HUNTING EXCELLENCE By Liesel Schmidt
“EXCELLENCE ISN’T ALWAYS EASY, BUT IT’S ALWAYS EXCELLENT.” Those are words that P.J. Demarie III lives by in all that he does, whether at work or at play. It keeps him focused and dedicated; and really, it’s a principal that he feels is the secret to his success. “Anything that you’re going to do, do it excellently,” says Demarie. “That’s something that my father instilled in me, and it’s what makes some people more successful than others.” The owner of a New York Life agency for the past 34 years, Demarie has risen to notoriety as one of the top 200 agents in the company for selling over $1 billion dollars over the course of his career. But as much pride as he takes in his work, it is the hunt—the literal hunt—that is his greatest passion. A duck hunter since the age of six, Demarie showed promise even as a child, when the nickname his grandfather gave him was “Quank” for the fact that he was never without his duck call. As he got older, he honed his skills and then one day saw what is considered the holy grail of the duck hunting community: the North American Grand Slam. “During the ’70s, I walked into a taxidermist’s office and saw that he had every North American waterfowl mounted on his walls,” Demarie recalls. “I thought it was incredible, and I wanted to try to do it. 44 years later, my wife and I have completed the North American Grand Slam.” Wielding a Berretta A400 semi-automatic 12-gauge shotgun, Demarie has traversed most of the U.S. with his wife at his side in pursuit of his
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quarry and achieved the Grand Slam to amass a collection of ducks and geese, both hens and drakes, that includes all North American species as well as most of the species of South America. Boasting 93 birds in his office, Demarie has certainly fulfilled his vision of achieving excellence in duck hunting—so much so that he has risen through the ranks of Ducks Unlimited to first become chapter chairman and then state chairman. Though the opportunity to move up as a national officer was considered, Demarie shifted his focus to growing his family. Having bagged the Grand Slam, Demarie began a quest for excellence in another pursuit: a perfect 100 out of 100 in sporting clays. “You walk around a course like a golf course, and each station you go to has a different presentation of targets,” explains Demarie, who uses a Perazzi over-and-under 12-gauge shotgun for the sport. “Once I finished the Grand Slam, I wanted to shoot a perfect 100 out of 100 in sporting clays. It only took me 30,000 targets to get there, but I accomplished it!” Again, it is a pursuit of excellence that drove him; and that excellence has brought him great success in the hybridized daylilies that bring droves of people to gaze at their beauty in his front yard as well as the succession of Labrador Retrievers that he has trained as hunting dogs. As his tagline on Facebook says, “YOU can make a difference every day;” and in doing what he does, Demarie tries to live in a way that inspires others to dream big, reach for their dreams, and achieve much.
