Al & Gretchen Beatty
Al Beatty
1999 Recipient
Al (Allen) Beatty entered the world in Arkansas in early 1943 as part of the baby boomer crowd. He was raised on an Iowa dairy farm where 7-day work weeks was “a way of life,” a lifestyle that remains with him today. He still works at something almost every day of the week. Al started his commercial tying journey after teaching himself to tie using an old Herter’s Tying Kit received for his 14th birthday in 1957. Al sold his first flies to a local hardware store a month later and has sold a few flies every year since then including the time he spent in the military. He has taught fly tying for many years since teaching his first class to a scouting group during his first year at the vise and within a few months of starting his life’s adventure fly fishing, tying, and teaching via the written word and in-person classes.
Gretchen Beatty
2019 Recipient
Gretchen Beatty (Evans) was born in Oregon in 1944 while her father was on a war-time project. She spent most of her childhood in Boise, Idaho where she watched her father (a part-time commercial tier) tie flies on a converted treadle sewing machine and learned to love camping and fishing. In the early days her father would carry her across the stream on his shoulders so she could fish her Royal Coachman or Renegade on the other side using a trimmed willow stick as a rod. Eventually, college, marriage, a career, and family placed demands on her time so fishing and tying went on a back burner for several years. Following her marriage to Al and their retirement from Verizon, they moved to Bozeman, Montana where she honed her skills as a commercial tier, fly fisher, writer, and photographer. Along the way, she (and Al) managed to write numerous books and magazine articles. The Beattys are the only husband and wife TEAM to have both received the Buz Buszek Memorial Award.
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