Syracuse.com - Oswego's Bob Rock still going strong giving fishing instructions and tying flies at 85

[HuntingNY-News]

He shares his experience, confidence and love for fishing every Wednesday when he travels up to Fort Drum to work with soldiers there.

John Berry/The Post-StandardBob Rock teaches fly fishing to Fort Drum soldiers who are recovering from injuries, or who are transitioning into civilian life.

Bob Rock carefully placed a hook into the fly-tying vice in the basement of his house, located just off the SUNY Oswego campus.

"Let’s tie something colorful for you," he said, pulling out pink thread and pink feathers. "It’s a soft hackle fly. That’s about as simple as I can state it. It’s good for steelhead — salmon, too."

Rock made the comment with the certainty of an 85-year-old fisherman whose life has been packed with fishing and other outdoor adventures. He shares that experience, confidence and love for fishing every Wednesday when he travels up to Fort Drum.

There, working with two local anglers — Jim Kelso, of Mexico, and Ed Stankiewicz, of Altmar — Rock works with soldiers as part of Project Healing Waters, a group dedicated to the physical and emotional rehabilitation of disabled active military personnel and veterans using the medium of fly tying and fly fishing.

At Fort Drum, the anglers are working with soldiers referred to them from the fort’s Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic and with those in the Warriors in Transition program, whose terms have nearly ended or who have chosen to be reassigned.

Much of their time is spent on Remington Pond on the fort’s grounds, which is stocked with trout, bass and crappie. For most, if not all of the soldiers, it’s their first time fly fishing.

John Berry/The Post-StandardBob Rock ties a soft tackle fly in the basement of his Oswe´go home.

"They love the silence, the physical motion," Rock said. "I’m convinced that fly fishing is not unlike golf and tennis in terms of being a social sport that provides entree and companionship in today’s civilian world."

Rock’s fishing exploits started when he was five, growing up in New Britain, Conn. His family used to vacation at nearby Great Hill Lake, where a neighbor, Jason Barret, used a fly rod and "caught more fish than anyone else.

"My aunt’s boyfriend gave me a couple of fly rods when I was 12, and (Jason) started me off," he said.

Along with the fishing came numerous hours on nearby ski slopes, where Rock became an accomplished downhill skier.

Rock became so enthused about skiing, he said, that he eventually dropped out of high school and took off "and skied for four months."

But this was during World War II. Rock soon joined the Navy, where he served as a high-speed radio operator and completed his high school education. Upon getting out, he enrolled in Springfield College, in Springfield, Mass., where he got a bachelor’s degree in group work and community organization.

Every summer while in college he worked at camps. The best experience, he said, came when he served as a cook/radio operator at a camp at Jackson Hole, Wyo. "It was a great adventure and great fishing," he said.

Immediately upon graduating from Springfield, he got a job with the Boy Scouts of America, working as a field executive and camp director in Montclair, N.J. Six months later he married his girlfriend, Shirley.

Rock next went to work at The Vermont Academy, an all-boys boarding school in Saxtons River, Vt. There, he worked as a history teacher and the school’s assistant ski and track coach. He also taught skiing at a nearby slope during school vacations and sometimes on weekends. During the summer, he worked on his master’s degree at Springfield in guidance and counseling.

"Vermont Academy had a small pond on the campus with great brook trout fishing," he said with a smile. "The one hitch was you had to use a fly rod."

His next step was a position at Pace College as director of student activities and athletics, while he pursued his doctorate at Columbia Teachers College in New York City.

Rock was hired in 1963 as dean of students at SUNY Oswego. While at the college, he continued to fatten his resume with fishing/outdoors and skiing experiences. He helped form the school’s Outing Club, in addition to teaching courses on cross country skiing and fly tying. He retired in 1981.

He spent the next 10 years as a consultant, serving as a mediator for public labor disputes across the northern part of the state. He stopped doing that in 1991.

Outside of school, he taught fly-tying and fly-fishing classes for several regional fishing- and outdoors-related organizations. He was the founding president of the Salmon River Chapter of Trout Unlimited and authored a book, "11,762 Words for Fly Fishers and Fly Tyers."

Framed certificates on the basement wall at his home show other honors. He’s a life member of the National Ski Patrol System and a 50-year member of the Adirondack Mountain Club.

Rock was hobbled in 2003 following an accident during which he fell head-first down an escalator in Montreal. He’s still undergoing physical therapy and is hopeful that one day he may cross country ski again.

His physical condition and loss of balance prohibits him these days from wading in a stream or river. Two years ago, his buddies set him up on a folding lawn chair on a gravel island on the Salmon River during the annual salmon/steelhead run.

"He outfished us," Jim Kelso said.

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog