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By Jim Junttila

Egrets, herons and ibis stealthily waded the shadowy shoreline shallows, pelicans perched on pilings, and cormorants skimmed the surface like fish-seeking missiles in the dawn’s early light, all looking for breakfast. The water and air temperatures were tied at 62 degrees.

“What does it take to make an Amish woman happy?” Mel Berman asked as we sidled out of a boat ramp.

“Two Mennonite,” he grinned. Berman was full of one-liners that could make you spit out your coffee laughing on the boat first thing in the morning.

My relationship with Berman goes back about 40 years, long enough to know that, to me, Mel is short for mellifluous, mellow and melliferous. He was more than a friend; he was a mentor, a conversationalist and a conservationist. We were kindred spirits.

Anybody who knew Berman knew he had a sense of humor. His Web site, www.capmel.com, featured a daily chuckle for years.

We were working the same water as the avian predators who make a good living on the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway.

What I liked best about fishing with Jim Plastic and Berman was that I was the youngest guy on the boat. At 63, it’s nice to be called “kid.” When I first met Plastic, I thought it was a nickname because all he pitched was plastic, not live bait. But it’s his real name. Like Berman, he knows how to twitch a tail and manipulate a Mirrolure.

The specks were snapping at sunrise. So were a few pompano, ladyfish and blues. Life is good when a full moon gives way to a mango dawn, both reflecting in the tranquil mirror surface of the Intracoastal Waterway.

“Bars and beds are two of my favorite places,” Berman said, slipping an electric chicken Old Bayside split tail shadlyn on his quarter-ounce jig. “Look for the intersection of grass flats, oyster beds and a sand bar. It’s the best place to find fish.”

It turned out to be an understatement. We caught and released about 40 specks in 3- to 10-foot shallow water by 11:30 a.m. and were off the water by noon. Mornings spent catching about 50 fish were natural and normal with these guys. This is skinny water, the kind of water Berman loved enough to write the book, “Skinny: A Guide to Shallow Saltwater Fishing,” co-authored with Gary Poyssick. I highly recommend it; you can read a sample chapter for free and order it at capmel.com.

We talked about our favorite foods and those of Florida sportfish, how bay anchovies, glass minnows and shrimp are the dominant forage, how a Mirrodine lure most accurately imitates a sardine and why girl blue crabs have red pinchers. Sports, politics, radio, writing and our personal lives crept into the conversation once in awhile.

Berman was a fish magnet and the specks couldn’t resist his touch. Occasionally, he’d miss one. He’d check the hook and change tails if there was even the slightest ding in it.

“He’s second to none, a broadcast pioneer and fisherman who loved what he was doing,” said veteran WFLA-AM 970 radio host Tedd Webb.

On the air, he was an audience magnet.

Berman was born in Philadelphia. He began his broadcast career in 1952 and lived in New York City, Pittsburgh and Kansas City before settling in Tampa, Fla., in 1969. He won a Freedoms Foundation George Washington Medal and was part of a broadcast team that won a Peabody Award for coverage of the United Nations. He interviewed John F. Kennedy before he was president; Eleanor Roosevelt; Adlai Stevenson, former UN ambassador; and Jawaharial Nehru, the longest serving prime minister of India.

Berman had street credential and media traction. He was also a senior active member of OWAA.

A lot of water has been under the bridge since I met Berman. In the early 1970s, I was a young advertisement agency copywriter in Tampa, Fla., and I frequently hired Mel, among other media personalities, as voice talent for radio spots and TV voiceovers.

The radio roller coaster enabled Mel to go fishing a lot and he became a charter captain, getting his Coast Guard license and running offshore charters for about 10 years.

Webb worked with Berman at WDAE in those days. “We’d go fishing all the time, out at the [Florida] Middle Grounds in the Gulf [of Mexico] and dig grouper. I called him the ‘Master of the Middle Grounds.’”

Berman started the original WFLA-AM 970 fishing show in 1984, working there for 25 years. It evolved into a town hall talk show format that gave fishermen and boaters a voice in fisheries conservation and environmental matters.

