough news to one of his committees, that their program would be cut from that year’s show.

“The way he let the committee know was so eloquent and so positive,” she said.

When Hudgins’ tenure as a vice president ended in 2008, Pedigo cried.

“He’s just amazing,” she said.

Hudgins’ work did not stop after his vice presidency, however. In 2011, he was asked to be the founding chair of the rodeo’s Armed Forces Appreciation Committee, a role that takes an extraordinary amount of effort, Pedigo said.

“I was honored,” Hudgins said. “And if the rodeo asked any one of us, not just me, but any of us if we would step up to do something? The answer is without hesitation a yes.”

Even now, The 72 year old is not ready to slow down. With 50 years of volunteering under his belt, Hudgins does not plan on stopping any time soon.

“That’s not in the cards,” he said.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story referred to Dick Hudgins as the longest-serving current volunteer at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, per information provided by the organization. A Houston Rodeo spokesperson on Thursday acknowledged some errors occurred when the organization computerized its records and said there may be longer-serving “lifetime” members, but Hudgins officially is considered its longest currently serving volunteer.

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