All this began in 1959 with a two week family vacation. Two fantastic weeks camping and fishing on Upper Spavinaw Creek…(as seen on the home page)...a little known crystal clear stream in northeastern Oklahoma. Brownies, as they called them, and bluegills — and a ten year old kid was hooked on fly fishing.

His parents were both fly fishers and he and his brothers never complained about the weekend jaunts through the Ozarks and the annual trips to Montana and Wyoming. His teenage friends thought he was weird (fly fishing wasn’t cool yet) and some adults called it a miss-spent youth. Over fifty years later, he calls it fantastic. In between fishing trips he became a goldsmith and jewelry designer, a sculptor and painter, a salesman and business executive. But he has never lost his love of clear water, tight casts and rising fish.

Alan’s lifelong passion for fly fishing has led him to many fine destinations. But none have compared to the one that led him to a relationship with Trout Unlimited, where he is the National Director of the Veterans Service Partnership.

Alan’s passion for bringing healing and rehabilitation to our nation’s disabled veterans through the sport we love is only matched by his passion for art and the depiction in multiple mediums of some of God’s most beautiful creations.