“I let the callers pretty much set the tone and topics of the show,” Mel said. “Sometimes it was like herding cats, but it worked.”

“I never did beat him in the ratings back then,” said Jack Harris, who can still be heard on the radio in Tampa.

“All the girls loved his voice, he always had the lion’s share of the female radio audience,” Harris said.

“While the closest I ever get to fishing is beer and grouper at Crabby Bill’s,” Harris added, “I loved to listen to Captain Mel’s show, just for the joy of hearing his handling of the two crafts he loved and mastered: fishing and radio.”

OWAA has 50 members from among its ranks and many knew Berman, fished with him and contributed to his Internet magazine, Florida Fishing Online.

Frank Sargeant did all three. “One fishing trip with Mel and I was hooked,” Frank said. “We were snook fishing and Mel accidently stuck a hook into my right thumb on a backcast. Even though we had a hot bite going, he insisted on accompanying me to the emergency room where the offending barb was cut out.”

“First 180-pounder I ever hooked,” Berman quipped.

“I met Mel in 1985 shortly after I moved to St. Pete,” Bill AuCoin said.

“I was delighted to be a guest on his radio program and felt privileged to fish with him a couple of times, too. Mel was a terrific radio host who seemed to speak directly to each one of his listeners. I always imagined that every one them considered Mel their fishing buddy even if most never got the chance to actually fish with him in person.”

Berman was mellifluous to the end. At 81, those golden pipes and velvet tonsils were still going strong, as immediately recognizable and a pleasure to listen to as ever.

He was a fishing and broadcast icon in Tampa Bay, Fla. and beyond, reaching thousands of loyal listeners and fishermen through his radio show, Web site, newspaper columns, fishing shows, seminars and on the water. You couldn’t put the boat in or take it out anywhere on the Gulf Coast without somebody recognizing Berman’s voice in the dark.

Michael “SnookMook” Wilson considered him a mentor.

“He supported me and was a valuable resource in my coverage of saltwater fishing,” Wilson said. “Being a guest and co-host on the Captain Mel Show was always a learning experience. I’ve met many good friends and fishing buddies from the CapMel Internet fishing forum.”

Berman passed away from complications of heart surgery on Feb. 5, 2010. He leaves behind his wife of 61 years, Ginny, son, Ron, daughter Debbie Arkin, and three grandchildren, Melissa, Matthew and Emily.

“Mel was a deep thinker and active to the end,” his wife said. “He loved to fish, write and do his show and Web site. His ashes will be scattered at sea. We think that’s appropriate.”

Berman appealed to a broad audience beyond fishermen. Memorials are planned. Visit capmel.com for dates, times and venues. A memorial thread is posted at his forum and may be viewed at forums.capmel.com.

I hear fishing is big in Heaven and Captain Mellifluous already has the No. 1 outdoor radio show in the market.

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Influential outdoors writer Charlie Meyers, 72, died Jan. 5 due to complications from lung cancer. Meyers, an OWAA member since 1968, covered hunting, fishing and skiing for The Denver Post for more than four decades. He joined the paper’s sports staff in February 1966 and became the ski reporter in 1977. Meyers covered six Winter Olympics and was inducted into the Colorado Ski Hall of Fame in 1993. Six years later, he won the International Ski Federation’s FIS Journalist Award, becoming one of only four Americans to win the accolade.

In 1997, Meyers left the ski beat to write about the outdoors, earning a reputation for getting to the truth of public-policy issues like water rights and resource protection.

“Charlie would hit you square between the horns,” Rick Enstrom, former Division of Wildlife commissioner, told The Denver Post. “He daylighted things that used to operate behind the veil. Charlie has been the moral compass for the second-largest business in the state of Colorado for generations. We operated under Charlie’s careful eye, and Colorado is better for it.”

