Charles Allen “Bo” Sloan, 60 of Ethel, Arkansas passed away Saturday February 28, 2026. Bo was born on April 17, 1965, to Mr. and Mrs. Tommy Sloan of Tupelo, Mississippi. Bo attended Tupelo High School where he was active in several clubs and met many of his lifelong friends.
After graduation, Bo took a gap year and worked on the family farm. At the end of that year, he attended Mississippi State University where he received a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology and forestry. Bo went to work for the USDA where he worked with APHIS/animal damage control in the Mississippi Delta. He later transferred to the USFWS National Refuge System where he worked at Panther Swamp NWR. Soon after arriving at Panther, he met and married the love of his life, Holly Elizabeth Cook of Leland, Mississippi. Bo and Holly moved to McGrath, Alaska where Bo worked for the Innoko NWR. Here he would work with the native community to help preserve their natural habitats. After Alaska, he and Holly moved to Ethel, Arkansas where he finished his career and retired with the White River NWR.
Anyone who knew Bo knew that protecting wildlife habitat was not just a career for him, it was a calling, his passion. That passion gave him a spine of steel in a field where political winds blow hard. That MS Country boy never bent. He was ironclad in his principles and understood one simple truth: you either protect the land, or you don’t. His principles served him well and he never traded precious habitat for an easy compromise. The refuge and the conservation community have lost a true champion far too soon.
Bo never met a stranger with his big smile, good humor, outgoing nature and epic story telling! He made friends everywhere he went. Nothing made him happier than when he met Holly. She was his entire world. They enjoyed all things outdoors, from hunting, fishing and trapping. In his retirement, he could be found in their garden where he and Holly worked so tirelessly to tend, or working at training his dog Ruby, also gone far too soon. Someone once said that a man could consider himself fully successful in life if he was blessed enough to have lived with and enjoyed an awesome wife, one good dog, one good horse, and at least five good friends. Bo was successful in all these things! Many friends along with the forestry and wildlife community lost a good one.
Bo was preceded in death by his parents, Tommy and Phyllis Sloan of Tupelo, and his brother, Brad Sloan of Tupelo. Bo leaves behind his adored wife of 21 years, Holly Sloan of Ethel, Arkansas, and his brother, Jonathan Sloan of Tupelo.
Visitation will be 10 a.m. until service times Saturday, March 7, 2026, at Pegues, Tupelo.
Services for Bo will be 12 p.m. Saturday, March 7, 2026, at the Jefferson Street Chapel of Pegues Funeral Directors, 535 W. Jefferson St, Tupelo, MS 38804 with Brother Guyton Hinds officiating. In Lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Wildlife Mississippi, PO Box 10, Stoneville, MS 38776.
Expressions of sympathy and fond memories may be made at PeguesFuneralHome.com.
