Charlie died next to his beloved Au Sable River sitting on his cedar swing.  It was a beautiful spot next to the river covered in snow. — Pete Kocefas, Grayling, MI

With the passing of Charlie Kroll it truly is an end to the era of Fred Bear and Bear Archery.  Charlie met Fred Bear in the early 1950's.  Fred asked him to be camp cook on a 1952 hunt out west.  Before he knew it, he was offered a job with Fred's Bear Archery Co. in Grayling, Michigan.

Charlie's original intention was to work at Bear Archery for a year to get a "grubstake," as he called it, so he could go back and homestead a hundred acres in Alaska.  Then his heart was captured by a redhead known as Julia Waldron, Henrietta Bear's daughter, and they were married in 1953.  So his one-year stint with Bear Archery turned into 37 until Fred died in 1988.

Charlie Kroll was the original curator of the Fred Bear Museum.  If you ever visited the museum, you might remember the "Prairie Pike" and the fur bearing trout with their outlandish descriptions.  That was Charlie's work as was every word in the scripts of all 22 Fred Bear movies.

Fred Bear was constantly asked to write articles on bow hunting and couldn't possibly keep up with the demand, so many articles with Fred's name on them were actually written by Charlie.  " The Archers Bible," which first came out in 1968 and has been reprinted with several different covers, was written entirely by Charlie.  His most visible and last project he did for Bear Archery, was "Fred Bear: The Biography of an Outdoorsman."  That book covered the life of Fred Bear from his childhood until his death.  Fred actually reviewed the book only 2 weeks before he died.

Although he didn't get the notoriety that Fred Bear got, Charlie Kroll was a big part of Fred behind the scenes, but you just didn't see it.

Obituary

Eulogy for Charlie Kroll
by Pete Kocefas
by Billy Ellis III

Family and Friends are invited to contribute their comments or eulogy.

Comments

Memorial Contributions can be made to Charlie's favorite organizations:

The Nature Conservancy
Attn: Treasury (Web/Support)
4245 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 100
Arlington, VA 22203, USA
(800) 628-6860

Pope and Young Club
273 Mill Creek Road
PO Box 548
Chatfield, MN 55923
(507) 867-4144
pyclub@isl.net

Atlantic Salmon Federation
PO Box 5200
St Andrews, NB E5B 3S8
Canada

Comments by Charlie's admirers on The Leatherwall