Meyers, who was born in Sicily Island, La., was also a noted photographer. He is survived by his wife, Dianna; sons Kirk and Kevin; daughters Lisa Lucero and Kara Hardin; granddaughters Lauren Wood, Morgan Daughety and Cleo Hardin; a great-granddaughter, Hannah Daughety; and stepson Eric Lutzens and stepdaughter Lori Morgan. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that anyone wishing to make a donation in Charlie’s name send it to Colorado Trout Unlimited, 1320 Pearl St., Suite 320, Boulder, CO 80302; or the Colorado Division of Wildlife, 6060 Broadway, Denver, CO 80216. ◊

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Albert Rostello, 66, of Spring Valley died at 7:15 p.m. Nov. 12, 2009, at home from cancer. Below is an obituary Rostello wrote, submitted to headquarters by Mrs. Albert Rostello. You can also read the obituary that originally appeared in the NewsTribune, his hometown paper. Or a tribute to Rostello written by the NewsTribune’s Sports Editor.

By Albert Rostello

Albert started hunting at the age of nine. He enjoyed hunting and fishing with his father, especialy goose hunting at the Swan Lake National Refuge in Missouri. His favorite game bird to hunt was wild turkey. He could usually be seen at the public hunting sites in Missouri and Illinois, with a special place in his heart for the Green River Wildlife Area in Illinios. He was quite politically active regarding a number of IDNR issues (e.g. served as a delegate to Conservation Congress of Illinois in 2000 for the Better Fishing Association.) His most memorable hunts was the bagging of his first Canada goose and spring Conservation snow goose hunt in Central Illinois. He guided pheasant hunters at Hickory Grove Hunt Club in Illinois. ◊

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Editor’s note: Read the obituary that originally appeared in Rostello’s hometown newspaper or an obituary written by Rostello himself.

By Jim Cogdal

“Hey Jiiiiiim.”

“Hey, Al, how’s it going?”

“Good. How are you?”

“Doin’ pretty good, Al, doin’ pretty good.”

That was my first conversation – and once I think about it, the beginning of every conversation – I had on the phone with Al Rostello, the longtime outdoor writer for the NewsTribune.

Al and I talked almost every day.  Mostly because he was the most detail-oriented man I have ever met, wanting to correct any minor imperfection or any misplaced word in his popular outdoor column.

Every day until the day his article ran, he would remind me to make those minuscule alterations, calling as early as 6:30 a.m. to make sure everything was ideal when the column ran every other Saturday.

“Now this is very important, Jim,” he would say.

The rather lengthy conversations we had would usually end in his talking about any of the national sports Al knew so much about – college basketball, pro football, Major League Baseball.

“Sorry to bother you, Jim,” he would say at the end, even though his calls made me happy to know a person of his character and personality.

I miss those phone calls from Al.

Rostello, 66, passed away Thursday night in his home in Spring Valley after a long battle with cancer.

The disease may have taken its toll on him physically the past few years, but I can assure you, it never touched his will to live, down to the final hunt.

“He loved what he did. He loved hunting. He loved fishing,” said former NewsTribune sports editor Jackie Pokryfke, who worked with Rostello while at the N-T from 2000-07. “He loved to pass along his knowledge to everyone in the area.”

Al could really talk about anything, and thankfully for me, his expertise came in the outdoors.

From the first day we spoke on the phone almost three years ago, Al knew that I didn’t know the difference between a waterfowl and a technical foul, but he took the time to make sure I understood.

Soon enough, dove and deer harvests, North and South zones made sense to me, and what a good teacher.

When it comes to the outdoors, whether it be fishing or hunting, around here, the name “Al Rostello” in the sportsman world was as familiar as that of John Wooden of college hoops.

He was that well-known.

“He was a good character, I’ll say that for him,” said “Baitshop” Bob Henning, who gave Rostello tips for his column on where to fish for success.  “He always kind of quizzed me every day whenever he would come in about the Illinois River, what’s going on and about the I&M Canal.”

Al did everything he could for his readers. He guided them in all the right directions.

He wrote about the different hunting excursions he went on across the state and the nation, not only in our newspaper, but for a number of other publications like Buckmaster, Fur, Fish and Game, and Adventure Sports Outdoors to name a few.

If you get a chance, Google his name and see what comes up.

To no big surprise, most of the different online postings revolve around the outdoors, including “Time for Bushytails at Spoon River State Forest,” which was picked up by ESPN.com’s outdoors section.

Al Rostello on ESPN, who would have thought?

His endless research is what got him there.

“He would ask a few more questions than a lot of people,” said Rick Knisely, who is the superintendent of Snakeden Hollow State Fish and Wildlife Area in Knox County. “He was just all about hunting.”

Al’s first hunt for wild animals came at the age of 9, when most kids are still playing with stuffed animals.

He grew up in Moberly, Mo., where he enjoyed goose hunting with his father at Swan Lake National Wildlife Refuge in the north-central part of the state. His favorite game bird to hunt became the wild turkey.

After 25 years of life in Missouri, he made his way to Central Illinois. He soon was known as the interesting, flannel shirt-wearing man with thick, black-rimmed glasses we grew to know very well.

“He was also dedicated to the mentoring of hunting and fishing programs for children,” said Tom Wall, Better Fishing Association’s chairman for the executive board.

Al particularly loved to attend the annual Kids’ Fishing Expo at Baker Lake in Peru.

He became politically active regarding a number of IDNR issues – most passionately with saving the Hennepin Canal State Parkway.

“He would criticize the [DNR] sometimes, but it was always with the best interests of the sportsman in mind,” Hennepin Canal State Parkway site superintendent Steve Moser said. “I consider him a friend because he was always fair.”

Al served as a delegate to the Conservation Congress for the BFA in 2000, and has been an active member for the Outdoor Writers since 1996, traveling across the nation each year to the different convention sites.

His first article in the NewsTribune came on July 22, 1992, and for every one of the 683 columns he wrote after that first run, his followers took time out of their day to go on a printed hunt with him.

“I was impressed with the tremendous accuracy that he insisted in putting in his articles,” said Kerry Novak, site superintendent for Shabbona State Park. “He would write something and then check and re-check the facts. I was always impressed with that, his integrity in doing those types of things.”

Truly, he will be missed.

It pained me to have to file Al’s final column on Sept. 12, and in reading it again, his exit was perfect then and still is to this day.

“Goodbye, everyone,” he wrote. “It was my pleasure to have tried to serve your interests.”

And it was a pleasure to read about them. ◊

Jim Cogdal is the NewsTribune Sports Editor.  He can be reached as 223-3200. ext. 139. or at sports@newstrib.com.­
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Editor’s note: Read a tribute to Rostello written by the NewsTribune’s Sports Editor. Or read an obituary written by Rostello himself.

Albert Rostello, 66, of Spring Valley died at 7:15 p.m. Nov. 12, 2009, at home from cancer.

Private services will be in Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Cherry. The Rev. Paul Meismer will officiate. Burial will follow at Mount Olivet Cemetery, Spring Valley. Barto Funeral Home, Spring Valley, is in charge of arrangements.

Mr. Rostello was born April 23, 1943, in Moberly, Mo. to Angelo and Irene (Tregnago) Rostello. He married Hazel Eileen Browning on April 8, 1967, in St. Brendan Catholic Church in Mexico, Mo.

He retired from Illinois Valley Community College where he taught history and sociology from 1968 to 1998. he was a member of Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Outdoor Writers Association of America, Illinois State Rifle Association and Better Fishing Association of Northern Illinois.

He was president of Illinois Federation of Teachers Local 1810 for four years.

From 1992 to 2000, he wrote outdoor columns for the NewsTribune and other publications.

He graduated in 1961 from Moberly High School and in 1963 from Moberly Junior College. In 1966 he received a bachelor of science in education degree in social science and in 1968, a master’s degree in history from Truman State University. Since 1968 he earned graduate credits from various educational institutions.

Survivors are his wife of Spring Valley; and one brother, James Rostello of San Diego, Calif.

He was preceeded in death by his parents.

