Pennsylvania Game News - April 2019 - 36

ognizing his serious and frequent need
to get out of the office, go hunting and
hang out. What might have helped that
relationship was that I had the Labrador retrievers, access to now long-gone
farmland holding scads of wild ringnecks
and was willing to tolerate his being
the faster and better shot regardless
of the season, game or cover hunted.
I respected his being occasionally
dependent on me for outdoor pursuits,
and there could be no better friend or
partner. And as a gun writer, he showed
what I needed and insisted on what I
didn't, and guided many acquisitions
for the gun cabinet.
However, to be fair and balanced for
this epitaph, Bob's only major shortcoming was that he refused to let me
teach him to fish when he couldn't go
out and shoot something. The closest he
got to fishing was frying up every trout
I gave him. Today I'm still thankful he
was there as a positive influence over
many years, with irreplaceable memories
from an outdoors we may really never
know again.
- John Plowman
Back in the fall of 1971, I harvested a exceptional antlered whitetail
buck with a recurve bow. The sport of
bowhunting was in its infancy. Bob Bell
encouraged me to share my outdoor experiences of bowhunting this buck with
others, and published my first article
in the Pennsylvania Game News. Today,
at 73, bowhunting is still a passion,
with two published books, numerous published articles and hundreds of seminars about whitetail bowhunting that
I've presented. Thanks to Bob Bell's
encouragement, I am forever indebted
with gratitude.

ing you see that the same story could
be told better, with fewer words and a
streamlined plan.
Years later, I had the privilege of
hunting pheasants with Bob, and he carried himself with the same class in the
field as in the office. That's who he was.
Bob would bust his compact frame through
brush to flush you a bird and, unless
you were a long-familiar companion with
whom he relished shotgun rivalry, that
first and best shot was always for you.
- Ben Moyer
I met Bob Bell in person just once.
He was in town for a writer's conference, probably the last one he attended,
and I had the pleasure of going to lunch
with him and Game News editor Bob Mitchell the day before the event.
Bob had retired before my tenure with
the Game Commission began, but from the
stories about him and reading his editorials on the first page of Game News each
month in the 1970s, when I was a young
kid, I felt I had known him for years.
I sent my first hunting story into Game
News when I was 14. I still have that
rejection letter signed by Bob. I was in
awe at lunch that day listening to Bob.
No one knew firearms better than he. He
could spout off makes and calibers of
guns, and knew every scope ever made.
Bob loved small-game hunting, and the
one story I remember told by a few Game
Commission employees now retired was
the time pheasant hunting with Bob when
after a morning of busting brush and
working fields, the hunting party ceased
for lunch. Someone asked, "Where's Bob?
He was standing here a minute ago."
Bob was about 70 yards away hunting by
himself; he just couldn't quit. He was
missed on that occasion. He will certainly be missed now.

- Bob Kirschner
- Bob D'Angelo
When I learned of Bob's passing, I
pulled out aging files of my early correspondence with Game News - back to the
late 1970s - and read the hand-written
encouragements he'd penned on obligatory form-letters that either accepted
or rejected stories I'd sent. Bob was
the best I ever worked with at coaching
writers who believed they had something
to say, but lacked the confidence and
skill to say it with clarity. He liked
writing that was to-the-point, yet Bob's
sometimes gruff persona concealed a
mentor's, almost tender way of help-

With a deadline always approaching,
it's a good bet I'm never far ahead of my
work. But no matter how high the stacks
on my desk, when I'd receive a letter
with a type-written return address from
San Francisco, Calif., I'd usually stop
what I was doing and read it, knowing it
was from Bob. Sometimes it was simple
correspondence; sometimes a story submission. Both always were enjoyed and
greatly will be missed.
- Travis Lau

Pennsylvania Game News - April 2019

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