R.I.P Bob Ripberger

[Fantail]

Bob was my original instructor.

source: http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2010/05/cny_sportsman_robert_ripberger.html

"Bob Ripberger, 89, in this photo, died Thursday. He's remembered by former students as a mentor and sportsman."

Syracuse, NY - A Central New York sportsman who organized the first annual children’s fishing derby at Hiawatha Lake and was instrumental in establishing New York’s bow-hunting season died Thursday.

Robert Ripberger, 92, a Carrier Corp. retiree who lived in Syracuse’s Valley section, passed away at Van Duyn Home and Hospital.

Local conservationists said Ripberger will be remembered for the hours of hunting and fishing time he sacrificed to serve sporting and civic organizations.

Steve Wowelko, one of the hundreds of students Ripberger taught during five decades as a hunter safety course instructor, called him “a true all-around sportsman.”

“He was a mentor for me,” said Wowelko, who heads the Onondaga Federation of Sportsmen’s Clubs. “He spent his whole life volunteering. I don’t think there was a night when he did not have a board meeting for some organization.”

After taking his first hunting and fishing trip to the Adirondacks in his 20s, Ripberger immersed himself in environmental organizations. His list of accomplishments includes organizing the Hiawatha Lake fishing derby more than 50 years ago and pushing state officials to reopen Onondaga Lake for catch-and-release fishing in 1987.

In recent years, when he no longer had the strength to draw and shoot a traditional longbow or modern compound bow, Ripberger campaigned to make the crossbow a legal hunting implement.

Friends remarked that his death came as state legislators are nearing consensus on a crossbow season — which Ripberger had promised to take part in, regardless of his age.

“He said he was running into the same arguments as when he tried to establish the bow-hunting season,” Wowelko said. “It seems like it came full circle.”

Ripberger’s lifelong efforts were rewarded in 2007 with the Environmental Quality Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. A scholarship fund set up in November by the Friends of Carpenter’s Brook Hatchery to honor the work of Ripberger and his wife will continue his legacy.

Ripberger is survived by his wife of 67 years, June.

“He will be missed,” Wowelko said. 

[NYBowhunter]

Send my regards.

[ELMER J. FUDD]

R.I.P.