In the 1994 classic, Shawshank Redemption, Andy Dufresne, played by Tim Robbins, delivers the film’s memorable manifesto to Ellis ‘Red’ Redding (Morgan Freeman), “Life comes down to a simple choice…get busy living or get busy dying.”
For 80-year-old Texas native John Poindexter (not to be confused for the former National Security Advisor by the same name), the decision to pack as much into his days as any man could was made long ago. He’s one of a rare breed that seemingly isn’t bound by the same time constraints as the rest of us, apparently there are a few extra hours in each of his days. Scan his biography and you begin to question what you’ve done with your own life.
It might have been multiple near-death experiences in Viet Nam that ignited his course as a man wanting to make a difference with his life—perhaps believing that he was spared for a reason. The former Army captain was awarded three purple hearts, a silver star, two bronze stars, the Soldier’s Medal, the Air Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with Silver Star and, the one he is most proud of, the very rare Presidential Unit Citation.
On March 26, 1970, Poindexter and Captain Ray Armer answered a call for help from Charlie Company of the 2nd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment. They were surrounded and outnumbered four to one by North Vietnamese forces. Some 20 U.S. troops—including Poindexter—were wounded in the ensuing battle and two were killed. Poindexter spent years working to make certain those under his command received the recognition they deserved. Unable to corroborate some of the stories with multiple witnesses, but thanks to Poindexter’s and others’ tireless efforts on behalf of his fellow soldiers, the entire unit was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation in 2009.
Thanks to extensive habitat restoration, wild bobwhite quail have returned to Cumberland. John MacGillivray, Dorsey Pictures
Poindexter graduated from the University of Arkansas in 1966, a year before enlisting in the Army. After four years of service, he followed his undergrad with master’s and doctorate degrees from New York University. Following a successful run in venture capital, he founded J.B. Poindexter & Company in 1985 and, among many other business ventures, became one of the world’s largest manufacturers of commercial truck bodies.
The successful business career, however, was a means to an end, for Poindexter’s passion is history—specifically bringing it to life through restoration of vintage properties and landscapes. And what better place for such an effort than his family’s roots near Richmond, Virginia. The focal point of the effort is the 5,500-acre Cumberland Estate, located in the heart of the region’s pastoral tidelands.
Hunt and habitat manager, Kyle Bidwell, is all smiles as hunters return to Cumberland’s quail fields. John MacGillivray, Dorsey Pictures
George Poindexter was the pioneering immigrant of a prominent family that left the Isle of Jersey in the 1650s—a British island off the coast of Normandy, France—to settle in what is now Williamsburg, Virginia. Over the ensuing decades, he and his wife, Susannah, amassed a substantial landholding in the region. The properties remained in the Poindexter family until 1830.
Because of his family’s deep roots in the New Kent area, John began to acquire multiple properties in the region and simultaneously started his restoration of both the historic structures and the neglected landscapes surrounding them. The crown jewel of the collection is the dramatic hilltop manor house of Cumberland.
A pair of pointers locate a covey of quail for a visiting Cumberland hunter. John MacGillivray, Dorsey Pictures
The chief beneficiary of his work on the ground, however, has been the bobwhite quail, a beloved gamebird that once thrived across the state. In the 1960s, biologists estimated that some 5 million of the birds could be found in Virginia, but that population has since declined by more than 80 percent owing to wholesale changes in land use.
Thanks to several years of extensive grassland restoration, however, the bobwhites have returned to Cumberland and their whistles can once again be heard like echoes from the abyss.
A mix of pointing and retrieving breeds are frequently employed at Cumberland. John MacGillivray, Dorsey Pictures
As I hiked across Poindexter’s mosaic of landscape handiwork, a pair of pointers ahead of me locked stock-still, peering into the grass along the edge of a woods. Through their point, they were proclaiming something big—the return of a species that had, for all intents and purposes, been lost a generation ago. It was a scene Poindexter’s ancestors likely saw centuries earlier, an affirmation that his commitment to the land was paying off.
“It’s one thing to save what already exists,” offers Poindexter, “it’s quite another to restore what once was. Restoration is the highest form of conservation.”
An English setter locates yet another covey at Cumberland. John MacGillivray, Dorsey Pictures
The Virginia effort isn’t his first work in the habitat arena, either. In 1990, he purchased the 30,000-acre Cibolo Creek Ranch in west Texas, where his extensive habitat rehabilitation was recognized last April by the Borderlands Research Institute at a ceremony in Poindexter’s hometown of Houston.
Poindexter’s passion is sharing his restorations and using the work as history lessons for those who care to listen. Engaging guests and students to embrace the process of restoring structures and land with historical accuracy is part of the vision of his work, planting seeds in future generations to embrace the value of breathing life into history—for the sake of our collective futures.
Poindexter and his fiancée Alicia Warlick are ready for the next chapter and saving more historic properties. John MacGillivray, Dorsey Pictures
The devout bachelor (who could pass for 20 years junior), however, is about to change his personal history as he announced his engagement to Alicia Warlick with wedding plans set for April 2025. The couple will split time between Texas and Virginia, undoubtedly looking for one more property to save.
As Poindexter writes his next chapter, there will be no time to waste. There never is for a man who is busy living.