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Dale Bowman Ed Mullady said “croppie” instead of “crappie” when referring to the popular panfish. The quirk made me smile. He died Sunday at 94. In his wake, Mr. Mullady left a hole in Kankakee River conservation. He left untouchable records for outdoors media. He left an extended family that remains active in the outdoors. He left a hole in the hearts of us who love the Kankakee. In reflecting, I realized he was 40 years into his outdoors media career when I started doing the Chicago Sun-Times outdoors column. Yet he took my phone calls every week. He didn’t have to. The late John Husar was the colossus covering the outdoors for the Tribune. Yet Mr. Mullady gave me time every week. We bounced ideas off each other, frankly and openly. Then those conversations diminished and stopped as his health declined the last decade.