Memorials may be directed to the donor’s choice. ◊

Editor’s note: Originally published in the LaSalle, Ill. NewsTribune on Sat. Nov, 14, 2009. (Article is available only with subscription to the site’s archive services.)

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Editor’s note: Former OWAA President Joel M. Vance wrote this piece about Margaret Menamin Eshbaugh a number of years ago for Outdoors Unlimited. Eshbaugh, 71, who wrote the poem that became OWAA’s official prayer, died of leukemia June 3, 2009, in Pittsburgh after a brief hospitalization. You can read her obituary here.

“In autumn when the leaves are brown
They fall all around the town.”

As poetry it falls somewhat short of a Shakespeare sonnet, but it’s pretty good for a second-grader. Now that the second-grader has grown up she has written a poem that is far more familiar to any OWAAer who ever has attended an annual conference.

The poem contains this phrase, “I am the goldenrod, the grain, the granite …” The OWAA prayer opens and closes every conference; it is prominent in the directory. It was written nearly 40 years ago by Margaret Menamin, then a Missourian, now a Pennsylvanian. Menamin has had several careers, mostly as an old-school newspaper writer, but her love of and writing of poetry has been a constant.

About that first poem she says, “I was so delighted with the idea that I could make a poem that for a long time it didn’t occur to me that I could make more than one poem. I just kept adding to that one, and it got longer and longer. Fortunately it no longer remains anywhere, even in my memory.”

Menamin was born in a rural area of Missouri’s Washington County, which still is as rural as it gets in the Show-Me State. Her family moved to Steelville, on the banks of the Meramec River and she graduated high school there and entered the University of Missouri at 16, the youngest freshman on campus.

“I certainly didn’t look like a college girl,” she says. “I was still buying my clothes out of the ‘little girls’ pages of the Sears Roebuck catalog.”

She felt out of it among the older students and dropped out after a year and began working as a printer’s devil – a print-shop apprentice – at the Crawford Mirror in her hometown (this still was the days of hot type set on the incredibly complex Linotype machines).

Next she became clerk of the Crawford County probate and magistrate courts for a decade. She married and had a daughter and a son, and began selling poems to Seventeen magazine and saw her first poems published in The Missouri Conservationist, the magazine of the Missouri Department of Conservation.

That was her entrée to OWAA – Dan Saults, Werner Nagel and Jim Keefe, stalwarts of OWAA, all worked for the magazine and all became friends.

She also knew Don Cullimore, OWAA’s longtime executive director. (The OWAA headquarters then was in Columbia, in a building owned by the late Buck Rogers, OWAA’s 1972-73 president.)

“How I miss Jim Keefe,” she writes. “So many times during the day I encounter an odd news item, a funny typographical error, a beautiful poem or just something I want to run by him and think, ‘I must show that to Jim.’ One never gets used to such a presence being absent.”

Nagel, who also was founder of OWAA’s Circle of Chiefs, urged her to write a poem that could be used as an opening prayer for the OWAA conference. “I think he did it specifically with the idea of obtaining some recognition for my poetry by OWAA. Who knows?”

Uncle Homer Circle, who was president of OWAA at the time, also urged her to write a poem of invocation. “I felt we needed one to replace those which tended to be biased toward one religion or another,” he said in a letter to Jack Kerins. Circle had been charmed by an “Outdoor Prayer” that Menamin wrote which says in part: “… allot me some small earthly spot/Where I may feel the rain and wind and sun./ If Heaven be lovelier than the soil I stroll/I could not hold it in my shallow soul.”

OWAA adopted its prayer/poem on June 22, 1967, Margaret Menamin’s birthday.

“OWAA’s acceptance and use of the poem has been an ongoing honor to me,” she says.

Today she lives in Pittsburgh and wild turkeys come to her driveway to be fed. “They watch for me and as soon as I open my side door they come running.”

She never has been a member of OWAA, though she belonged to two regional outdoor communicator groups, Missouri Outdoor Writers Association and Great Rivers Outdoor Writers.

After her court clerkship she and her family moved to Rolla, Mo., site of OWAA’s 1954 conference, the hottest on record. There she did just about everything for the Rolla Daily News, including writing all the paper’s editorials for several months. The editorials and her personal column both took first place in the Missouri newspaper competition.

Today she works from home, transcribing medical reports, a job she did full time for 14 years. She has won several awards with her poems. OWAA freelancers can identify with one facet of her career: She was established with a magazine which had published a number of her poems – but it went out of business.

In addition to her husband, there are two children and four grandchildren.

Although it wasn’t written for OWAA, the last two lines of a poem titled “Death Watch” could be a caution not just for her family, but also for all OWAA members:

“The earth has grown too fragile. Must it break along with all things loved for beauty’s sake?” ◊

Joel M. Vance, a past president of OWAA, is a freelance writer and former information officer for the Missouri Department of Conservation. He writes from Russellville, Mo.

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Click here to read “OWAA’s Poet,” by former OWAA president Joel Vance. He wrote this piece about Margaret Menamin a number of years ago for Outdoors Unlimited.

PITTSBURGH – Margaret Menamin Eshbaugh, 71, who wrote the poem that became OWAA’s official prayer, died of leukemia June 3, 2009, in Pittsburgh after a brief hospitalization.

A former newspaper reporter and feature writer in Rolla, Mo., she moved to Pittsburgh in 1984 and worked in advertising, fundraising, medical transcription and radio before retiring in 2001. She had a radio program on WQED Pittsburgh from approximately 1990 to 2001 called “The Baffled Generation,” on which she told humorous stories of her family and experiences growing up in rural Missouri.

Margaret wrote her first poem when she was in second grade, and saw her poems published before she was 20. Since then her poems have appeared in many magazines, journals and newspapers, including Good Housekeeping and the Missouri Conservationist.

Most recently, her poems appeared in the Lyric, the Formalist, Iambs & Trochees and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Her book, “Sonnets for a Second Summer,” was published in 1996, and her online chapbook, “Essential Tremors,” was published in 2005. Her work also appears in the book, “Only the Sea Keeps: Poetry of the Tsunami,” published by Bayeaux Arts Inc. in 2005.

She won first place in the Writer’s Digest rhymed poetry competition in 1994 and in the Iambs & Trochees competition in 2002.

Since 1967, her sonnet, “OWAA Prayer,” has been used as the official invocation and benediction for the annual meeting of the Outdoor Writers Association of America.

Her poetry Web site is www.menamin.com.

She was preceded in death by her first husband, William S. Menamin.

Survivors include husband Robert W. Eshbaugh of Pittsburgh; son Robert of Eunice, Mo.; daughter Greta Roach of Rolla; her mother; three sisters; a brother; and four grandchildren.

The family suggests memorials to a chapter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Photo by Werner Nagel.

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By Jeffrey Munshaur

The outdoor community lost a good friend and ardent supporter on May 12, 2009. John J. “Jack” Kerins passed at Cobblestone Crossing Health Campus in Terre Haute, Ind. Jack was born Aug. 30, 1921, and spent his life in Terre Haute. He is survived by his son John Michael; his two daughters, Kathy Neal and Connie Whiteman; and seven grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his lovely wife, Elynore “Pet” Petyo Kerins in 2003.

Jack was an old-time hero on several fronts. He had three passions: his family, his Marine Corps and his writing, in that order. As a youngster he joined the U.S. Marine Corps and fought the South Pacific campaigns. He battled on Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Guam and, finally, Iwo Jima. His experiences led him in later life to coin his first book, “The Last Banzai.” It was a refreshing tome written from the perspective of a private in hellish battles.

His return to the States found him in college and then in love. Jack married Pet and the two began, what he described, as a wonderful life. As his family grew he worked in the sporting goods industry, eventually becoming the president of McMillan Sporting Goods. Jack once confided that he was instrumental in introducing the face mask to football and ruining the game. His love of family and sports led them on numerous outdoor adventures, the details of which he would recount for hours. He wrote his second book about Pet’s hobby, collecting stickpins. Although not outdoor-oriented, it was an interesting and factual “how-to”.

Jack’s work in sporting goods and his love of hunting and fishing provided the backdrop for the “TV Sportsman’s Show.” He co-hosted the series with Jack Ennis for an unbelievable 21 years. Those years found him writing and photographing the outdoor world with zeal. Memberships in OWAA, the Association of Great Lakes Outdoor Writers and other writers organizations joined with his numerous military associations. Jack’s loyalty and commitment to all was exemplary. He and Pet rejoiced at all the banquets and conferences they attended together. It was a part of their life and they shared marvelous memories.

In later life Jack was always available to help young Marines, young writers and his organizations. He and Pet would entertain for hours and guide couples new to the area to the nice restaurants and the highlights in town. The entire population seemed to know and respect Jack and he would quickly give his stamp of approval to deserving folks. Finding a place to hunt, fish, or trap was not difficult once he took up your cause. And if you desired to be a writer, his wise red pen always seemed to hold more ink than possible. Somehow in the mix, he was able to compile his final book, “Hooks, Bullets, and Dying Embers.”

Now Jack is once again in hand with Pet and sitting at the table they deserve. For those who knew Jack, a good friend and mentor has passed. For those who didn’t, an opportunity is sadly lost.

Fare winds and following seas, my friend.

Jeffrey Munshaur, of New Albany, Ind., is a professional dog trainer, columnist and freelance outdoors writer. dogworks@cyberstreet.com

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Editor’s note: Dick Wolff joined OWAA in 1953, served on the board of directors several times and was awarded life membership in 1986. Former historian Ed Hanson said of him: “Dick has been a staunch supporter of OWAA for years and years in a quiet style that never sought recognition but produced results.” Following is the obituary that ran March 26 in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

By Ellen Robertson
Times-Dispatch staff writer

RICHMOND, Va. – As a young man, Richard Charles “Dick” Wolff and a buddy he grew up with in New York City’s Bronx borough would drive a Studebaker into the Adirondack Mountains, fold the seats flat and spend the night, eager for the next day’s fishing.

Fishing, camping and hunting evolved into a lifelong passion and life’s work, said his son, Warren Wolff of Danville, Va.

Wolff, an outdoorsman and writer who retired as vice president of public relations for Swedish-based Abu Garcia sporting equipment business, died March 23, 2009, at a Halifax County hospital. The 87-year-old Clarksville resident was honored at a memorial service March 26 at St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church in Clarkville.

“He was one of the few people I know who worked at his passion,” said his daughter, Luann O’Brien of Mahopac, N.Y. “His job was his hobby and his hobby was his job.”

After graduating from high school, he joined the Navy and served during World War II. He wound up fixing airplanes in a New Jersey machine shop.

One of four brothers in service to survive the war, he came home and worked for a bait and tackle shop, selling fishing rods and flies at a time when outdoor sports was a fledgling market and people were beginning to have the leisure to pursue them, his son said.

Wolff traveled the nation showing off new fishing products and his trick fly-casting at boat shows, conventions and similar gatherings. “He made everyone laugh and was a great inspiration,” his son said.

Wolff, a regular contributor to Guns & Ammo magazine and an occasional writer for other publications, had written two books, his son said. He was honored for lifetime achievement by OWAA as well as the Rod and Gun Editors Association of Metropolitan New York.

As a hunter, he held the Boone and Crockett Club record for six years for the biggest moose ever shot in North America. He went on safaris in Africa, where his trophy always fed a village, O’Brien said.

When he retired in 1979, he moved to Clarksville, where he could hunt and fish every day, his children said.

He was the widower of Helen Jensen, who died in 1968.

Survivors, in addition to his daughter and son, include his wife, Elaine Lehnes Sullivan Wolff; another son, Richard Wolff Jr. of Putnam Valley, N.Y.; two stepdaughters, Maureen Wood of Florida and Carol Sullivan of Cornwall, N.Y.; eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Copyright Richmond Times-Dispatch. Used by permission.

Photo by Mike Roberts

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