Category: Remembrances

For Want of a Nail

October 19, 2022 | Other Things, Remembrances | Comments
My career reporting field trials is over with the discontinuance of the Florida Open All-Age Championship following Ted Baker’s death. I was honored to report it from 1995 through 2022. Over those years I reported many others, including the Continental Derby and All-Age Championships, the National Open Free-For-All and National Derby Championships, the National Amateur Free-For-All Championship, the Lee County trial, and, most memorably, the Quail Championship Invitational at Paducah from 1996 through 2006. Read more

Three Years That Mattered Most

September 14, 2022 | Remembrances | Comments
Having reached an age (84) when we tend to reflect on our past, three long-ago years stand out in my memory. I know the start and end dates of those years precisely: November 25, 1950, and February 24, 1954. The first was the day the Great Appalachian Storm of 1950 struck, the second the day of my father’s death from injuries in a car crash. You can learn all about the storm on Wikipedia. Read more

My Life as a Field Trial Reporter

August 30, 2022 | Other Things, Remembrances | Comments
My life as a field trial reporter began in 1995 when I was 57. Before that I had been a farmer (1950-1960) and a lawyer (1961-present). Reporter was by far my most satisfying profession. Why? Because it was fantasy. It allowed me to ride horseback and watch world-class bird dogs perform and compete across beautiful hunting grounds, handled and scouted by professionals seeking perfection, then write accounts of what I had seen. What could be more fun than that? For me, nothing. Read more

A Day Remembered From Summer 1952

June 25, 2022 | Remembrances | Comments
I had just turned fourteen. It was about four in the afternoon on a sunny Saturday. I had finished my farm chores, showered and dressed in clean Lee blue jeans, a white T shirt and black Converse high-top sneakers for a four-mile trip to down-town Christiansburg. Read more

Ted Baker

May 5, 2022 | Other Things, Ted Baker | Comments
On behalf of the family, thanks to all of you for being here. Today’s display of love and respect means the world to those of us who Ted left behind. I’m sure he is looking down with a big smile on his face and a tear in his eye. TED BAKER WAS NO ORDINARY MAN. Read more

Two Heros

March 1, 2022 | Henry Caruso Jr., Remembrances | Comments
They are two heroes, both Pennsylvanians, both Vietnam combat veterans. Both are pointing dog professionals. One is a Marine, one is Army. They both saw much combat, and that has had its inevitable consequences, physical and mental. Read more

T. Jack and Ted and the Florida Championship

January 14, 2022 | Florida Open All-Age Championship, T. Jack Robinson, Ted Baker | Comments
Many a friendship has been inspired by a mutual love of bird dogs. My favorite story of such a friendship is that of T. Jack Robinson and Edward L. “Ted” Baker. That friendship spawned many others, and led to the breeding and development of legendary All-Age and Shooting Dog Champions over six decades and a premier wild bird field-trial Championship celebrating its 50th Anniversary. Read more