Fred Bear

Fred Bear, also known to fans as Papa Bear, was born in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. Although he didn't begin bowhunting until he was 29 and didn't master the skill for many years, he is widely considered a pioneer in the bowhunting community. Bear was a world traveler, film producer, and founder of Bear Archery, a still-existing outdoor company.

He died in Gainesville, Florida, and is in the Bowhunters Hall of Fame.

Bear was born on March 5, 1902, in a farmhouse in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, the second of three children. His ancestry was English, Dutch, Swiss, and German.

Early in his career, Bear worked as a glue manufacturer for the Chrysler Company in Detroit. He also worked for the Ford Motor Company in Detroit as a wood carver, making radio/dashboard cabinets. In an interview, he mentioned that during the Great Depression of 1929 to 1933, he operated a factory that caught fire and left him unemployed. With a partner named Chuck, who had worked in the same factory, they pooled together $1,200 to open his archery business in a garage. Thus, the Bear Archery Company was founded in 1933.

In 1947, Bear and his wife moved to Grayling, Michigan, where they lived in a tent by a river to keep their personal expenses down while trying to grow their archery business. As late as 1961, Bear was still struggling to make ends meet. However, the following years proved successful, as more and more states legalized bowhunting and the sport steadily grew.

Bear's interest in bowhunting was inspired by another legend, Art Young of the Pope & Young Club, whom Bear met in Michigan in the late 1920s and often called his hero. Bear's first bowhunting trophy was a Michigan whitetail harvested in 1935. In the years that followed, he traveled the world with his bow, appearing before thousands of bowhunters to promote and teach the sport. He made his television debut on "Arthur Godfrey and His Friends," with later appearances on "The American Sportsman" and "The Tonight Show." He also produced several films about bowhunting around the world.

Bear sold majority ownership of his company in 1968, but retained the title of chairman. In 1978, following a strike and ongoing labor problems, Bear Archery's manufacturing operations were relocated to Gainesville, Florida.

Fred Bear Museum

Founded in 1967, located in Springfield, Missouri

The Fred Bear Museum was founded in 1967 in Grayling, Michigan. Eventually, the museum's collection represented the largest private collection of archery artifacts in the world. The museum initially remained in Grayling, but in 1985, it also relocated to Gainesville, where it found a home in the Bear Archery factory between Archer Road and Williston Road, just off I-75. This museum closed in 2003, and the collections were sold to the Bass Pro Shops chain.

Since then, the Fred Bear Museum has been located at the Bass Pro Shops headquarters in Springfield, Missouri. Exhibits included the story of Fred Bear and the history of bowhunting, bowhunting artifacts, some of his trophies and memorabilia, and historic bows and arrows used or built by Fred Bear and his company. The exhibit was temporarily closed due to the construction of an aquarium in the same building. Artifacts from the Fred Bear Museum have now been incorporated into the Archery Hall of Fame and Museum upstairs at Bass Pro Shops Outdoor World.

Fred Bear was also the first president of Michigan's oldest archery club, the Detroit Archers. A small collection of his memorabilia is housed in the clubhouse. The most valuable piece is one of his polar bear skins, which was shot through with an arrow. In 2006, the Detroit Archers was burglarized and the skin was stolen. The case is still open, and no suspects or evidence of the skin's whereabouts have been found.

Source: Wikipedia